JCPENNEY OBSERVES 90TH YEAR; HAS HAD CAPE STORE SINCE 1924

A simple statement explained the picture found in a small antique store at Paducah, Ky.: "Mr. and Mrs. James Cash Penney count the day's receipts."

The old photograph was that of a young man and his wife seated around an old packing crate, counting stacks of coins and bills.

If the picture had been snapped the evening of April 14, 1902, the amount on the table would have been $466.59. That was the first day's receipts from the Golden Rule Store, which Penney had just opened at Kemmerer, Wyo.

Aided by his wife, Berta, the Golden Rule Store, which gave birth to the JCPenney chain, recorded sales of $28,898 during the first year of operation, an astonishing sales total considering the store's most expensive item was a $9.95 men's suit. More typical prices of the era were 35-cent overalls and 49-cent ladies shoes.

After all the book work was completed, the store realized a profit of $8,514.36 its first year. This more than covered James Cash Penney's initial investment in the store and set the stage for what was to become a 1,300-store chain with operations in every state.

JCPenney department stores, including the store at West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau, are observing the 90th anniversary of the company this year, thanks to a native Missourian who was an ambitious retail merchant.

A JCPenney store has been operating in Cape Girardeau for 68 years. The first store was in downtown Cape Girardeau in 1924, two decades after Penney's first store in Wyoming, and was number 554 in the chain.

The department store first opened at 33 N. Main in a 5,000-square-foot space. Four years later the operation moved into a space twice that size at 5. N. Main. By 1956, the Cape Girardeau store expanded to about 19,000 square feet, and by 1959 it had more than 30,000 square feet.

In 1976, JCPenney joined the westward movement in Cape Girardeau, resituating to 2103 William in a 30,000-square-foot, one-floor building that had been previously used as a furniture store.

JCPenney moved farther west in 1981 when West Park Mall opened. It then became one of the mall's anchor stores, with more than 100,000 square feet.

James Cash Penney was born in Hamilton, Mo., one of a dozen children of a Baptist minister and his wife. Although he was reared on a farm, he received his business training early when his father took him to a local Hamilton retail merchant to "learn the fundamentals of business."

In 1898 he joined the Golden Rule Stores, a small but expanding chain of general dry goods shops owned by W.G. Johnson and T.M. Callahan. His position was that of a temporary clerk. Three years later, he was offered a partnership in the business, and in 1902 Penney took his life savings of $500, borrowed another $1,500, and invested in opening a new Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer on April 14.

The site selected for the store was a 25-by-45-foot frame building with a half-floor above the selling space that served as living quarters for the Penney family.

There was no electricity, water was hand-carried in buckets from the outside, and packing cases from the opening inventory were used as furniture.

The store's staff included Penney and his wife and two sales associates. The store's counter also served as a unique day care center, with 1-year-old Roswell Penney sleeping beneath it during business hours.

The store started attracting miners and ranchers from neighboring towns. One customer traveled as far away as Green River, Wyo., 70 miles to the east, to shop at the store. By the end of 1903, the Kemmerer store was solidly established, and Penney bought into a second store, then a third.

When Johnson and Callahan offered to sell their interests in the three stores to Penney for $30,000, Penney put up the stores for collateral and made the deal.

At age 32, JCPenney became sole owner of three Golden Rule stores.

He took on a partner in 1909, and by 1911 there were 22 stores in the chain.

It wasn't until 1913 that the JCPenney Co. was incorporated in the state of Utah. A year earlier Penney had decided to change the name from the Golden Rule Stores to set his stores apart from other merchants using the same name. At the time of incorporation, there were 48 stores in the group.

By 1916, that number had more than doubled to 129. The growth continued: 312 stores by 1920, 674 by 1925, and 1,329 in 1930.

When James Cash Penney died in February 1971 at he age of 95, his chain of stores was at 1,700. Although the chain now has 1,300 stores, most are much larger and more diverse than the 1,700 of 20 years ago.