biography
| name: |
Ward, Aaron Montgomery
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1843–1913)
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| biography:
| Merchant, born in Chatham, New Jersey, USA. His parents moved to Niles, MI, where he did odd jobs until 1865, when he moved to Chicago and became a clerk for Field, Palmer, & Leiter. Working as a travelling salesman for a dry-goods wholsealer (c.1870), he noted the disparity between the cash prices farmers received and the high cost of retail products. In 1872, with partner George Thorne, he put out a single-sheet catalogue of dry goods at reasonable prices and guaranteed customer satisfaction. Success was immediate - by 1876 the catalogue had grown to 150 illustrated pages, and sales reached $1 million by 1888. With the completion of the Ward Tower in Chicago (1900), Montgomery Ward's attracted national attention, with sales of $40 million by his death. The company passed to Thorne's five sons, since Ward had none. Ward's wife later bequeathed more than $8 million to Northwestern University for a medical and dental school. His foresight is credited with securing Chicago's Grant Park as a public lakefront area. |
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