Ward

Born in New Jersey, Ward grew up in Niles, Michigan.
He left school at 14 to work as a laborer and then a clerk.
In 1865 he moved to Chicago, where he clerked briefly in
the dry goods emporium of Field, Palmer and Leiter. His
next job, selling a St. Louis wholesaler’s merchandise to
rural general stores, taught him about the meager and
expensive goods these stores offered. He realized that by
selling directly from the city, he could market a larger
selection at a lower price. The key lay in the mail-order
catalogue.

While not the first to turn to mail-order marketing, Ward
was among the most successful. His first mailing, in 1872,
drew heavily on his wife’s connections with the Grange movement, a nationwide network of farmers. Taking advantage of innovations in printing, he increased his catalogue from 72 pages in 1874 to 540 a decade later and to 1,200 pages by 1900.

In 1890, Ward initiated the first of four lawsuits to prevent development along the lakefront, relying on an 1836 map designating this parkland “public ground, forever to remain vacant of building.” Although citizens eager to place public buildings in Grant Park resented Ward’s stand at the time, his successful legal battles eventually earned him the reputation of “protector of the lakefront.”