Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1913 — Head of Great Mail Order House Died in Chicago Sunday. [ARTICLE]

Head of Great Mail Order House Died in Chicago Sunday.

A. Montgomery Ward, pioneer in the mail order business in Chicago, died in that city Sunday at the age of 70 years. Without the advantages of an education he had become a day laborer and from this meager beginning he built up one of the largest mail order houses in the world and remained its head urttil his death. He worked as a day laborer in a stave factory at 25 cents a day and later as a laborer in a brick yard. He then went to work as a clerk at $5 a week. His ability as a salesman soon put him to the front and he next went to Chicago, where he worked for Field, Palmer & Leiter, now the Marshall Field Co. He then worked for a wholesale house as an Inside man and then as a traveling man. He became impressed with the opportunity to sell direct to the consumer and in 1872 founded the house that bears his name. Their first quarters were above a livery stable and the staff consisted of Mr. Ward, his partner, and one clerk. The house now does business amounting to $40,000,000 a year. Two years ago Mr. Ward fell from the running board of his automobile in Pasadena Cal, breaking his arm and shoulder blade. Six weeks ago he fell at his home and fractured his hip and pneumonia complicated with kidney trouble caused his death.