George Huntington Hartford
| George Huntington Hartford | |
|---|---|
Source: Hartford Family Foundation
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| Born |
September 5, 1833 Augusta, Maine |
| Died | August 29, 1917 (aged 83) Spring Lake, New Jersey |
| Resting place | Rosedale Cemetery |
| Known for | The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Josephine Ludlum |
| Partner(s) | George Gilman |
| Children | Maria Josephine Clews George Ludlum Hartford Edward V. Hartford John Augustine Hartford Marie Louise Hoffman |
| Parent(s) | J. Brackett Hartford Martha Soren |
George Huntington Hartford (September 5, 1833 – August 29, 1917) headed The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company from 1878 to 1917. During this period, A&P created the concept of the chain grocery store and expanded into the country's largest retailer. He joined the firm as a clerk in 1861 and quickly assumed managerial responsibilities. When A&P's founder, George Gilman retired in 1878, Hartford entered into a partnership agreement and ran the company until the founder's death in 1901. In the settlement of Gilman's estate, Hartford acquired control of the company and ultimately purchased the interests of Gilman's heirs.
George Hartford was born on a farm in Augusta, Maine and started his retail career at age 18 in Boston. By 1861, he lived in Brooklyn, New York where he married Marie Josephine Ludlum (1837 - 1925). They had three sons and two daughters. While he was known to be a private person, Hartford was elected Mayor of Orange, New Jersey in 1878 and served for 12 years. Hartford retired from the active management of the business about 1907 or 1908 and turned the firm over to two of his sons, George Ludlum Hartford (1864 - 1957) and John Augustine Hartford (1872 - 1951). He continued as an advisor while they expanded the firm, becoming the country's largest retailer by 1915. Hartford died in 1917, aged 84, and was interred at Rosedale Cemetery, in Orange, New Jersey. Hartford’s estate was worth $125 million. The press respected that he was a private man, and there were few obituaries about him. "To immortalize outstanding American merchants", Joseph Kennedy in 1953 commissioned a bronze bust of George Huntington Hartford, four times life size along with 7 other men, which would come to be known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in Chicago.
By 1930, A&P operated approximately 16,000 stores and became the first retailer to report combined revenue of US$1 billion. The Time magazine published on November 13, 1950 had both George and John Hartford on its front cover.Time wrote that "the familiar red-front A & P store is the real melting pot of the community, patronized by the boss's wife and the baker's daughter, the priest and the policeman. To foreigners A & P's vast supermarkets are among the wonders of the age; to the US middle class, they are one of the direct roads to solvency. 'Going to the A & P' is almost an American tribal rite."Time magazine also wrote in 1950 that "Of every dollar the U.S. spends on food, about 10¢ is passed over A & P counters—a massive yearly total of $2.9 billion. Next to General Motors, the A&P sells more goods than any other company in the world." The New York Times in an editorial on September 7, 2011 wrote that George Huntington Hartford's 2 sons John and George Hartford "were among the 20th century’s most accomplished and visionary businessmen." Wall Street Journal in an editorial on August 29, 2011 wrote "Together the brothers, neither of whom had finished high school, built what would be, for 40 years, the largest retail outlet in the world."
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