10 NEWS LETTER www.newsletter.co.uk Monday, September 30, 2019 NEWS FEATURE Emigrant Ulsterman who built one of world’s most successful companies Historian GORDON LUCY on the life of James Gamble, who emigrated to the US 200 years ago L ast year marked the bicentenary of the emigration to the United States of two remarkable men: Alexander Turney Stewart and Thomas Mellon. Stewart became a stunningly successful UlsterScots entrepreneur who made his multimillion-dollar fortune in what was at the time the most extensive and lucrative dry goods business in the world. Mellon, who became a lawyer, a judge and the patriarch of the Mellon family, was the founder of the largest banking institution in the United States outside of New York. Stewart’s base was New York whereas Pittsburgh was Mellon’s. Mellon hailed from Omagh and Stewart came from Lisburn. This year marks the bicentenary of the emigration to the United States of yet another incredibly successful Ulsterman: James Gamble, the co-founder of Proctor & Gamble. Gamble was born on April 3 1803 at The Graan, just outside Enniskillen, and was educated at Portora Royal School. He emigrated to the United States with his parents. The family did not intend settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, but stopped there to obtain medical treatment for James who had been struck down by illness. Although the Gambles intended to move further west, they never did. His father established a nursery and James became apprenticed to a soap-maker. He attended Kenyon College, graduated in 1824 and began manufacturing soap on his own account in either 1826 or 1828. In 1837 he formed a partnership with William Proctor, an immigrant from Herefordshire and candlemaker. Proctor arrived in the United States in 1830 and began to manufacture candles in New York City. He moved west with his ﬁrst wife, Martha Peat Procter. She died during their westward journey in Cincinnati in 1832. Planning on staying only brieﬂy, Procter stayed and spent the rest of his life there. There is a fascinating sym- metry here. Neither man intended settling in Cincinnati but they did and were stunningly successful. In 1833 Proctor married Olivia Norris. Gamble married her sister Elizabeth Norris. Both men had been moderately successful in their businesses but at the prompting of Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, they formed a partnership because the manufacture of candles and soap both required lye (a strong alkaline liquor rich in potassium carbonate leached from wood ashes), and they could negotiate lower prices if they were buying in bulk. On April 12 1837, William Procter and James Gamble started making and marketing their soap and candles. On August 22 they formalised their business relationship by pledging $3,596.47 apiece. The formal agreement was signed on October 31 1837. It was not the most propitious time to embark on a new business venture. Although Cincinnati was a boom town (and between 1840 and 1860 was the sixth largest city in the United States), the country was in the grip of ﬁnancial panic. Hundreds of banks were closing across the country and there was widespread belief that the United States was on the brink of bankruptcy. Procter & Gamble did not allow themselves to be distracted by such concerns. They calmly maintained their focus on how they were going to compete with the other 14 soap and candle makers in the city, an approach that served them very well. In the 1850s, for example, despite growing fears of civil war, they built a new plant for their ever-expanding business. In 1859, 22 years after the establishment of the company, Proctor & Gamble sales had reached $1 million and the company was employing 80 people. During the Civil War, Procter & Gamble secured several contracts to supply soap and candles to the Union armies. These orders kept their factory busy day and night and gave the company national prominence. In 1879 James Norris Gamble, son of the founder and a trained chemist, developed James Gamble was the co-founder of a global company that owns many of the most recognisable brands on the high street an inexpensive white soap equal to high-quality, imported castiles (expensive soaps made of olive oil). Inspiration for the soap’s name – ‘Ivory’ – came to Harley Procter, the other founder’s son, as he read the words ‘out of ivory palaces’ in the Bible (Psalm 45:8) one Sunday in church. He thought it appropriate to the white soap’s purity, mildness and long-lasting qualities. By 1890, the year before James Gamble’s death, the ﬂedgling partnership between Procter & Gamble had grown into a multi-million dollar corporation. Procter & Gamble pioneered one of the nation’s ﬁrst proﬁt-sharing programmes and was among the ﬁrst American companies to invest in a research laboratory. By the early 20th century Procter & Gamble was selling more than 30 diﬀerent types of soap, including Ivory. Assiduously promoted by full-colour advertisements in national magazines, consumer demand continued to grow. To meet increasing demand, the company expanded its operations outside Cincinnati, with a plant in Kansas City, Kansas, and a plant in Ontario, Canada. As each new plant opened, Procter & Gamble would embark on plans for another. The research laboratories were as busy as the plants. Innovative new products rolled out one after another – Ivory Flakes, a soap in ﬂake form for washing clothes and dishes; Chipso, the ﬁrst soap designed for washing machines; Dreft, the ﬁrst synthetic household detergent; and Crisco, the ﬁrst all-vegetable shortening that changed the way consumers cooked. Each of these new products was created in response to an appreciation of consumer needs through pioneering market research. Procter & Gamble calculates that their products touch the lives of people around the world three billion times a day. The company has a formidable portfolio of globally recognisable brands, including Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Folgers, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Actonel, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, and Braun. The company employs almost 140,000 people in 80 countries. Thus James Gamble laid the foundations of one of the most successful ﬁrms in history that continues to ﬂourish 182 years after its establishment. Comparatively few businesses achieve that level of success and longevity. Gamble died on April 29 1891 and he is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. He and Elizabeth Ann Norris Gamble had 10 children. Religiously Gamble had been a Methodist and politically a Republican.