George Hartford was born on a farm in Augusta, Maine and started his retail career at age 18 in Boston. By 1861, he lived in Brooklyn, New York where he married Marie Josephine Ludlum (1837 - 1925). They had three sons and two daughters. While he was known to be a private person, Hartford was elected Mayor of Orange, New Jersey in 1878 and served for 12 years. Hartford retired from the active management of the business about 1907 or 1908 and turned the firm over to two of his sons, George Ludlum Hartford (1864 - 1957) and John Augustine Hartford (1872 - 1951). He continued as an advisor while they expanded the firm, becoming the country's largest retailer by 1915. Hartford died in 1917, aged 84, and was interred at Rosedale Cemetery, in Orange, New Jersey. Hartford’s estate was worth $125 million dollars. The press respected that he was a private man, and there were few obituaries about him. "To immortalize outstanding American merchants", Joseph Kennedy in 1953 commissioned a bronze bust of George Huntington Hartford, four times life size along with 7 other men, which would come to be known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in Chicago.
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George Hartford was born on a farm in Augusta, Maine and started his retail career at age 18 in Boston. By 1861, he lived in Brooklyn, New York where he married Marie Josephine Ludlum (1837 - 1925). They had three sons and two daughters. While he was known to be a private person, Hartford was elected Mayor of Orange, New Jersey in 1878 and served for 12 years. Hartford retired from the active management of the business about 1907 or 1908 and turned the firm over to two of his sons, George Ludlum Hartford (1864 - 1957) and John Augustine Hartford (1872 - 1951). He continued as an advisor while they expanded the firm, becoming the country's largest retailer by 1915. Hartford died in 1917, aged 84, and was interred at Rosedale Cemetery, in Orange, New Jersey. Hartford’s estate was worth $125 million dollars. The press respected that he was a private man, and there were few obituaries about him. "To immortalize outstanding American merchants", Joseph Kennedy in 1953 commissioned a bronze bust of George Huntington Hartford, four times life size along with 7 other men, which would come to be known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in Chicago.
© Copyright Wikipédia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0
Born George Huntington HARTFORD
