{{Short description|American businessman (1822–1877)}} {{Use American English|date=August 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Rowland Hussey Macy | image = Rowland H. Macy (cropped).jpg | caption = Macy in 1858 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1822|08|30}} | birth_place = {{nowrap|Nantucket Island, Massachusetts}}, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1877|03|29|1822|08|30}} | death_place = Paris, France | resting_place = Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = Macy's | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = {{marriage|Louisa Houghton|1844}} | partner = | children = 3 | relatives = Margaret Getchell (third cousin 2x removed) | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Rowland Hussey Macy Sr.''' (August 30, 1822 – March 29, 1877) was an American businessman who founded the department store chain Macy's.
==Life and career== Macy was the fourth of six children born to a Quaker family on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen, he worked on the whaleship ''Emily Morgan'' and had a red star tattooed on either his hand or his forearm (various versions as to the exact location of the marking have been reported).<ref>{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Evans |title=The death of the department store |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4309051.stm |work=news.bbc.co.uk |publisher=BBC News |date=2005-03-01 |access-date=2008-11-02 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitmacysusa.com/article/history-macys-humble-beginnings-stunning-success|title = Richtig packen!|date = November 16, 2021}}</ref> He married Louisa Houghton (1820–1888) in 1844, and had three children: Charles A. Macy (1845–1846); Rowland Hussey Macy Jr. (1847–1878); and Florence Macy (1853–1933), who married James F. Sutton.<ref name=probate/>
He and his brother, Charles, opened a dry goods store in Marysville, California, shortly after the city was founded at the height of the Gold Rush in 1850. Charles stayed in Marysville after the store failed, but Rowland headed east. Between 1843 and 1855, Macy opened four retail dry goods stores, including the original Macy's store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, established in 1851 to serve the mill industry employees of the area. They all failed, but he learned from his mistakes. Macy moved to New York City in 1858 and established a new store named "R.H Macy Dry Goods" at Sixth Avenue on the corner of 14th Street, significantly north of other dry goods stores of the time.<ref>{{cite news |first= L.H.|last= Robbins|title=The City Department Store: Evolution of 75 Years. The Macy Anniversary Directs Attention to the Development of The Great Institutions That Serve the American Shopper. |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0912FB355E16738DDDAB0994DA405B838FF1D3 |quote=For long after Captain Rowland H. Macy opened a fancy-goods shop in Sixth Avenue just below Fourteenth Street in 1858, seventy-five years ago, there was no department store in all the world. There were already merchant princes in New York, but they were specialists. |work=New York Times |date=February 12, 1933 |accessdate=2008-06-14 }}</ref><ref name=encnyc2>Abelson, Elaine S. "R. H. Macy" in {{cite enc-nyc2}} p. 1102</ref> On the company's first day of business on October 28, 1858, sales totaled $11.08, equal to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|11.06|1858|r=2}}}} today.
As the business grew, Macy's expanded into neighboring buildings, opening up more and more departments, and used publicity devices such as a store Santa Claus, themed exhibits, and illuminated window displays to draw in customers.<ref>{{cite gotham}} pp. 945–946</ref> It offered a money back guarantee, although it only accepted cash into the 1950s. The store also produced its own made-to-measure clothing for both men and women, assembled in an on-site factory.<ref name=encnyc2 /> The store moved several times before arriving at its current Herald Square location in 1902.
[[Image:Rowland Hussey Macy Monument 1024.jpg|thumb|R.H. Macy's monument at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx]]
In 1875, Macy took on two partners, Robert M. Valentine (1850–1879), a nephew; and Abiel T. La Forge (1842–1878) of Wisconsin, who was the husband of cousin Margaret Getchell.<ref name=forge>{{cite news |title=Abiel T. La Forge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1878/02/13/archives/abiel-t-la-forge.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 13, 1878|accessdate=2008-06-14 }}</ref><ref name=valentine>{{cite news |title=Robert M. Valentine's Will |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1879/02/26/archives/robert-m-valentines-will-how-he-has-disposed-of-his-estatethe.html |quote=The will of Robert M. Valentine, late partner in the firm of R. H. Macy Co., was offered for probate yesterday in the Surrogate's office. |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 26, 1879|accessdate=2008-06-14 }}</ref>
Macy died on March 29, 1877, in Paris of Bright's disease.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rowland H. Macy, Merchant |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/03/31/archives/rowland-h-macy-merchant-obituary-notes.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=March 31, 1877|accessdate=2008-06-14 }}</ref> He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx. His will was probated on May 1, 1877, and he left his wife, Louisa H. "absolutely, all the paraphernalia, wearing apparel, watches, rings, trinkets, jewels, and personal ornaments reputed to belong to her, and during her life, the use of all the household furniture, books, clocks, bronzes, and works of art." At her death this was to pass to his daughter, Florence. He left only a small annuity for his son.<ref name=probate>{{cite news |title=Rowland H. Macy's Will |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/05/01/archives/rowland-h-macys-will-a-peculiar-documentthe-testators-son-cut-off.html |quote=The will of Rowland H. Macy, the well known Sixth-avenue merchant, has been filed in the Surrogate's Court. He leaves to his widow, Louisa H., "absolutely, all the paraphernalia, wearing apparel, watches, rings, trinkets, jewels, and personal ornaments reputed to belong to her, and during her life, the use of all the household furniture, books, clocks, bronzes, and works of art ... |newspaper=New York Times |date=May 1, 1877|accessdate=2008-06-14 }}</ref> The following year, in 1878, Macy's partner La Forge died, and the third partner, Valentine, died in 1879.<ref name=forge/><ref name=valentine/> Ownership of the store passed to the Macy family until 1895, when it was sold to Isidor and Nathan Straus.{{clear left}}
==In popular culture== *A fictional, reimagined "R. H. Macy" (depicted as alive and running the company seventy years after the historical Macy's death, or possibly a fictitious descendant with the same name) was portrayed in the 1947 movie ''Miracle on 34th Street'' by character actor Harry Antrim. In subsequent adaptations of the story, the character was played by Don Beddoe in an episode of ''The 20th Century-Fox Hour'' in 1955, Hiram Sherman in a 1959 TV movie, and David Doyle in a 1973 TV film.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0048567/ "Mr. R.H. Macy"] on IMDb</ref>
==See also== *R.H. Macy and Company Store (building) for the history of the flagship store on Herald Square in Manhattan *Macy's for a history of the chain *Macy's, Inc. for a history of Federated Department Stores, owners of Macy's
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{Cite book|chapter=Macy, R. H.|title=American National Biography|chapter-url=http://www.anb.org/articles/10/10-02222.html|publisher=Oxford University Press}} {{Subscription required}} *Hungerford, Edward [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/9/2/38921/38921-h/38921-h.htm "Early History of Macy's"] in ''The Romance of a Great Store'' (1922)
{{MacysInc}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macy, Rowland Hussey}} Category:Sailors from Massachusetts Category:American businesspeople in retailing Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Category:Macy's Category:People from Nantucket, Massachusetts Category:American retail company founders Category:American people in whaling Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:American Quakers Category:1822 births Category:1877 deaths