Sanger Brothers

Philip, Isaac, Lehman, Jacob, David, Sam, and Alexander Sanger established their wholesale and retail dry goods firm in 1857.

Isaac opened the first store in McKinney, Texas, and was joined by Lehman in 1859 and by Philip in 1860. Each of the brothers ran a store and as more brothers joined the business, more stores were added. The brothers opened stores in towns along the Houston and Central Texas Railroad, eventually owning stores in Dallas, Decatur, Waco, Bryan, Hearn, Millican, Calvert, Bremond, Kosse, Groesbeck, Corsicana, and Sherman. In 1868, the firm became the first Texas business to open a buying office in New York, allowing them to obtain a wider selection of stock. The brothers opened a wholesale division in 1874, selling goods to outlying retailers. In response to the Panic of 1873, the firm consolidated, closing stores in numerous locations, such as Bryan, Bremond, and Corsicana. By 1891 the firm ran on a departmental system, extended credit, offered free home delivery, established an advertising department, ran an Employee Savings and Loan Association, published the Sanger Brothers' Monthly Magazine, and sold through mail order.

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