Kresge, Sebastian Spering, 1867-1966

Founder of the S.S. Kresge Company.

Sebastian S. Kresge, founder of the S.S. Kresge Company with more than 850 retail outlets in North America by the end of his life, was born in 1867 at Bald Mount, Pennsylvania.

The son of Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, he attended rural schools and later - by teaching school, working for a grocer, and working on his father's farm - the Fairview Academy and Polytechnic Institute. With earnings from his bee-keeping enterprise, he later attended and graduated from Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1889.

After graduation, Kresge worked as a bookkeeper for three years and a traveling salesman for five years. Not only was he successful in his travels selling hardware and tinware (he saved more than $8000 during those years), but he also became well acquainted with the leading entrepreneurs in the field of five and ten cent retail stores, including Frank W. Woolworth, S.H. Kress, J.J. Newberry and W.T. Grant. He was impressed with the industry, and in 1897 approached one of his customers about forming a partnership. John G. McCrory, who owned several five and ten cent stores, agreed to the deal, and Kresge spent several months learning the business first-hand from the manager of McCrory's Jamestown, New York, store, G.C. Murphy. Shortly thereafter, McCrory and Kresge opened two additional stores, one in Memphis, Tennessee, which was managed by Kresge, and the other in Detroit, Michigan, managed by Murphy for McCrory. When Murphy decided to branch off on his own in 1899, Kresge assumed control of the Detroit store and later that year traded his half interest in the Memphis store to McCrory for complete ownership of the Detroit outlet. A year later, Kresge and his brother-in-law, Charles J. Wilson, formed the firm of Kresge and Wilson and opened a second store in Port Huron, Michigan. By 1907, when Kresge bought out his partner and changed the name of the firm to S.S. Kresge, there was a total of eight stores located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Over the next five years, Kresge expanded his chain to 85 stores by buying out smaller chains or opening new outlets, and in 1912 incorporated the business in Delaware as the S.S. Kresge Company. Four years later, with 150 stores, the company was reincorporated in Michigan. Kresge remained president of the firm until 1925, and thereafter served as Chairman of the Board until his death. The company continued its phenomenal growth and expanded into Canada (the S.S. Kresge Company, Ltd., in 1929) and Puerto Rico.

In addition to his business involvement with S.S. Kresge Company, Kresge was the sole owner of Kresge Department Store in Newark, New Jersey, which he established in 1923. He became involved in the field of the full-range department stores when he served as president of Kresge Department Stores, Inc., which owned the Palais Royal department store in Washington, D.C., and controlling interest in The Fair from 1925-1957. In 1920, Mount Clemens (Michigan) Pottery Company was acquired and, as a subsidiary of S.S. Kresge Company, made the dinnerware that was sold in Kresge stores.

Throughout his life, Kresge was concerned with improving the lot of his fellow man and in 1924 established the Kresge Foundation with an endowment of $2 million. Over the next thirty-five years he gave an additional $60 million to the Foundation, which provided assistance to religious, medical, educational, and youth organizations and institutions. As trustee and treasurer, Kresge devoted a good deal of his time to Foundation work.

In addition to his Foundation work, Kresge was a supporter of the prohibition movement. He donated many funds to church organizations (he was a Methodist). Furthermore, he was a member of the Republican party.

Sebastian Kresge was thrice married: in 1897 to Anna E. Harvey, by whom he had five children: Stanley Sebastian, Ruth Harvey, Howard Carrington, Catherine Harriet, and Ann Elizabeth; in 1924 to Doris (Mercer) Harden, and in 1928 to Clara Katherine (Zitz) Swaine. He died at the age of 99 in East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, in 1966. Clara survived him.