Marshall Field

{{Infobox person

| name = Marshall Field

| image = Marshall Field circa 1915 (cropped).jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1834|8|18|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Conway, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1906|1|16|1834|8|18|mf=y}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| occupation = Founder of Marshall Field and Company

| spouse = {{ubl|{{Marriage|Nannie Douglas Scott|1863|1896|end=d}}|{{Marriage|Delia Spencer|1904}}}}

| children = 3, including Ethel

| signature = Signature of Marshall Field.png

}}

Marshall Field (August 18, 1834{{spaced ndash}}January 16, 1906) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. His business was renowned for its then-exceptional level of quality and customer service.

Field is also known for some of his philanthropic donations, providing funding for the Field Museum of Natural History and donating land for the campus of the University of Chicago.

Early life

Marshall Field was born on a farm in Conway, Massachusetts,{{cite web |author-link=Orison Swett Marden |last=Marden |first=Orison Swett |url=https://mises.org/daily/5013/How-Marshall-Field-Succeeded |date=2011-02-21 |title=How Marshall Field Succeeded |website=Mises Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110223144444/https://mises.org/daily/5013/How-Marshall-Field-Succeeded |archive-date=2011-02-23}} the son of John Field IV and Fidelia Nash. His family was descended from Puritans who had come to America as early as 1629.{{cite web |url=https://www.foundersofhartford.org/the-founders/zechariah-field/ |title=Zechariah Field, Hartford Founder |website=Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford |first=Timothy Lester |last=Jacobs |access-date=August 17, 2022}}

At the age of 17, he moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he first worked in a dry goods store alongside his brother Joseph Field.{{Cite web |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Marshall Field & Company Store|url={{NHLS url|id=78001123}} |format=pdf|date=March 1977 |author=Ralph J. Christian |publisher=National Park Service}} and {{NHLS url|id=78001123|title=Accompanying six photos, exterior and interior, from 1960 and undated|photos=y}} {{small|(32 KB)}} (includes brief biography of Marshall Field). He left Massachusetts after five years of working in the dry goods store in search of new opportunities in the rapidly expanding West. In 1856, at age 22, he went to live with his brother in Chicago, Illinois, and obtained employment at leading dry goods merchant Cooley, Wadsworth & Co., which was to become Cooley, Farwell & Co. in 1857.

Career

Field quickly rose through the ranks of Cooley, Farwell & Co. In 1862, for financial reasons{{clarify|date=September 2022|reason=What reasons?}} Cooley left the firm. That same year, Field purchased a partnership, and the firm reorganized as Farwell, Field & Co.{{cite book |first=Robert L. |last=Gale |title=The Gay Nineties in America: A Cultural Dictionary of the 1890s |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood |year=1992 |page=123}} John V. Farwell appreciated Field's keen business acumen; however, when it came to personality, the two were very different. Field's stuffy efficiency rode on Farwell's more relaxed and cheery demeanor.{{sfn|Twyman|1954|p=13}} At a time when business collaboration entailed extensive personal interaction, this partnership would not last long.

In January 1865, Field and a partner, Levi Leiter, accepted an offer to become senior partners at the dry goods establishment of Potter Palmer. The new firm became known as "Field, Palmer, Leiter & Co." In 1867, after Field and Leiter could afford to buy him out, Palmer withdrew from the firm, and it was renamed "Field, Leiter & Company." In 1867, Field, Leiter & Company reported revenues of $12 million (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=12000000|start_year=1867}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).{{inflation/fn|US-GDP}}{{sfn|Schlup|Ryan|2003|p=160}} Like many Chicago businessmen, Field's company was badly affected by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but reopened relatively quickly. The company also survived the Panic of 1873 because of relatively low levels of debt. By 1881, Field had forced Leiter to sell his share of the business and changed the store's name to "Marshall Field and Company".

Field took an early 19th-century consumer landscape that was centered around the principle of caveat emptor, or "let the buyer beware", and transformed it into a plush shopping experience fit for the Gilded Age. Unconditional refunds, consistent pricing and international imports are among the Field innovations that became standards in quality retailing. Field's employees were also instructed not to push products on uninterested customers, a common practice in stores of the period. The quotes "Give the lady what she wants" and "The customer is always right" are attributed to Field.{{efn|The latter may have been coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge while he was working for Field.{{cite web |url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/106700.html |title=The customer is always right |website=Phrase Finder |first=Gary |last=Martin|date=December 11, 2023 }} The original saying was, "Assume that the customer is right until it is plain beyond all question he is not."{{sfn|Schlup|Ryan|2003|p=161}}}}

Though most famous today for his retail business, during his lifetime his wholesale business made far more money. During the 1880s, Field's wholesale business generated five times more revenue than retail annually.{{cite journal |last=O'Gorman |first=James F. |title=The Marshall Field Wholesale Store: Materials Towards a Monograph |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=37 |issue=3 |date=October 1978 |pages=175–194 |doi=10.2307/989208 |jstor=989208}} The wholesale business even had its own landmark building, the Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, erected in 1887. Revenue from the Marshall Field's retail business did not surpass the company's wholesale business until after Field's death.

Field was highly suspicious of organized labor throughout his career and prohibited unionization among his employees. During the time of the Haymarket Riot, the wives of the defendants initiated an appeal, to which all of the local businessmen agreed except for Field. Journalist and reformer Henry Demarest Lloyd led a national campaign to grant clemency. Even bankers like Lyman J. Gage favored clemency, believing that moderation would lead to improved relations between capital and labor. Potter Palmer and Charles L. Hutchinson were inclined to agree, but Marshall Field was not. A number of other men confided to Gage that they were not willing to publicly disagree with Field, the wealthiest and most powerful businessman in Chicago.{{cite web |year=2003|title=People & Events: Marshall Field (1834-1906) and Midwestern Commerce |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_field.html |department=Chicago: City of the Century |website=PBS |access-date=May 27, 2008}} Field also opposed organized labor during the 1905 Chicago teamsters' strike.

Personal life

Field avoided political and social intrigue, instead focusing on his work and on supporting his family and his favorite causes. Field was a very active member of the Commercial Club and the Jekyll Island Club, also known as the Millionaires Club, on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Field married twice. In 1863, he married Nannie Douglas Scott of Ironton, Ohio.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lawrencecountyohio.com/families/q_z/Scott1.htm |title=Lawrence County, Ohio Historical Society |access-date=November 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225644/http://www.lawrencecountyohio.com/families/q_z/Scott1.htm |archive-date=December 2, 2013 |url-status=dead }} They had two sons and a daughter, but one son, Louis, died in 1866 as an infant. The surviving children were Marshall Field Jr. and Ethel Field.

Marshall Field Jr. (1868–1905) married Albertine Huck, and they were the parents of Henry Field, Marshall Field III, and Gwendolyn Mary Field, who married Sir Archibald Charles Edmonstone, 6th Baronet; Marshall Jr. and Albertine were thus the grandparents of Archduchess Elyssa (Edmondstone), Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

On November 22, 1905, at the age of 37, Marshall Jr. incurred a gunshot to the abdomen and died a few days later in hospital. The circumstances of his death are still uncertain, and proposed explanations have included suicide, domestic accident with a gun, and shooting by a prostitute from the Everleigh Club.

Ethel Field was married twice, first to Arthur Magie Tree, with whom she had one son, Ronald Tree; and then in 1901 to David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, with whom she had two sons, David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty and Peter Beatty.

Nannie died in 1896. In 1904, Field married longtime friend Delia Spencer, the widow of Arthur John Caton. They had no children.

Death

File:Graves of Marshall Field IV (1916–1965), Delia Field (1853–1937) and Marshall Field (1834–1906) at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.jpg

Field died in New York City, New York, on January 16, 1906, at age 71 of pneumonia contracted after playing golf on New Year's Day with his nephew, his secretary, and Abraham Lincoln's eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln.{{cite book|title=The Fortune Builders: Chicago's Famous Families|author=Edwin Darby|publisher=Garrett County Press|date=November 6, 2011}} Field was buried on January 19 in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Legacy

In 1905, Field's fortune was valued at $125 million (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=125000000|start_year=1905}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).{{inflation/fn|US-GDP}}{{sfn|Schlup|Ryan|2003|p=160}} His will stated that after various bequests were made, Field's remaining estate was to be held in trust for 40 years for his two grandsons; 60% was to go to Marshall Field III and 40% to Henry Field. Henry Field died in 1917, leaving the Field fortune in the hands of Marshall Field III.{{cite news|title=Henry Field Dies in Hospital Here|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 9, 1917|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/09/96253971.pdf}}

The Field Museum of Natural History was named after Marshall Field in 1894 after he gave it an endowment of $1 million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|1000000|1894}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}).{{inflation/fn|US}}{{sfn|Alexander|1996|p=55}} He was initially reluctant to make the kind of contribution that the organizers were requesting, reportedly saying, "I don't know anything about a museum and I don't care to know anything about a museum. I'm not going to give you a million dollars."Quoted in {{harvnb|Alexander|1996|p=55}} He relented after railroad supplies magnate Edward E. Ayer, another early benefactor (and later the first president) of the museum, convinced Field that his everlasting legacy would be achieved by financing the project.{{harvnb|Alexander|1996|pp=55–56}} Ayer reportedly convinced Field with the words, "You can sell dry goods until hell freezes over, but in 25 years, you will be absolutely forgotten." {{harvnb|Anderson|1921}} The year after his death the Field Museum received a further $8 million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|8000000|1907}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}){{inflation/fn|US}} in accordance with his will.{{sfn|Alexander|1996|p=56}}

The University of Chicago was co-founded by Field and John D. Rockefeller, to rival nearby Evanston's Northwestern University.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/menofaffairsgall00chic#page/1/mode/1up |title=Men of Affairs: a gallery of cartoon portraits |publisher=Chicago Evening Post |year=1906 |page=1}}

A bust of Marshall Field stands beside those of other early 20th century Chicago industrial magnates on the north riverbank of the Chicago River facing the Merchandise Mart.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

The company that Marshall Field founded was absorbed into Macy's a century after his death.

Notes

References

{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Edward P. |author-link=Edward P. Alexander |year=1996 |title=Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums |others=Foreword by William T. Alderson |location=Walnut Creek, CA |publisher=AltaMira Press, in cooperation with the American Association for State and Local History |isbn=0-7619-9155-7 |oclc=33983419}}
{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Jon |date=May 2, 1921 |title=The Field Museum |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-chicagodays-fieldmuseum-story,0,7118746.story |work=Chicago Tribune |publisher=Tribune Company |access-date=May 27, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612192304/http://www.chicagotribune.com:80/features/chi-chicagodays-fieldmuseum-story,0,7118746.story |archive-date=2008-06-12}}
{{cite book |last1=Schlup |first1=Leonard |last2=Ryan |first2=James |title=Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age |location=Armonk, NY |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=2003 |page=160}}
{{cite book |last=Twyman |first=Robert W. |title=History of Marshall Field and Co., 1852-1906 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1954}}