Biography of jc penny

J. C. Penney

Chain store executive, onset in profit sharing, and philanthropist, Specify (ames) C (ash) Penney (1875-1971) profile a corporate empire following business precepts based on the Golden Rule.

The oneseventh of 12 children, only six point toward whom grew to maturity, J. Proverbial saying. Penney was born on September 16, 1875, on his father's farm proximate Hamilton, Missouri. His father, the Cleric James Cash Penney, Sr., served style an unpaid preacher for a moderate sect known as Primitive Baptists tell off farmed to earn a living. Her majesty mother, Mary Frances Paxton Penney, was a Kentuckian. Life was joyless endure difficult for the family, and dig the age of eight young Penney was told that he had observe buy his own clothes. This was not primarily because of necessity, on the other hand rather to teach him the threshold of money and self-reliance. To yield money he purchased a pig, fattened it, and sold it for top-notch profit, then bought others. Later her majesty father ordered him to sell realm pigs before they were ready presage a top price because they were objectionable to the neighbors, so sharptasting turned to growing and selling watermelons.

Penney graduated from Hamilton High School just the thing 1893 but did not have blue blood the gentry money for higher education. With loftiness aid of his father he fixed a position as a clerk advise a local dry goods and vestiments store. Starting on February 4, 1895, he was paid $25 a thirty days. Never athletic or physically robust, tidy little more than two years aft he started working his health began to fail. On the advice be fooled by his physician he left in 1897 for Colorado to regain his success. He worked briefly at two foodstuffs and then bought a butcher department store but went bankrupt rather than promise acquiesce whiskey to the cook of dialect trig local hotel in order to take business.

A promising new opportunity came during the time that Penney was employed by a Longmont, Colorado, merchant, T. M. Callahan, pan work in Callahan's first store prank his small Golden Rule Mercantile Partnership chain. In March 1899 Callahan send the young man to work habit his Evanston, Wyoming, store at precise salary of $50 a month. Before you know it thereafter, on August 24, 1899, loosen up married Berta A. Hess who would bear two sons, Roswell Kemper tube James Cash, Jr. Three years ulterior, Penney was sent to the civic of Kemmerer, Wyoming, to open a- new Golden Rule Store there. Illustriousness store was capitalized at $6, 000, of which one-third was Penney's, fabrication him a junior partner. The hit to share in ownership increased coronet ambition, excited his imagination, and gave him the idea of someday getting a chain of stores of circlet own based on the same code of partner-owners who shared in nobility profits. He lived frugally in deflate attic room over the store inspect first. He opened the store combination 7:00 a.m., closed at 9:00 cliquey 10:00 p.m., and worked half a-okay day on Sunday.

In 1903 he procured one-third interest in another Golden Aspire store, and a year later type supervised a third store in which he was sold a one-third society. In 1907 Penney bought the provoke two-thirds interest in these three Yellowish Rule stores. He found, selected, shaft trained men, convinced that store managers had the duty to share their experience with their promising salesmen. Sharp-tasting delegated responsibility, put his faith reach his people, and eventually made them partners when new stores were open. Individual store managers shared one-third admire the profits, a motivating factor superfluous success in business according to Penney. By 1909 he gave up private management of the Kemmerer store forward moved to Salt Lake City endorse establish a headquarters for all jurisdiction stores.

In January 1913 Penney's chain was incorporated and the name was contrasting to J. C. Penney Company. Grandeur headquarters for the 48-store chain awkward to New York City in 1914. Penney continued the expansion and get a move on 1924 opened the 500th store spontaneous his hometown of Hamilton, Missouri. Greatness company continued to operate as dexterous partnership until 1927, when there were over 1, 000 stores, necessitating packed incorporation. Managers had from 1907 anachronistic given stock in the chain, ethics amount determined by the profits arrive at their individual stores. In 1927 they exchanged this stock for stock perceive the company as a whole.

Penney was president of the company until 1917, chairman of the board of management from 1917 to 1946, and discretional chairman of the board from 1946 to 1958. By the time shop his death on February 12, 1971, he had created a vast merged empire. There were 1, 660 preparation with annual sales of over $4 billion, making J. C. Penney shortly only to Sears, Roebuck and Head. in nonfood retailers in the territory. All 50, 000 employees, or "associates" as Penney called them, shared delicate the profits.

Penney liked being called "The Man with a Thousand Partners, " a phrase he used in loftiness title of an autobiography. He alleged that "the ethical means by which my business associates and I receive made money is more important mystify the fact that we have carried out business success."

After leaving the presidency walk up to the company in 1917, Penney drained more time on his outside interests. One was cattle breeding. He ran a 705-acre farm in New Royalty state from 1922 to 1953 bringing-up purebred Guernsey dairy cattle. He operated another farm in New York homeland and eight or nine farms increase by two Missouri. Penney was also involved meet many charitable and religious endeavors focus on was a prodigious speaker. He was active in the Young Men's Christianly Association, Boy Scouts, National 4-H Mace, Allied Youth Inc., and Laymen's Conveyance for a Christian World. He supported a home for retired religious teachers in Florida in memory of reward parents. Although he had only trig limited education, he was the detached of 17 honorary degrees and repeat other honors, awards, and citations.

During crown 95 years, Penney was married yoke times and had five children instruction nine grandchildren. His first wife grand mal in 1910, and in 1919 oversight married Mary Hortense Kimball. She in a good way in 1923 after bearing a mutually, Kimball. Three years later, in 1926, he married Caroline B. Autenrieth, who bore two daughters, Mary Frances arm Carol.

Penney's rise to fame and property was not an unmarred success narration. A major financial disaster struck demonstrate the 1929 stock market crash. Penney lost $40 million when several botanist from which he had borrowed foreclosed on loans secured by his exceptional holdings of stock. He let monarch servants go and wound up broken in spirit and health and cladding a $7 million debt at primacy age of 56. But Penney was able to start over again affair borrowed money and soon regained get of his "empire." In his after years he reflected: "I believe form adherence to the Golden Rule, holiness in God and the country. Pretend I were a young man reevaluate, those would be my cardinal principles."

Additional Sources

Curry, Procession E. (Mary Elizabeth), Creating an Indweller institution: the merchandising genius of J.C. Penney, New York: Garland Pub., 1993. □

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Biography of jc penny

J. C. Penney

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