Entrepreneur. He was the founder of the J.C. Penney Company, a successful American department store chain. After having a rags-to-riches story, he became a philanthropist. Born James Cash Penney, Jr., the son of an impoverished farmer and part-time Baptist preacher, he was raised to be a devout Christian, a man whose foundation was the Golden Rule, to be self-reliant, self-disciplined, and with a strong concept of personal honor. After graduating from the local high school, he found work at a local butcher and later worked for a local dry goods merchant. After a couple of years in Hamilton, in 1898, he moved to Colorado for health reasons and began working in a chain of dry goods stores called "The Golden Rule." He showed innovation in his work, and in 1902, the owners, Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, offered to make him a partner in the next new store that they were opening. He invested $2000 and moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, to open the new store. After impressing the owners with his management skills, he accepted full ownership of three more Golden Rule stores. In 1907, he purchased the full interest of the stores from his partners, and by 1912, he was managing 34 Golden Rule stores in the Rocky Mountain states. In 1909, Penney moved his company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and established the First Methodist Church of Salt Lake City. In 1913, he incorporated the name J.C. Penney Company and began to discontinue the Golden Rule name. In 1916, the J.C. Penney Company moved east of the Mississippi River, and during the 1920s, the company expanded nationwide. In 1917, Penney designated the daily operating management of the chain to his long-time colleague, Earl Corder Sams, as the company's president, yet Penney remained the Chairman of the Board in order that he could focus on the future of the company and related interests. By the 1920s, J.C. Penney was worth $40 million, which was nearly $500 million in the 21st century. With a family, he had an estate in the Hudson Valley north of New York City and a mansion in Miami. By 1929, the company had 1400 stores in 29 states. Sincerely believing in staff development, his most famous quote was, "Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals, and I'll give you a stock clerk." He was one of the first companies to add an educational department to the company, making the education of his store employees a high priority. After the 1,000th store opened in 1928, the business was worth the equivalent of $3.37 billion in 2024. In 1927, he established a 120,000-acre experimental farming community in north Florida called Penney's Farms, where economically destitute farmers and their families could live and work until they rebuilt their lives. Nearby in Clay County, he founded Foremost Dairies in 1929, but the original project became a victim of the Great Depression in 1931 but rallied back in 1932 without him. During the Great Depression, in order for the business to survive, he had to cut his losses and abandon projects, including selling his Miami mansion. At the Penney's Farms site, he established a Memorial Home Community, a residential community for retired ministers, missionaries, and lay persons, including their wives and families. Following retirement in 1946, he was named Honorary Chairman of the Board, a title he kept until his death, and Earl Corder Sams was made Chairman of the Board until Sam suddenly died in 1950. On December 26, 1970, he fell and fractured his hip. A few weeks later, he suffered a heart attack and died. A lifelong Christian who put his faith into action to help others, he was made a 33-degree Mason and presented with their Gold Distinguished Service Award. Including his 1950 autobiography, he wrote three books of reminiscences and Christian inspiration. In 1971, when Penney died, the annual sales of the J.C. Penney company were $16 billion, second only to the department store chain Sears Roebuck, yet that would change with the 1973 recession. A statue of Penney was erected in front of city hall in Penney's Farms, Florida. He married three times and was a widower twice and was the father to three sons and two daughters. He left an estate worth $35 million. In May of 2020, the J.C. Penney chain announced that the store had filed for bankruptcy.