Research Paper

James Cash Penny

Mr. Penny started the history of the well- known store of JCPenny. JCPenny is known for selling everyday essentials for families such as: clothes, shoes, accessories, and more. They've been known to have nice clothes at low prices. They have more than 1100 stores opened. JCPenny is a store used by numerous people and is very popular. Mr. James Cash Penny started the business in 1902 with a one room building and a steady mind. He has witnessed other managers or employees who have treated the customer with disrespect. When he was fifteen, he saw his manager, at the store he worked at, switch the cheaper brand of coffee for the higher priced coffee. James believes never to do that. James wanted to have fair prices and wanted to treat all his customers with respect at all times. James Cash Penny was an influential figure in history who had a very positive influence on the world because he founded JCPenny and made a considerable impact on the clothing industry.

Early Life and Childhood

James Cash Penney was born on September 16, 1875, to his parents, James Cash Penney and Mary Frances Paxton Penney. He had twelve siblings, but only six lived to maturity. His father, James Cash Penney Sr., was an unpaid preacher for a sect known as Primitive Baptist. James farmed to earn a living. His mother, Mary Frances Paxton Penney, was a Kentuckian (J. C. Penney). He was the seventh child out of the twelve kids. As he grew up money and food started going scarce, so young Jim, at the age of eight, was told that he needed to buy his own clothes. This was not primarily because of necessity, but rather to teach him the value of money and self-reliance, so he went to work (J. C. Penney). His first job was selling pigs. James would feed and fatten the pigs until big enough for the market. Sadly he had to stop because his neighbors could complain about the squealing noise from the pigs (Curry).He finished school at Hamilton High School and worked mostly in-store clerk positions. His family was poor at the time so he could not get a higher education than what he already had. As he was working, he caught managers and employees constantly overpricing people or making unfair prices (Curry).He formed a love for stores and wanted to change that so he started his own store.

Beginnings

James’s career started with his father and his confidence. His father’s confidence was always Penney’s source of inspiration and strength throughout his life (Reece). He started working when he was just 8 years old because money and food started going scarce. Not the fact that he needed to pay but his father moreover was trying to teach him the importance of value and money. Penney worked hard on many jobs, but something always went wrong to the point where he had to quit. At fifteen, Penny’s father got him a job at a local store, with only six weeks until his father’s death, Penney started taking a liking to storekeeping. Other salesmen often bullied Penney and took customers away from him, but he soon overcame it and stood up for himself. Just as he was starting to gain confidence in himself, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He had to move to a drier climate in Denver, Colorado (Hoover). James Penney first started claiming his fame in storekeeping in 1898 when he accepted a job at a dry goods store owned by Thomas Callahan and Guy Johnson, Callahan liked Penney’s honesty and strong work ethic so he hired him (Hoover).

Accomplishments

James Cash Penney hit lots of mountains during his journey to becoming famous, but in the end, it always goes back to how much he achieved. He first started trying to get money when food in his family started going scarce. He sold hogs to help his family raise money but eventually had to sell without letting them fatten because the neighbors complained about how noisy the pigs were (Hoover). But Penney did not give up, when he turned fifteen he worked at a local store on Saturdays and he started taking a liking to storekeeping (Hoover). Soon after, he graduated from Hamilton High. Since his family has been struggling for money, he couldn’t afford a higher education so he started looking for jobs he could work at. After looking for a while, he finally found a job at J.M. Hales dry goods store. After he got the job, Jim’s father died, his last words were Jim will make it. I like the way he has started (Curry). These words inspired him for the rest of his life to keep pushing forward to the future. Working at J. M. Hales, he suddenly started feeling sick, so he went to the doctor and his doctor prescribed Penney with tuberculosis. He ended up having to move away to a different area where the air is cleaner. When he moved cities, he met Berta A. Hess, whom he later married. They had two sons, Roswell Kemper and James Cash, Jr. After he had a family, he found a job at a small Golden Rule Mercantile Company. Penney was employed by a Longmont, Colorado, merchant, T. M. Callahan, to work in Callahan's first store in his small Golden Rule Mercantile Company chain (J. C. Penney).

Impact on the World

James Penney was certainly the “open-minded” type of person and because of that attitude, he made a huge positive impact on the world. Living in the condition that he was in just like a child, at eight years old is when he received his first job. When he turned 15, he started liking and developing the style and art of storekeeping. In high school, he was a mediocre student but an outstanding orator, delivering uplifting messages about patriotism, Christianity, and the merits of hard work to his fellow students (Hoover). Penney grew up with a loving heart and with his mindset on having his own business. When working in stores, he really cared about how people felt and how much good of a service they were getting. He learned not to cheat because of the lesson he learned in one job. In one store-keeping job, Jim discovered the owner substituting cheap coffee into the container of a higher priced product: his father demanded that he quit (Hoover). Penney gave each customer precise care and put his time and effort into making sure each customer was satisfied with whatever item they were going to get. Penney strongly believed that stores should be run with honesty and deep respect for the customer (Reece). As he got into the business and the life of a moneymaker, he realized that he was getting way more money than what he used to receive as a small kid. Now he didn’t have to worry about food getting scarce or his kid having to make some of the earnings just so they can have enough money for food and clothes. He finally had really money, but he didn’t want to keep it all for himself. He decided to share the business with his store managers, the more store managers, the more money he gives away. Sharing profits with store managers was, in Penney’s own estimation, the motivating factor for success in business (Penney, James Cash). Because of this, he came and adopted the name “ The Man with a Thousand Partners.”

Conclusion

James Cash Penney held lots of personality and sympathy for others which caused him to be successful in life. James influenced others because he wanted to help. When Penny was eight, his parents made him buy his own clothes to teach him the power of money because they did that he developed a strong bond with his father. As time went on, he usually relied on his father for everything, including standing up to negative people. Once his father died, he realized he needed to stop depending on people to come to his rescue and to stand up for himself. He went through tumbles and barrels just trying to find an honest job with good pay, but every store that he went to always seemed to have something wrong with it. He has either ran into dishonest people or bad pay. Penney believed that all stores should be run with honesty and deep-respect for the customer. Penney has always been the type to not give up when things got tough. He inspired me to show respect for others and to just keep believing. Just like J.C. Penney went from a dream to reality, I am sure my dreams can do the same.

Works Cited

Hoover, Gary. “J. C. Penney, the Man: A Life of Perpetual Sharing.¨ Archbridge Institute, 7 Dec 2017, https://www.archbridgeinstitute.org/2017/12/07/j-c-penney-the-man-a-life-of-perpetual-sharing/ Accessed 1 Feb 2021

¨J. C. Penney.¨ Your Dictionary, https://biography.yourdictionary.com/j-c-penney, Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

"Penney, James Cash." Encyclopedia.com, 21 May 2018, Accessed 25 Jan 2021.

Reece, Alice Anna and Carlynn Trout. ¨J.C.Penney¨ Historic Missourians, The State Historical Society of Missouri, https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/jc-penney, Accessed 25 Jan 2021.