John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served as U.S. Postmaster General during the term of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison from 1889 to 1893. Early life and family Wanamaker was born on July 11, 1838, in a then-rural, unincorporated area that would in time come to be known as the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia. His parents were John Nelson Wanamaker, a brickmaker and native of Kingwood, New Jersey, and Elizabeth Deshong Kochersperger, daughter of a farmer and innkeeper at Gray's Ferry. Her ancestors came from Rittershoffen in Alsace, France, and from Canton of Bern in Switzerland. At the age of 19 he was hired by the Philadelphia YMCA, he was the first corresponding secretary in the YMCA movement. In 1860 John Wanamaker married Mary Erringer Brown.