J.C. Penney, the American businessman who founded what became one of the largest department store chains in the U.S., was born on this day in 1875. According to the Library of Congress, Penney began working for the Golden Rule small chain of stores. He had higher aspirations that led to him opening his own store in 1902, in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Just a few years later, he bought out the Golden Rule partners' shares and became the sole owner of three stores—early steps in what would be the J.C. Penney Co. Before his death in 1971 at the age of 95, Britannica Money says, "Penney saw his company grow from a frontier-town dry-goods store to the second largest nonfood merchandiser in the country, behind Sears, Roebuck and Co."
Here's more on the company's growth (and eventual bankruptcy) from the Library of Congress.
