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James Cash Penney Jr. (September 16, 1875 – February 12, 1971) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who founded the JCPenney stores in 1902. [1]
- Early Lessons
- The Big Chance
- Expanding Horizons
- The System
- J.C. Penney, Philanthropist and Teacher
- The Crash
- The Long Game
- Epilogue
When he was between eight and ten years old, Reverend Penney told young “Jim” that he needed to earn money to contribute to the family’s limited coffers. Jim then profitably raised and sold hogs. But when neighbors complained about the squealing noise, his father made him sell the pigs well before they were fattened for market. Jim wasn’t happy, bu...
Not far from the butcher shop was the busy Golden Rule Store, owned by fellow Missourians Tom and Alice Callahan. The couple had been inspired by Tom’s mother, Celia, who operated a very successful low-price store in Chillicothe, Illinois, after moving from Missouri. The name “Golden Rule” was suggested by Alice’s father. By selling dry goods, noti...
Johnson, Callahan, and Penney opened a store in another mining town, Cumberland, Wyoming, around the first of 1905. In 1907, looking for a man (they were all men back in those days) to work in the Cumberland store, Penney had an interesting and extensive correspondence with Earl Sams from Kansas. Sams had been recommended by a Denver employment age...
Penney’s system, learned from Callahan, Johnson, and the other Golden Rule operators, required a new partnership agreement for each store, a very complex arrangement. Continued rapid expansion required an easier organizational form. It also required bigger bank lines of credit, and the banks could not understand all these partnerships. Over the nex...
By the 1920s, J. C. Penney was worth perhaps $40 million, over $500 million today. His $3 million life insurance policy was reportedly smaller than only those of movie mogul Adolph Zukor, retail kingpin Rodman Wanamaker, and chemical and auto leader Pierre Du Pont. He had an estate in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. He bought a mansion ne...
While the Penney company fared relatively well during the Great Depression due to having no debt, only taking cash, and offering low prices, no one was immune from the effects of the stock market crash. Penney, who had borrowed against his stock and sold some to younger partners, saw the price drop from over $100 to $13. The banks called in his loa...
Recovering substantial wealth—and buying more Penney stock in his old age—he never stopped writing, never stopped making speeches. He became a national celebrity as the company became known throughout the United States. In 1959 alone, at the age of eighty-four, he attended fifty-nine store openings, made a hundred speeches, spent two hundred days o...
During the 1960s and 1970s, the J. C. Penney company went through massive changes. Against his vote, but as always with his support of the final decision of his partners, the company began to offer credit. He feared it would cause customers to buy things they didn’t need. The company for several years departed from its soft goods roots by adding ha...
Sep 11, 2024 · J.C. Penney (born Sept. 16, 1875, Hamilton, Mo., U.S.—died Feb. 12, 1971, New York, N.Y.) was a merchant who established one of the largest chains of department stores in the United States. Penney’s first job was clerking in a general store for a salary of $2.27 per month.
Feb 13, 1971 · J. C. Penney, founder of the department store chain, died yesterday morning at the Hark ness Pavilion, Columbia‐Pres byterian Medical Center. His age was 95. Death was ascribed to medical...
Nov 8, 2014 · Saturday, November 8, 2014. The JC Penney Company, long among the world’s largest department store chains, traces its roots to a one-room shop in a small Wyoming coal-mining town. The store’s founder was James Cash Penney, a Missourian born in 1875 who had moved west after his doctor suggested his health would benefit from the region’s ...
Dec 18, 2009 · In 1897, Penney was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which forced him to uproot in search of a drier climate -- and a new business venture. His first taste as part owner of a store came in 1902 in...
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James Cash Penney died in New York City on February 12, 1971, at the age of ninety-five. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. On April 14, 2002, the J. C. Penney Company celebrated one hundred years in business.
