James Cash Penney is considered by many to have been the last of the nation’s great mercantile pioneers, a vestige of the breed of rugged individualism that characterized turn of the century entrepreneurs. In describing the secret of his success, Penney said "there are no secrets," maintaining that the principles of business were easily explained: "In retailing the formula happens to be a basic liking for human beings, plus integrity, plus industry, plus the ability to see the other fellow’s point of view."

Portrait by Charles Cross, AHC Collections.

James Cash Penney, Jr. was born in Hamilton, Missouri in 1875. His father, a Primitive Baptist minister and his mother, Mary Frances Penney, had come from Kentucky to farm and teach their faith. They had twelve children, only half of whom lived to adulthood. Penney maintained that his career in business began at the age of eight, when he was told by his father that he was old enough to assume responsibility for paying for his clothes. He ran errands and worked in the fields to earn the money to buy the pair shoes he needed.

At the age of twenty, Penney was apprenticed to a local storekeeper and by the end of his first year he ranked third in sales. He moved to Denver in 1897 for health reasons and worked briefly as a store clerk before opening a butcher shop in Longmont. After the butcher shop failed, largely due to the loss of the local hotel’s business when he refused the cook’s demand of a pay-off in the form of whiskey, Penney accepted a job with the Colorado firm of Johnston and Callahan, operators of drygood stores in small towns throughout the region.

Convinced that his prospects were looking up, Penney married Berta Hess in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1899. Penney married twice more in the coming years; after the death of Berta he married Hortense Kimball in 1919 and after her death he married Caroline Autenreith. His own history was a testament to his belief in the necessity of marriage. He always paid close attention to the wives of potential employees, believing that a good homelife was the cornerstone of a man’s business career. Penney had four surviving children, two sons and two daughters.

In 1900 Penney was sent to Evanston, Wyoming to manage the firm’s branch mercantile store. Johnson and Callahan, who introduced Penney to the concept of chain store merchandising, recognized his ability and 1902 helped him open his own mercantile store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. First year sales were $28,898.11. Penney soon opened two other stores in Wyoming, one in Rock Springs and the other in Cumberland.

To expand his business, Penney developed a system which guaranteed successful management of each store. As new associates were hired, they were taught the business and given a financial interest in the store. Penney also insisted that only quality merchandise be stocked, price mark-ups be kept to minimum and every sale was cash and carry. Penney, a lifelong advocate of what he referred to as "Christian Principles" in business, which included preparation, hard work and above all, the Golden Rule, also frowned on smoking and drinking by his employees.

By 1912, Penney owned a chain of thirty four Golden Rule stores. Within two years, the number of outlets had increased to seventy-one, and by 1917, when Penney accepted the position of chairman, there were 197 stores. The name of the firm was changed to J.C. Penney in 1919 and five years later the number of stores had grown to five hundred. In 1928 the chain had over one thousand stores and sales of $176.7 million.

In an effort to make it easier for the J.C. Penney company to obtain the financial credit essential to any successful retail operation, the organization became a corporation. Shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October, 1929, just a few days before Black Thursday. While the crash of the stock market did cause sales to shrink, the number of stores continued to grow, due in large part to the store’s low-priced merchandise, which attracted customers even in hard times.

Unfortunately, Penney’s individual success was less stellar than that of the company he established. As his personal fortune grew, he began donating significant amounts of money to his favorite charities, which included the Christian Herald and a home for retired clergymen. He also invested heavily in various projects, borrowing against his store stock and accumulating personal debts in excess of seven million dollars. By 1932, he had lost much of his personal fortune and was subject to unfounded charges that he had profited at the expense of fellow shareholders in the collapse of Florida’s City National Bank, in which he had been a major investor. After a brief stay in a sanitarium, Penney returned to his position as chairman of his company and began to rebuild his fortune. He resigned as chairman of the board in 1958.

In his later years, Penney continued to work on the board of the directors of the company he founded and maintained his interests in philanthropic works, serving as vice-president of the Layman’s Movement for a Christian World. Penney died in New York City in 1971 at the age of ninety-five.