Wolf Brand Chili

Wolf Brand Chili is a brand of chili con carne currently owned by ConAgra Foods. It is available either with or without beans.

History of the brand

In 1895, Lyman T. Davis of Corsicana, Texas developed the original recipe for Wolf Brand Chili which he sold for five cents a bowl from the back of a wagon parked on the streets in downtown Corsicana. He later opened a meat market in Corsicana where he sold his chili in brick form, using the brand name of Lyman's Famous Home Made Chili. In 1921, using the simplest machinery, he began canning his chili and marketing it in the immediate area. It was about that time that he adopted the brand name "Wolf Brand," in honor of his pet wolf, Kaiser Bill. By 1923, with improved equipment, Davis had increased production to 2,000 cans of chili per day. Because of the discovery of oil on his farm, he had neither the time nor the interest to devote to his chili business, and in 1924 he sold his operations to J. C. West and Fred Slauson, two Corsicana businessmen. The new owners modernized production and introduced new marketing techniques. Among the most successful innovations introduced by West and Slauson were Model T Ford trucks with cabs shaped like cans and painted to resemble the Wolf Brand label. A live wolf was caged in the back of each truck. The vehicles not only provided practical transportation for company salesmen but also were effective traveling advertisements for their products. In 1954 the company expanded into interstate markets, having previously distributed its products only in Texas. The new markets included New Mexico, Louisiana, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. In 1957 Quaker Oats of Chicago purchased Wolf Brand from Doyle and James West, sons of J. C. West. Quaker Oats continued to operate the Corsicana plant as a separate division of the company, leaving Davis's original recipe unchanged. In 1977 Wolf Brand, along with other chili manufacturers, successfully lobbied the Texas legislature to have chili proclaimed the official "state food" of Texas. In an effort to consolidate its operations, Quaker Oats closed the Corsicana plant in 1985 and merged its operations with another subsidiary, Stokley-Van Camp, in Dallas.

Slogan

Its trademarked slogan, "Neighbor, how long has it been since you had a big, thick, steaming bowl of Wolf Brand Chili? Well, that's too long!" is familiar to many Texans and is quoted on numerous web sites discussing fond memories of the product or how to acquire it outside the state.

Famous devotees

A web site for the preservation of the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas, states that the hotel maintained a supply of Wolf Brand for the visits of country singer Ernest Tubb.

Apocryphal stories claim that Will Rogers was a great fan of Wolf Brand and either took a case with him when traveling, or traveled to Corsicana whenever possible to obtain the product (which was not sold outside Texas until 1954).

External links

• Official Site from ConAgra Foods
• Handbook of Texas: Wolf Chili from TSHAOnline