A New Idea in Sales

In 1871 young Aaron Montgomery Ward worked for C.W.E. Partridge, wholesalers and retailers of goods in Chicago.  Ward had an idea to sell direct to the country farmers by mail at low prices.  Predictions were that he would go broke quickly and his first inventory was lost in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  Ward was undaunted and went back immediately to planning and saving.  By the following August with just $1600 and two fellow Partridge employees, Montgomery Ward and Company was founded as the first mail order company in America. 

When Ward was just nine years old, his family moved from Chatham, New Jersey to Niles, Michigan.  He was the son of a cobbler, and Aaron left school at the age of 14 to work in a barrel factory and later a brickyard.  Deciding that he was not "physically or mentally suited for brick or barrel making" he went on to jobs in a shoe store and a general store.  In 1866 he moved to Chicago where he clerked for the dry goods firm of Field (later Marshall Field would found the department store), Palmer and Leiter.  Ward then traveled as a salesman for other Chicago firms and a company from St. Louis.  It was while he was making his rounds of country stores by train and horse and buggy, that he came upon the idea of a mail order company. 

The first Montgomery Ward catalog was a one page list of 163 items, most costing $1.00.  The catalog was sent to the Grange membership of almost a million farmers.  When the response was slow in coming, Ward bought out his dissatisfied partners and became the sole owner during the Panic of 1873 which brought ruin to many farmers.

Ward was not discouraged but convinced that hard times were times of opportunity for him.  All he had to do was to win their confidence, so he began speaking at Grange meetings and explaining how he could offer low cost products direct to them.  He gave them reasons like no overhead, no employee salaries,  products purchased directly from the manufacturer with cash, and products not available on the retail market for at least six months. 

As Ward continued to work for Partridge's while he built his mail order business during the years of 1873 and 1874, business began to grow.  He took on a full time partner from back home in Michigan by the name of George R. Thorne and together they began to solidify Montgomery Ward Company.

Next time...Business Improves
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Today in Pioneer History: "On October 22, 1824,  the Tennessee Legislature adjourns ending Davy Crockett‘s state political career.