Field, Marshall

FIELD, MARSHALL

Marshall Field (1834–1906), the founder of one the world's largest department stores, represented for many U.S. citizens of his generation an example of the classic rags-to-riches success story. Field, the tenth richest man in U.S. history, originated the "customer is always right" policy and introduced many other now-standard retail practices including liberal credit, openly displayed prices, an in-store restaurant, and acceptance of returned merchandise.

Field was born in 1834 and raised on a farm near Pittsfield in western Massachusetts. He left school at age 17 to work in a local dry goods store. After five years his employer offered him the opportunity of an eventual partnership in the store, but Field declined, deciding that opportunities for an ambitious young man lay further west. In 1856, at age 22, armed with a reference from his boss describing him as "a young man of unusual business talent," Field left New England for Chicago, then a rude, muddy, and vibrant city that had just produced its first generation of millionaires. Field's older brother, Joseph, helped secure him a job with Cooley, Wadsworth and Co., the city's largest dry goods store. The small, serious, and polite Marshall Field arranged to live and sleep in the store, and thus he managed to save half of his small income. Field, who came to be known as "silent Marsh" because of his retiring social manner, was determined to make a success of himself. In less than four years, he had become a full partner in the store.

When Cooley retired in 1864, the store became known as Farwell, Field, and Company. Field soon left the store to join with a partner, Levi Leiter, in a new and expanded dry goods business, which they called Field, Leiter. The firm grossed $9 million in its first year (1867). Field worked day and night to build his business and make it a success.

The firm's first major building, a grandiose edifice at the corner of Washington and State Streets in downtown Chicago was only three years old when it went up in smoke in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Field was back in business in a new building by the following year. In 1877 Field, Leiter was again devastated by fire. The building was a total loss, but Field, more than adequately insured, was again able to immediately rebuild.

At a relatively young age, Field had become well known for his hard work, shrewdness in business, honesty, merchandising skills, and penny-pinching personal habits. In 1881 he bought out his partner, Leiter, for $2.5 million. By 1888 he was an extremely rich man and a director of least 28 major corporations. His store continued to thrive during Field's lifetime and throughout the twentieth century. At his death in 1906, Field left an estate valued at $125 million, the equivalent of $40.7 billion in 1998, according to American Heritage. Among his bequests were substantial gifts to the University of Chicago and the museum that later became the Field Museum of Natural History.

See also: Chicago Fire of 1871, Department Store

FURTHER READING

Becker, Stephen. Marshal Field III. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964.

Klepper, Michael, Robert Gunther, Jeanette Baik, Linda Barth, and Christine Gibson. "American Heritage 40: A Ranking of the 40 Wealthiest Americans of All Time." American Heritage, October 1998.

Pierce, B.L. "Rise of a Modern City, 1871–1893." History of Chicago, vol. 3, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.

Twyman, Robert. Marshall Field and Co., 1852–1906. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1906.

Wendt, Lloyd. Give the Lady What She Wants. Skokie: Rand McNally and Co., 1952.

the customer is always right.

marshall field