WOLF BRAND CHILI. In 1895
Lyman T. Davis of Corsicana 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mrs. Fred Slauson, Interview by Tommy Stringer, November 30,
1978, Navarro College Oral History Collection, Corsicana. Frank X. Tolbert, A
Bowl of Red (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966; rev. ed. 1983). Doyle
West, Interview by Tommy Stringer, April 20, 1979, Navarro College Oral History
Collection, Corsicana.
Tommy W. Stringer
"WOLF BRAND CHILI." The Handbook of Texas Online.
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