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ORAL HISTORY
William Meacham
Born in 1913, William Meacham started Meacham Hams in the late 1950s. His grandfather used to provide hogs to tenant farmers, and each year the Meacham family hosted a community hog killing to process the meat. When William was a young boy, his grandmother handed him the family cookbook with the cure recipe in it, and William became responsible for curing the hams and bacon on the farm. After he was married, he began giving his cured hams to relatives as Christmas gifts. In the late 1950s, the business of Meacham Hams was born. For decades, William has produced a traditional hickory-smoked country bacon but with a little less salt and a lot more flavor to sweeten the family cure. Today, William’s son, Rodman Meacham keeps watch over the ham house and the treasures within.
