Marshall Field

Marshall Field was born on a farm in Conway, Massachusetts,[1] the son of John Field IV and Fidelia Nash. His family was descended from Puritans who had come to America as early as 1629.[2]

At the age of 17, he moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he first worked in a dry goods store alongside his brother Joseph Field.[3] 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.

Field quickly rose through the ranks of Cooley, Farwell & Co. In 1862, for financial reasons Cooley left the firm. That same year, Field purchased a partnership, and the firm reorganized as Farwell, Field & Co.[4] 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.[5] 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 (~$195 million in 2021).[6] 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.[lower-alpha 1]

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.[9] 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.[10] Field also opposed organized labor during the 1905 Chicago teamsters' strike.

Field avoided political and social intrigue, instead focusing on his work and on supporting his family and his favorite philanthropies. 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.[11] 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 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, grandparents of Archduchess Elyssa (Edmondstone), Grand Duchess of Tuscany. On 22 November 1905, at the age of 37, Marshall Jr. shot himself in the abdomen, dying a few days later in the hospital. The circumstances of his death are still uncertain, with different versions that speak from suicide to a domestic accident. Another version says that he was shot by a prostitute from the Everleigh Club.[12]

Ethel 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.

Graves of Marshall Field IV, Delia Field, and Marshall Field at Graceland Cemetery

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.[13] Field was buried on January 19 in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

After various bequests were made, Field's remaining estate was to be held in trust for 40 years for his two grandsons, with 60% going to Marshall Field III and 40% to Henry Field. In 1905, Field's fortune was valued at $125 million (~$2.99 billion in 2021).[6] Henry Field died in 1917, leaving the Field fortune in the hands of Marshall Field III.[14]

The Field Museum of Natural History was named after him in 1894 after he gave it an endowment of one million dollars.[15] Field was initially reluctant to do so, 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."[16] However he later relented after railroad supplies magnate Edward E. Ayer, another early benefactor (and later first president) of the museum, convinced Field that his everlasting legacy would be achieved by financing the project.[17] The year after his death the Field Museum received a further $8,000,000 in accordance with his will.[18]

The University of Chicago was founded by both Field and New York's John D. Rockefeller, to rival nearby Evanston's Northwestern University.[19]

A bust of Marshall Field stands beside other early 20th century Chicago industrial magnates on the north riverbank on the Chicago River facing the Merchandise Mart.

• Marshall Field's, the eponymous department store he founded.
• Field Enterprises, holding company for newspapers and TV stations.
• Henry Field (1841–1890), brother and business partner of Marshall Field
• Marshall Field III (1893–1956), publisher, Chicago Sun founder, investment banker, bankrolled Saul Alinsky
• Marshall Field IV, publisher, owner of the Chicago Sun
• Frederick "Ted" Field (founder of Interscope Communications and co-founder of Interscope Records)

• Alexander, Edward P. (1996). Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums. Foreword by William T. Alderson. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, in cooperation with the American Association for State and Local History. ISBN 0-7619-9155-7. OCLC 33983419.
• Anderson, Jon (May 2, 1921). "The Field Museum". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Company. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
• Green, James (2007). Death in the Haymarket. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 9780375422379.
• Koehn, Nancy F. Brand New : How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (2001) pp 91–136.
• Laermans, Rudi. "Learning to consume: early department stores and the shaping of the modern consumer culture (1860-1914)." Theory, Culture & Society 10.4 (1993): 79-102.
• Madson, Axel (2002). The Marshall Fields. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• "People & Events: Marshall Field (1834-1906) and Midwestern Commerce". Chicago: City of the Century. PBS Online. 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
• Rhoads, Mark (August 22, 2006). "Illinois Hall of Fame - Marshal Field". Illinois Review. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
• Soucek, Gayle. Marshall Field's: The Store that Helped Build Chicago (Arcadia Publishing, 2013).
• Sullivan, Timothy E. (1999). "Marshall Field". In James Garraty (ed.). American National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Tebbel, John (1947). The Marshall Fields. New York: E. P. Dutton.
• Twyman, Robert W. History of Marshall Field and Co., 1852-1906 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1954).
• Wendt, Lloyd and Herman Kogan, (1952) Give the Lady What She Wants! The Story of Marshall Field & Company. New York: Rand McNally and Company

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Field, Marshall".

• Media related to Marshall Field at Wikimedia Commons