Bushnell, Illinois was once home to a well-known, Chicago- based company that processed meat products. Mickelberry Food Production Company operated at the west end of Davis Street in Bushnell, where Bushnell Tank exists today.
This writer did not find a wealth of information on the Mickelberry plant’s inner workings, but it is believed to have existed in Bushnell from 1940-1965. The Mickelberry company over the years was not the luckiest business in the world. The Chicago parent company experienced three devastating events over the years, the last of which led them to change their entire business plan.
The historic meat processing company, founded in Chicago in 1893, was known for old-fashioned, hickory-smoked hams and sausages, which were very popular in the midwest. The Mickelberry brand also had a famous Log Cabin restaurant (1933-1967) in Beverly, Illinois. The restaurant opened in 1933 at 2300 W. 95th St. in Chicago, and it was famous for southern-style recipes and was a staple for families until its closure in 1967. In 1964, the Log Cabin restaurant was heavily damaged in an unsolved bombing, suspected to be tied to organized crime.
In 1965, Mickelberry’s Bushnell, Illinois facility, being operated at that time by Ready Foods, caught fire and completely burned.
The owners did not rebuild.
In 1968, on February 7, a massive explosion at the Mickelberry Sausage Plant at 49th Place and Halsted in Chicago killed nine people, including four firefighters.
The company president, who ran back inside to try and help, was also killed.
While those three tragic events did not completely end the Mickelberry meat brand, the company decided to shift to becoming an advertising and communications conglomerate in the early 1980s. It was then known as Mickelberry Communications.
Mickelberry hams are still available today under the Kentucky Legend label.
Kentucky Legend is owned by Specialty Foods Group LLC, a subsidiary of the Indiana Packers Corporation. SFG has its home office in Owensboro, Kentucky.
Mickelberry’s in Bushnell, Illinois
Many of the Bushnell and surrounding area residents that worked at Mickelberry’s have since passed on. At the time of the 1965 fire, the plant, then operated under the name Ready Foods (the building was owned by Mickelberry’s), employed around 30 people. Men and women who relied on those jobs to support their families.
Local history books mention Mickelberry’s in Bushnell. A McDonough Democrat “Changes in Bushnell” article published on November 9, 1944, says the following: “Mickelberry’s have recently completed a large addition to the north of their already large building.
This addition is to house the sausage machines and canning equipment. The company recently purchased the Southern Ready Foods equipment, which has been canning meat for the government and lease at the Mickelberry plant. This canning meat after the war such as sausage and the like for civilian use.
The Mickelberry Food Products Company is now operating the entire plant.
You may hear more about expansion at this plant from time to time.”
Ready Foods, which was a branch of Ready Foods of Chicago, eventually became the operator of the Bushnell Mickelberry plant, with Mickelberrys still owning the physical property.
Ready Foods Chicago advertisement states that they “process sliced bacon and can bacon and other meat products. Their local Chicago plant handles around 25 million pounds of meat annually and employ about 175 persons.”
February 26, 1965
Mickelberry’s and Ready Foods may have existed in Bushnell for many more years but for a tragedy that occurred on February 26, 1965. The following documentation of the Mickelberry fire was obtained by Allen and Tina Mathewson.
It appeared in the History of Bushnell Fire Department 1854-1983.
The story is a testament to the bravery of the firefighters who came from all directions to help Bushnell extinguish a very flammable (grease) and difficult fire, the largest Bushnell had ever experienced. The story deserves to be reprinted exactly as it was written.
The Mickelberry Fire (obtained by Allen and Tina Mathewson, written by the Macomb Daily Journal) “A fire that burned out of control in the predawn darkness today virtually destroyed the Ready Foods Provision Company bacon packing plant in Bushnell. The black long plant building was gutted. Only a large cold storage room was untouched by the fire.
Nearly 50 firemen from Bushnell, Prairie City, Avon and Adair fought the blaze.
The flames were leaping through the roof of the plant section when firemen arrived at 3:00 a.m. The fire put the plant’s 30 employees out of work. Today was payday and all office records, including payroll records were destroyed.
The fire was believed to have started in a switch box near the office and spread rapidly down the center of the plant. No estimate is readily available on the loss to the building and its contents. At 9:00 a.m., six hours after the alarm was turned in, more than a dozen firemen were still fighting to extinguish the flames. Heavy cork insulation in the walls of one section of the plant was smouldering. They would break into flames almost immediately if the firemen turned their hoses off them.
The building is about a block long and a half block wide. It is mostly one story high but there was a two story section with offices and storage area located on the second floor. Additions have been constructed onto the main plant section from time to time to house various operations of the packing business. The plant building itself is owned by the Mickelberry Food Production Company of Chicago. The plant business is owned by Ready Foods Provisions Company of Chicago. The cold storage section which was not damaged is located on the west end, and crews of workmen were busy this morning removing the finished bacon products from the room to a truck for shipment.
Another small shed just west of the plant also escaped the flames and it was being used as a place for firemen to go to get warm when they could be spared from the fire fighting. Extreme cold weather made the work of the firemen difficult but did not seem to interfere with the operation of the firefighting equipment.
The fire alarm was called in at the plant office by a night man. It was reported by a truck driver, who arrived with a shipment for the plant, he discovered the fire when he took the bill of lading up to the office. It was reported that he saw flames burning along some wiring.
He and the night watchman attempted to extinguish the flames after turning in the alarm, but had no chance to do so because the fire spread so rapidly.
William Bradshaw, manager of the plant, and his office workers were trying to determine the amount of meat lost in the fire. It is difficult to make an estimate because meat was in the various stages of production and was scattered throughout the plant in coolers to smoke rooms. There was a report it might be as high as half a million pounds.
The matter of paychecks for employees was another matter of concern. Some of the night crew apparently picked up their checks last night, but the others were to have been paid today.
One cooler contained bacon emptied Thursday for shipment. Because that room was empty, firemen had ready access to it and were able to use it as a bunker between the main plant section and the other cooler that was full of finished bacon ready for shipment.”
(Macomb Daily Journal, February 26, 1964).
The Mickelberry fire was no doubt a blow to the Bushnell economy. Ideally situated near railroad tracks, who knows how long the business would have stayed in Bushnell and how much it would have expanded.
Those of us who grew up in or near Bushnell no doubt knew the taste of Mickelberry bacon. Mickelberry’s hams are still sold in the Midwest and Southern states, by Specialty Food Groups, LLC.
The following advertisement slogan for Mickelberry Hams today is enough to make any person hungry: “Each ham is chisel boned for the bone in taste without the waste.
And by staying true to old-fashioned curing and smoking methods, Mickelberrys delivers a consistent flavor customers have enjoyed for years.
“No nonsense, just great ham! It’s just naturally good!”
Credits: Bushnell Historical Society Macomb Daily Journal WIU Archives Department History of Bushnell Fire Department 1854-1983 Bushnell-A Sesquincentennial History 1854-2004 McDonough Democrat Western Illinois Museum
