David H. McConnell

David Hall McConnell
David H. McConnell, Sr., 1928
Born	July 18, 1858(1858-07-18) Oswego, New York, United States
Died	January 20, 1937(1937-01-20) (aged 78) Suffern, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Oswego State Normal School
Occupation	salesman, entrepreneur, businessman
Known for	Avon Products

David Hall McConnell (July 18, 1858 – January 20, 1937) was the Founder and President of the California Perfume Company, which later became Avon Products.

David Hall McConnell was born in Oswego, New York, son of James and Isabel (Hall) McConnell, who came from County Cavan, Ireland, in 1845 and settled in Oswego, where James McConnell became a farmer and brick manufacturer.

Brought up on a farm, McConnell attended a district school and the Oswego State Normal School and was planning to become a mathematics teacher, but instead entered business life in 1879 as a salesman for a New York book selling agency. In 1880 he joined the Union Publishing Co. of Chicago and three years later was placed in charge of southern territory, making his home in Atlanta, GA. He started out selling books, with books he did not get enough income so he started to add free perfumes which he made himself. Soon he saw that ladies were quite interested in buying perfumes, even more than the books. He decided that, if books could be sold house-to-house, perfumes could also.

Out of this conception grew his California Perfume Company (CPC). At first he manufactured his own perfumes at home and went during the day selling them along with books until the enterprise grew and he had to discontinue his book selling and establish a perfume laboratory in Suffern, NY. Other toiletries and cosmetics were soon added to his line of products which he sold under the CPC name. Later the company also began to manufacture flavoring extracts and other household articles sold under the brand name, Perfection.

From the onset, McConnell effected distribution of his products through housewives and other women who could devote only a portion of their time to the work. His first sales agent was Persis Foster Eames Albee. The years brought steadily increasing success and, at the time of his death, his sales force had grown to over 30,000 agents and the volume of sales was measured in the millions.

On June 16, 1909, McConnell and Alexander D. Henderson, signed an agreement of Corporation for the California Perfume Company in the state of New Jersey. On January 28, 1916, the California Perfume Company was incorporated in the state of New York. McConnell, Henderson, and William Scheele were listed as company officials. Through subsequent changes in name it became Allied Products, Inc., and incorporated in 1924, being an outgrowth of the California Perfume Company of Canada, Ltd., which was started in 1906; Hinze Ambrosia, Inc., and Technical Laboratories, Inc.