BIOGRAPHIES
Wayne County Michigan
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SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE
Born, Bald Mount, Pa., July 31, 1867; son of Sebastian and Catharine (Kunkle) Kresge; educated in common schools of Pennsylvania, Fairview Academy, Broadsville, Pa, and Eastman Gusiness College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., graduating, march, 1889; married at Memphis, Tenn., Dec. 19, 1897, Anna E. Harvey. Lived on farm until 21 years of age; taught one term of school at 19; clerked in hardware store two years; traveling salesman 1892-97; started at Memphis, Tenn., in 5 and 10 cent store, mar. 20, 1897, with J.C. McCrorey and continued with him two years, then associated with Charles J. Wilson and the firm became Kresge & Wilson, and since January, 1907, E.E. Kresge. Republican. Methodist. Recreations: Hunting, fishing and automobiling. Office: 189-191 Woodward Av. Residence: 45 Ballister Av.
Source: The Book of Detroiters Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis 1908
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SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE
Sebastian S. Kresge was born in Pennsylvania and attended Eastman Business College. After graduation, Kresge worked as a traveling salesman. In 1897, Kresge and a partner started a five-and-dime store in Memphis, Tennessee. Two years later, Kresge branched out on his own and founded the S.S. Kresge Co. The company had two stores, one in Detroit. The company grew quickly, and by 1912 Kresge owned 85 stores and decided to incorporate the company. Two years later, in 1914, he built a spectacular mansion at 70 W. Boston Boulevard, where he lived until the 1920s. Kresge continued to steer the company that bore his name; in the 1970s it changed its name to Kmart.
In 1924, Kresge was worth $375 million dollars. In that year he established the Kresge foundation, whose mission was simply "to promote the well-being of mankind." By the time of his death, Kresge had given the foundation over $60 million
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SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE
S.S. Kresge Residence 70 West Boston Boulevard Detroit Michigan
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SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE
With notable rapldity, the business of the S. S. Kresge Company has developed.
Its rapid growth has had its root in the
enterprise, determination and well formulated plan
of the founder, Sebastian S. Kresge, who has ever
manifested keen insight into commercial problems and
notable ability in coordinating what have seemingly
been diverse elements, converting these into a eomplex
and unified whole. Mr. Kresge is a Native of Baldmount, Pennsylvania. He was born July 31, 1867, of
the marriage of Sebastian and Catherine (Kunkle)
Kresge, the former a native of Brodheadsville, Pennsylvaaia, while the latter was born in Kresgeville,
Pennsylvania, and is still living at the advanced age
of seventy-nine years. The Kresge family is descended
from Conrad Kresge, who was born in Switzerland and
emigrated to America about 1745, settling at Effort,
Monroe county, Pennsylvania. The grandfather of
Sebastian S. Kresge of this review was Peter Kresge.
The grandmother in the maternal line is Mrs. John Kunkle, who died December 27, 1919, at Kresgeville,
Pennsylvania. She reached the venerable age of one
hundred years on the 18th of September, 1919. Her
ancestors migrated from southern Germany about
1740. She is the mother of Catherine (Kunkle)
Kresge, who resides at Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, and
is now seventy-nine years of age.
Sebastian Sparing Kresge was a pupil in the public
schools of Pennsylvania and afterward attended the
Fairview Academy at Brodheadsville, to which he
walked three miles, morning and evening. He later
became a student in the Polytechnic Institute at Gilbert, Pennsylvania, and afterward attended Eastman's Business College at Poughkcepsie, Now York.
From his boyhood until 1888 he worked for his parents
on the home farm during the summer months and in
young manhood he taught school through one winter
term at twenty-two dollars per month. He also
engaged in clerking in a grocery store for one winter
at twenty-eight dollars per month and gave the money
thus earned to his parents. He engaged in keeping
bees in early manhood and with the money saved from
the sale of honey paid his way through the Eastman
Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, thus
displaying the elemental strength of his character—a
strength that in the coarse of years has made him one
of the notable business men of the middle west. During the year 1889 he was employed in connection with
the wholesale produce business and sold industrial
insurance. He also canvassed for house furnishings
and at one time was half owner of a bakery. He
likewise served as bookkeeper for a hardware company in 1890 and 1891, and from 1892 until 1897 was
a traveling tinware salesman in the north central
and New England states. All through the intervening
period, from the time when he made his initial step
in the business world, be had certain definite plans
in mind. He has ever been actuated by a laudable
ambition that has prompted him to put forth his
best efforts in meeting the demands of the hour. He
saved his earnings until his economy and industry had
brought to him the sum of eight thousand dollars
and with this capital be turned his attention to the
conduct of a five and ten cent store in connection
with J. G. McCrorey in 1897. He had a half interest
in the business at Memphis, Tennessee, and Detroit,
Michigan, and acted as manager of the store at Memphis for sixteen months. For two years he continued
with Mr. McCrorey, and in November, 1898, he became sole proprietor of the Detroit store. Subsequently he was joined in the ownership by his brother-in-law, Charles J. Wilson, under the firm style of
Kresge & Wilson, and some years later be became sole
owner. The 8. 8. Kresge Company was incorporated
in 1912 as a Delaware corporation, in the amount of
seven million dollars, of which five million dollars was
common stock and two million dollars preferred stock,
and was reincorporated as a Michigan corporation in
1916, with a capital of ten million dollars in common
stock and two million dollars in preferred stock.
Mr. Kresgo became and is still the president of the
company. The total sales of the S. S. Kresge Company for 1919 amounted to forty-two million, six
hundred and sixty-eight thousand, one hundred and
fifty-oui- dollars, or an increase of seventeen and five-tenths per cent over the preceding year. Fifteen years
ago there were but four stores in the Kresge system,
while today the company operates a chain of one
hundred and eighty-eight stores, extending two-thirds
of the way across tho continent. This is a wonderful
organization that has been built up, showing Mr.
Kresge to bo one of the master minds back of the
great mercantile interests of the country. In 1919
he organized and became president of the Kresge
Realty Company and in 1914 built the Kresge office
building in Detroit.
On the 19th of December, 1897, in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. Kresge was married to Miss Anna E.
Harvey and their children are five in number, namely:
Stanley 8., Ruth H., Howard C, Catherine H. and
Anna E. The parents are members of the North
Woodward Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Kresge
has been very active in the International Methodist
Centenary Movement. He belongs to the Masonic
fraternity, having membership in Palestine Lodge, F.
& A. M.; Palestine Chapter, R. A. M.; Detroit Commandery, K. T.; Moslem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.;
and Michigan Consistory, A. A. S. R. He belongs to
the Detroit Board of Commerce, to the National
Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian
Association, tho Detroit Rotary Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit Golf Club, Detroit Boat Club,
Detroit Automobile Club, Detroit Real Estate Board,
Ingleside Club and Lincoln Highway Association.
These, however, indicate only partially tho various
phases of his life activities and interests. He is fond
of hunting and fishing and is still very fond of bees,
having a colony at his home in Detroit. He enjoys
motoring and takes long tours, doing his own driving. While his success has enabled him to have leisure
for such things, he yet gives much of his timo to his
business and also largely to the promotion of interests
which are seeking the betterment and uplift of mankind. He was a director of the National War Work
Council of the Y. M. C. A., has long been n most
earnest supporter of the temperance cause, has been
active in making Michigan and the nation dry and is
a member of the national executive committee of the
Anti-Saloon League of America, also of the executive
committee of the Michigan State League. He is chairman of the manufacture and business committee of
the Anti-Saloon League, and he has studied the question of temperance reform from every possible angle from the economic standpoint as well as from tho
standpoint of sentiment and high ideals. Abraham
Lincoln said: "There is something better than making a living—making a life." Mr. Kresgo has ever
recognized this truth and while his career has boon
one of notable success, the attainment of wealth
has never been the sole eud and object of his career.
To mako his native talents subserve the demands which
conditions of society impose at the presont time, is
the purpose of his life and business has been but one
phase thereof and has never excluded his active participation in and support of all tho other vital interests which go to make up human existence.
The City of Detroit 1701 - 1922 Vol. 3
edited by Clarence Monroe Burton, William Stocking, Gordon K. Miller
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SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE
Obituary
"The Pocono Record", the Stroudsburgs, PA, Wednesday, 19 October 1966, Page: 1:
Dime store founder S. S. Kresge, 99, dies
Sebastin Spering Kresge, multi-millionaire founder of the variety store that bears his name, died last night at the General Hospital of Monroe County. He was 99.
Mr. Kresge, who made his home at Mountainhome, had been hospitalized for the past three months.
Mr. Kresge is survived by his widow, Clara Katharine, and by the four children from his first marriage. The children include his sons, Stanley S. of Detroit, who replaced him as board chairman, and Howard C. of Birmingham, Mich.; and daughters Mrs. H. Ruth Nugent Head of New York City, and Mrs. John W. Anne Watling of Santa Barbara, Calif.
A spokesman for the company said all 930 Kresge stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico will be closed Friday when funeral services will be held at 2 to 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church in Mountainhome. Burial will be at the family mausoleum in Gilbert Cemetery.
When he retired from the S.S. Kresge Co. last June, he said in a letter of resignation, "Up until three months ago I thought it would be possible for me to continue my advice and counsel for another year, but my health will not permit."
He was the oldest chairman and the one with the longest tenure, 53 years, of any corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
He was born in Kresgeville, which was named after his family, July 31, 1887. He was the son of Sebastian and Catherine Kunkle Kresge.
At the time he resigned from the firm, he also resigned as trustee of the Kresge Foundation, an educational philanthropic organization he established in 1922 with a gift of $1.3 million. The foundation now has a net worth of $175 million.
The S.S. Kresge Co. of Detroit now has 40,000 employes and its sales volume this year totaled $1 billion.
After receiving his education in rural schools, and Fairview Academy, Brodheadsville, Mr. Kresge attended the Polytechnic Institute at Gilbert, and Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. At the age of 19, he taught at Gower's School in Monroe County.
He began his business career at the age of 20 as a delivery man and clerk for Patrick Ward, a Scranton grocer.
From 1892 to 1897, Mr. Kresge was a traveling salesman for the W. B. Bertels Son and Co., Wilkes-Barre, selling tinware and hardward specialties.
Among his customers was John G. McCrory, who was then operating a chain of six bazaar stores and two five and dime cent stores.
The aquaintance resulted in the formation of a partnership with McCrory, when variety stores in Memphis, Tenn. and late in Detroit, Mich., were opened.
In 1900, Mr. Kresge and his brother-in-law organized the firm of Kresge and Wilson to operate the Detroit store, which Mr. Kresge managed, and another in Port Heron, Mich.
Mr. Kresge once realized that "when one begins at the bottom and learns to scrape, everything comes easy."
After he became a multi-millionaire, he was quoted as saying "I never spend more than 30 cents for lunch in my life."
In 1925, Mr. Kresge bought the D. S. Plaut and Co. department store in Newark, N.J. and in 1926 replaced the old buildings with a new modern building. He later changed the name to Kresge-Newark.
Also in 1925, he bought the controlling interest in The Fair, a large department store in Chicago. He was a director and chairman of the board for the store.
In 1924, he established a fund for the endowment of the Kresge Foundation of which he was one of five trustees.
The Foundation has made possible the Children's Village near Detroit for the care of underpriviledged children, and has assisted schools, colleges, homes for the aged, hospitals, YMCA's, missions and other institutions.
He was also active in prohibition work and gave liberally to the cause. He was also a non-smoker and once said, "I never gave a dime to any church, the pastor of which used tobacco."
He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and Pocono Mountain; the Detroit Board of Commerce; the Committee of 100 of Miami Beach; Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami; and the Crime Commission of Greater Miami.
He was a 32nd degree Mason in both the York and Scottish Rite.
Mr. Kresge received an honorary degree of doctor of business administration from Albion College in 1941, doctor of humane letters by Dickinson College in 1950.
Resting place of Sebastian Spering Kresge - Gilbert Cemetery
31 July 1867 - 18 October 1966
Photo by Arthur Koykka at "Find-A-Grave
"The Pocono Record", the Stroudsburgs, PA, Saturday, 22 October 1966, Page: 3:
Kresge service simple
A simple solemn service was held yesterday in a humble village church for a man "who walked with Kings of Finance but did not lose the common touch."
These were the words of the eulogy at funeral services held for the late Sebastian Spering Kresge, founder of the variety store dynasty bearing his name, who died in the General Hospital of Monroe County Tuesday night; after a prolonged illness.
Officiating at the funeral services at the Mountainhome Methodist Church were the Rev. John Nelson Roberts, pastor of the church which Mr. Kresge attended for 40 years and the Rev. Peter K. Emmons, Pastor Emeritus of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Scrantoon, an old friend of the Kresge family.
More than 200 friends and relatives attended the funeral services, including J. C. Penney, Dr. Daniel Poling of Philadelphia, scores of company executives from throughout the nation, and local friends of the family.
The Rev. Dr. Ralph Sockman, Pastor Emeritus of the Christ Church, Methodist of New York City said, "Life is too strong for death, and the life of Sebastian S. Kresge will go on."
The late Mr. Kresge was compared to a tree, which spreads its leaves and branches about--""as did the good that was done by the namy contributions to society made in the autumn of this great man's life"--a remembrance that will continue on through our lifespan.
The quiet ceremony, which included organ music played by Mrs. Warren Miller of Cresco, a selected Bible reading, and a brief sermoncite, took only 30 minutes.
Pallbearers were Harry B. Cunningham, William H. Baldwin, Donald P. Valley, Roy, Carl and Hayden Howell, Amos Gregory and Stanley Kresge Jr.
The Dunkelberger and Klofach Funeral Home, Stroudsburg, was in charge of arrangements.
Burial - 21 Oct 1966 Mausoleum in Salem Church cemetery, Gilbert, Monroe Co.,PA
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