C.R. Anthony Co.
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| Department store | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Defunct | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Cushing, Oklahoma |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Also, material, patterns and other sewing products. |
| Website | None |
C.R. Anthony Co., stores branded as Anthony's, was a chain of family-owned and - operated upscale department stores founded in 1922 in Cushing, Oklahoma by C.R Anthony. The company began expanding outside Oklahoma, first into Kansas in 1924, then into Texas in 1925. By 1972, Anthony's had 325 stores in 21 states, all west of the Mississippi River. Anthony's was acquired by Stage Stores Inc. in 1997 and most stores were rebranded as Stage or Beall's.
Charles Ross Anthony, better known as C.R. Anthony, was born near Trenton on August 10, 1885. Little has been published about his early life, other than that he was the orphan son of farmers. He moved to Oklahoma as a young man. C. R. spent some time working as a bookkeeper for the very successful Wewoka Trading Company in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He also met and married, Leutie Mauldin, on July 10, 1910 while he lived in Wewoka. Anthony donated $5,800 to the Seminole Nation Museum in Wewoka, Oklahoma to establish an arts and crafts gift shop in the museum. Shortly afterward, he donated 200 shares of Anthony Co. stock, valued at $10,000, to the museum. Dividends from the donated stock funded a cash prize, the C. R. Anthony Award, to a deserving local Native American artist. Finally, before his death he added a provision in his will for a $50,000 bequest to the local historical society, which became the basis for the Seminole Nation Historical Society Endowment Fund.
Reportedly, he learned the retailing business by working for the J. C. Penney retail chain. Anthony and Penney first met in St. Louis in 1904, when both were buying merchandise from the same wholesale dealer's warehouse. They continued to meet each other at the same place for the next nine years, and clearly each impressed the other. Over time, Penney tried to recruit Anthony to join his chain of stores. However, Penney offered only $75 per month plus a share of the profit. J. P. Martin was already paying Anthony a flat rate of $125 per month. By 1916, Anthony decided he could soon earn more with Penney's method, when he became a partner in one of the Penney stores. Anthony resigned from the Martin company and moved to southern Idaho as assistant manager of a Penney's store. However, Anthony could not raise enough cash to buy a third of the store, so he was unable to become a full manager. Plus, the Idaho winter was difficult for the family, and the lack of a Protestant church in the predominantly Mormon town of Grace, Idaho, was frustrating to his wife. So, he resigned from the Penney organization and returned to his former job in Cleveland, Oklahoma.
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