James Cash "J.C." Penney, Jr. was an American businessman and entrepreneur
who founded the J. C. Penney stores in 1902.
J.C. Penney Stores In 1898, Penney began working for a
small chain of stores in the western United States called the Golden Rule
stores. In 1902, owners Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, impressed by his work
ethic and salesmanship, offered him one-third partnership in a new store he
would open. Penney invested $2,000 and moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, to open a
store there. He participated in opening two more stores, and when Callahan and
Johnson dissolved their partnership in 1907 he purchased full interest in all
three stores. By 1912, there were 34 stores in the
Rocky Mountain States. In 1913, he moved the company to the Kearns Building in
downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was incorporated under the new
name, J. C. Penney Company. In 1916, he began to expand the chain east of the
Mississippi and during the 1920s, the Penney stores expanded nationwide, with
120 stores in 1920 By 1924, Penneys' reported income of more than $1 million
annually. The number of stores reached 1,400 by 1929. The large income allowed
Penney to be heavily involved in many philanthropic causes during the 1920s.
By 1921 Penney had a home on Biscayne Bay in Miami. Penney and partner Ralph
W. Gwinn had invested heavily in Florida real estate including 120,000 acres in
Clay County. Some of this land became Penney Farms. This was also the start of
Foremost Dairy Products Inc. Penney later recruited Paul E. Reinhold to run
the dairy. Most of this work was halted when the stock market crash of 1929 and
the Great Depression left Penney in financial ruin.
After the 1929 stock crash, Penney lost virtually all his personal wealth, and
borrowed against his life insurance policies to help the company meet its
payroll. The financial setbacks took a toll on his health. Penney checked
himself into the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where he was treated. After
hearing the hymn "God Will Take Care of You" being sung at a service in the
hospital’s chapel, Penney became a born-again Christian. Even after
relinquishing daily operating management of the company, Penney continued his
active involvement in managing the company and its stores. In 1940, during
a visit to a store in Des Moines, Iowa, he trained a young Sam Walton on how to
wrap packages with a minimal amount of paper and ribbon. He remained as
chairman of the board until 1946, and after that as honorary chairman until
his death in 1971. Until the end of his life he continued to go to his offices.
Personal life J.C. Penney was born on a farm outside
of Hamilton, Caldwell County, Missouri to James Cash Penney, Sr. and Mary
Frances Penney. He was the seventh of twelve children, only six of whom lived
to adulthood. Penney's father was a Baptist preacher and farmer whose strict
discipline included making his son pay for his own clothing once he reached his
late pre-teens. His intentions after graduation from Hamilton High School
were to attend college with the hopes of becoming a lawyer. However, his father's
untimely death forced a change in plans, with Penney taking a job as a store
clerk to help support the family. Penney's health problems caused him to
venture west to Longmont, Colorado, in his early twenties, where he found
employment with the previously mentioned Golden Rule stores.
James Cash Penney married three times in his life. His first wife Bertha Alva
Hess died of pneumonia, and the second wife Mary Hortense Kimball also died of
unspecified medical issues in 1924. Finally Penney found lasting love with
third wife Caroline Marie Autenrieth, to whom he was married forty-five years
until his death. By his first wife he had two sons, Roswell Penney and James
C. Penney III. By his second wife he had another son, Kimball Penney. And by his
third wife, he had two daughters, Mary Frances Penney and Carol Penney.
Penney lived in New York City at 888 Park Avenue, though he spent the winters
in Palm Springs, California. On December 26, 1970, Penney fell and fractured his
hip. Just a few weeks later, he suffered a heart attack and never fully
recovered. He died February 12, 1971. The Reverend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
delivered the eulogy at Penney's funeral. Penney was buried in the Bronx
section of New York City. His grave, at the Woodlawn Cemetery, is not far from
that of fellow retail entrepreneur, F. W. Woolworth.
Affiliations Penney was a Freemason most of his adult
life, being initiated into Wasatch Lodge No. 1 Free and Accepted Masons of Utah,
on April 18, 1911. A member of both the Scottish and York Rites, Penney was
coroneted a 33rd Degree on October 16, 1945, and received the Gold
Distinguished Service Award by the General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch
Masons, in Kansas City, Missouri in 1958. He typically wore a large ring
showing his Masonic degree. Penney was involved with the founding of
the University of Miami and served on its Board of Trustees from 1926 to 1930.
At the end of the Great Depression, Penney teamed with Thomas J. Watson,
President and Founder of IBM, Arthur Godfrey, the radio and TV personality;
and Norman Vincent Peale, a minister, inspirational speaker, and author of The
Power of Positive Thinking, to help Henry Simler, an executive with the
Remington Rand company. form the first board of 40Plus, an organization that
helps unemployed managers and executives. Penney was also member of
two professional fraternities: Alpha Gamma Rho and Alpha Kappa Psi.
Penney founded the James C. Penney Foundation in 1954. The foundation was
restructured in 1999 as the Penney Family Fund, and is no longer affiliated
with J.C. Penney Co., Inc. or its corporate giving program. Today, the
fund is part of the Common Counsel Foundation, an Oakland, California based
consortium of family philanthropic foundations and individual donors. The
Penney Family Fund endows organizations in Oregon, California, and Washington
state that work to advance human rights, community social, political, economic
empowerment, government accountability, and environmental sustainability.
Commemoration The J.C. Penney Conference Center at the
University of Missouri-St. Louis was dedicated in his honor on January 23,
1972. The building was made possible through financial donations by Mr.
Penney and his company. Mr. Penney was inducted into the Junior
Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1976.
The J. C. Penney Historic District in Kemmerer, Wyoming was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1978. In 1994, Penney was inducted into the
Hall of Famous Missourians, and a bronze bust depicting him is on permanent
display in the rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.
Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Missouri was renamed Penney High School.
References in popular culture Penny, along with Richard Warren Sears,
is the flawed protagonist of the "Get Besos!" series of the Sleep With Me
podcast. References
Further reading Kruger, David Delbert. "J.C. Penney:
Missouri Man, Wyoming Institution". Annals of Wyoming: the Wyoming History
Journal 80. pp. 20–36. Kruger, David D., “James Cash Penney:
The Impact of a Main Street Merchant on Oklahoma,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, 89,
260–87. External links
“Two American Entrepreneurs: Madam C. J. Walker and J.C. Penney”, a National Park
Service Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan
James Cash Penney at Find a Grave