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James Cash Penney

Guest post by: Linda Burson

Article Overview: Mazon Associates, Inc. features James C. Penney, founder of J.C. Penney Company, as its Entrepreneur of the Month in the May 2010 issue of Building Bridges monthly newsletter.

James Cash Penney

On a small Hamilton, Missouri farm, James Cash Penney made his appearance into the world on September 16, 1875. The seventh of 12 children (only six who grew to adulthood), his father was a poor farmer and an unpaid Baptist minister. Life was joyless and difficult for the family, but they liveda Christian life, believed in the Golden Rule, self-reliance, self-discipline and honor.Young James learnedthe value of money and self-reliance at the age of 8 whenhe was told that he would be responsible for buying his own clothing. To earn the money,James purchased a pig, fattened it up, and sold it for a profit. Hethen bought others until the neighbors complained (perhaps from the noise and/or odor) and he then turned to growing and selling watermelons. James graduated from high school in 1893. Having no money for further education, he secured a job with a local clothing store. In poor health two years later, he moved to Colorado to regain his strength. He worked briefly as a clerk at two dry goods stores in Denver before purchasing a butcher shop in Longmont, which went bankruptwhen he refused to donate whisky to a cook at a local hotel (his largest customer) just to obtain their business. He joined the Golden Rule Mercantile Company shortly after that and worked at their first store in Evanston, Wyoming. In three years, he became a one-third owner of that store and accepted a transfer to a new Kemmerer, Wyoming store. Encouraged by the chance to share ownership in more Golden Rule stores, he lived frugally in an attic room over the store with his wife and son (furniture was made from boxes and shipping crates) and worked 13+ hours per day toward his goal of some day owning a chain of stores. Within a few years, Penney found himself part-owner of two more stores. Shortly after that, his two partners dissolved their partnership and James bought up their rights, making him the sole owner of the Golden Rule Mercantile Company. He envisioned stores across the Rocky Mountains and insisted on offering customers quality merchandise at the lowest possible prices. In January 1913, he incorporated the 48 stores he then owned and changed the name to J.C. Penney Company. James built his chain of retail stores on the same principle as the Golden Rule Mercantile Company:delegating responsibility, putting his faith in his people and eventually making them partners when new stores were opened. Individual store managers shared one-third of the profits, in his opinion a motivating factor for success in business. In 1927, with over 1,000 stores, full incorporation was necessary and required managers to exchange their partnership arrangements to stock in the company. Then, a major financial disaster struck in the 1929 stock market crash and he lost $40 million. He wound up weakened in spirit and health and faced a $7 million debt at the age of 56. But he was able to start over again with money borrowed on his life insurance, and soon regained control of his empire. In his later years, he reflected: "I believe in adherence to the Golden Rule, faith in God and the country. If I were a young man again, those would be my cardinal principles." He was president of J.C. Penney Companyuntil 1917, chairman of the board of directors from 1917 to 1946, and honorary chairman of the board from 1946 to 1958.

During his 95 years, James Penney was married three times and had five children. He married his first wife, Berta Hess, in 1899 and had two sons; Berta died in 1910. In 1919 he married Hortense Kimble, who died in childbirth in 1923. He was married again in 1926 to Caroline Autenrieth and they had two daughters. Their marriage lasted 45 years, until James died of a heart attack on February 12, 1971. (Caroline Penney died in 1992). At the time of his death, there were 1,600 J.C. Penney stores with annual sales of over $4 billion and all 50,000 employees, or "associates" as Penney called them, shared in the profits.

Since 1992 J.C. Penney Companyhas been headquartered in Plano, Texas. The company currently has 1,110 stores nationwide and approximately 150,000 associates. Revenue for 2009 was $17.6 billion.

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Article Tags: Berta Hess, building bridges, c penney, Caroline Autenrieth, entrepreneur, Golden Rule Mercantile, Hortense Kimble, james c, James Cash Penney, JC Penney, jc penney, mazon, penney company, Penneys



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