In , Jim graduated from Hamilton High School. He continued to work on the family farm though he really wanted to become a lawyer. Hale and Brothers dry goods store in Hamilton. Jim began his training as a salesman on February 4, I like the way he has started out. Other salesmen often bullied Penney and took customers away from him. Penney learned that he had to stand up for himself. Even as he gained confidence in himself and developed his skills as a salesman, Penney started feeling ill.
He was diagnosed as being susceptible to tuberculosis. His doctor told him to move to a drier climate. In , Penney moved to Denver, Colorado, and found work in a dry goods store. Then he bought a butcher shop with all his savings. That same year, Penney married Berta Alva Hess. Using money from savings and a loan, Penney joined the partnership and moved with his wife and infant son to Kemmerer, Wyoming, to start his own store. The store J. Penney opened on April 14, , was a one-room wooden building.
He and his family lived in the attic above the store. Penney stocked quality products at fair prices for mining and farm families. Within a year, Penney was managing two more stores.
Soon, he had a one-third ownership in three stores in Wyoming. By , Callahan and Johnson sold their shares of the chain to Penney who dreamed of starting more Golden Rule stores throughout the West. The store name represented his religious beliefs and gave him a business motto. The number of men Penney hired and trained grew larger each year and formed the basis of his company.
By , Penney established his headquarters office in Salt Lake City. In , tragedy hit. The chain name was changed in , becoming the J. Penney Company. By , Penney relocated his headquarters to New York City to be closer to the major sources of merchandise.
The J. Penney store would soon open in their community. Smart advertising, just treatment of customers, and good products at affordable prices made Penney very wealthy. He opened the first J. Penney Store in his home state of Missouri on April 15, , in Moberly.
Penney opened his th store in his hometown of Hamilton. Penney Store was located in the same building as J. In , Penney married Mary Hortense Kimball. Sadly, Mary died in , leaving him with another son, Kimball. Hale, retired in , Penney opened his th store in his hometown of Hamilton. Penney bought the same building where he had started his retail career and selected fourteen citizens from Hamilton as his partners in the store.
Two years later, Penney married his third wife, Caroline B. During his 95 years, Penney was married three times and had five children and nine grandchildren. His first wife died in , and in he married Mary Hortense Kimball. She died in after bearing a son, Kimball. Three years later, in , he married Caroline B. Autenrieth, who bore two daughters, Mary Frances and Carol. Penney's rise to fame and fortune was not an unmarred success story.
A major financial disaster struck in the stock market crash. But Penney was able to start over again with borrowed money and soon regained control of his "empire. If I were a young man again, those would be my cardinal principles. Penney was the author of several books about his life, including J. Biographies include J. Webster's American Biographies also includes information on Penney. His obituary appeared in the New York Times on February 13, Curry, Mary E.
Mary Elizabeth , Creating an American institution: the merchandising genius of J. Penney, New York: Garland Pub. All rights reserved. Home Biography J. Penney J. Further Reading on J. Penney Penney was the author of several books about his life, including J. We will supply you with durable and comfortable wearing apparel cheaper than ever before.
Let competition say what she will. A comparison of values is all we ask. We have grown--are growing, like no other store in the country. For your own sake we should have your business. Our aim is to sell you Reliable, Staple, Dependable Merchandise at a less price than any other house in the country.
The assumption was that business is secular, and service is religious. I have never been able to accept that line of arbitrary demarcation. Is not service part and parcel of business? It seems to me so; business is therefore as much religious as it is secular. If we follow the admonition to love God, and our neighbors as ourselves, it will lead us to understand that, first of all, success is a matter of the spirit.
Glimpses generally focus on historical figures who have changed the church or affected the world in some overtly Christian way. In that light, some might question our decision to spotlight J. This man was not a religious leader--he didn't even join a church until he was in his 70s--but he was a business leader.
So are we writing about him simply because he was a Christian who happened to be rich and famous? In recent years, we have witnessed a steady stream of corporate executives defrauding their companies and stockholders. Surveys have found our nation's business schools at a loss to find an adequate philosophical basis on which to teach business ethics. In such a climate, the Biblical outlook and principles of J.
Penney are a breath of fresh air. Though his faith was individualistic, Penney had a strong commitment to Christian principles, and he tried to incorporate these principles in his business. Too many Christians, rich and poor and in between, have separated their spiritual lives from their business lives. In a way, Penney was conducting a grand experiment, testing his hypothesis that the Christian commitment to love others could be played out in one's entire life, including one's daily work.
Christian principles will not necessarily make you rich. Sometimes they may make you poor. But they need to be lived out in every aspect of life. This issue was based largely on the book The Spiritual Journey of J. Penney, by Dr. Orlando L. Tibbetts, published by Rutledge Books or www. Share this. Timeline BC AD Now. Staff 28 Apr. Penney Christian Principles His parents had instilled in him a basic Christian faith that had given him the principles on which he had based his life and his business, yet now that faith was being tested.
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