J.C. Penney

Penney's home was moved into town and made
an historic site. 10/15/21 dwm photo

 The reason we visited Hamilton, Missouri was so my wife could visit the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  

 We didn't know before the trip that Hamilton is home to another very successful store.  As the home to James C. Penney, it is linked to an iconic department store.

 James Cash Penney was born on a farm outside Hamilton, the seventh of twelve children, only six survived to adulthood.  (Background from Penney's wikipedia page.)

 After high school, Penney planned to become a lawyer, but his father's death meant he had to work supporting the family so he took a job at retail store in town.

James Penney's boyhood home was moved into
town so more people can see it. 10/15/21 (dwm) 

In the brief biography on the Wikipedia page, it said his strict father required young James to buy his own clothes when he turned 8.

Hampered by tuberculosis, Penney's doctors suggested as an adult he move west where he found drier air in Colorado.

He joined a small group of stores known as Golden Rule and earned the right to become a part-owner a few years later.  It was a quick rise for a kid from a one-horse town with such humble beginnings.

By 1912, Penney had complete ownership and expanded to 34 Rocky Mountain stores.

Looking from the kitchen into the bedroom in
the four room house. 10/15/2021 (dwm)

 One year later, he renamed his chain the J.C. Penney Company and by 1924 was earning one million dollars a year.

 Like a couple other famous men from Missouri, what they all seem to have in common is that they never returned.

 In addition to his childhood home, the boy who made it big had a local school named in his honor, Penney High School.

Penney didn't entirely forget his home state, a conference center in St. Louis which he helped finance bears his name and a bronze bust of Penney is on display in the state capitol.