Biography of macys department store

American businessman (–)

Rowland Hussey Macy Sr. (August 30, – March 29, ) 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 whaleshipEmily 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).^[1][2] He married Louisa Houghton (–) in , and had three children: Charles A.

Macy (–); Rowland Hussey Macy Jr. (–); and Florence Macy (–), who married James F. Sutton.^[3]

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 Charles stayed in Marysville after the store failed, but Rowland headed east.

Between and , Macy opened four retail dry goods stores, including the