Beatrice selfridge lovell-lewis

He was born at Ripon, Wisconsin, and brought up in Jackson, Michigan. At the end of the Civil War his father never returned home (he was later convicted as a con-man in Missouri), his two brothers died, and his mother struggled to make ends meet.

Having worked part-time from the age of ten, he quit school at fourteen to work in a bank.

Beatrice selfridge lovell-lewis

He failed his exams to enter the U.S. Navy School at Annapolis and in 1876 an ex-employer agreed to provide him with a letter of introduction to Marshall Field, senior partner in one of Chicago's largest stores. He worked his way up from stock boy to junior partner during which time he was the first to promote Christmas sales with the phrase: "Only 'x' Shopping Days Until Christmas".

When Field refused him a partnership, in 1904 he opened his own department store, Harry G. Selfridge & Co., in Chicago, but sold it just two months later for a substantial profit which allowed him to retire more than comfortably.