8th Grade Inventor Research 2014

William Wrigley Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1862, at the height of the Civil War. His father, William, Sr., was a soap manufacturer, and as a little boy, young William carried a basket through the streets of Philadelphia, selling Wrigley's Scouring Soap. When he became a teenager, William took a full-time job as a soap salesman for his father. He had a talent for salesmanship, and he drove a horse and wagon from town to town, trying to convince stores to stock Wrigley's soap. William Wrigley Jr. struck out on his own in the spring of 1891 when he was 29 years old. He left Philadelphia for Chicago with just $32 in his pocket and a dream of running his own business. He also had boundless energy and a gift for seeing things from his customers' point of view.

Heritage Timeline Wrigley has been delighting consumers with fun, innovative, high-quality products for over 100 years. From baking powder and soap in Chicago in 1891, to gum, mints, hard and chewy candies, and lollipops around the world today, Wrigley has evolved and expanded with an eye to the future and a steady focus on the consumer. Choose from the dates below or the images to the left to explore Wrigley's rich heritage.

William Wrigley

Perhaps one of the most famous names in the gum industry is William Wrigley.  Wrigley was the son of a soap salesman from Philadelphia, and at the age of thirteen, he was also selling soap.  At the age of 30, he moved to Chicago to open a new branch of his father’s company and came up with an idea to provide “premiums” to vendors who purchased a certain amount of soap.  These premiums included baking powder, cookbooks, and umbrellas. 14.  The baking powder sales surpassed the popularity of the soap, so Wrigley made that his primary product and offered gum as a premium, the very same development from John Curtis.  Once again, the premium’s popularity surpassed that of the product, and Wrigley entered the gum industry.  Wrigley hired the Zero Gum Company to manufacture gum for him, and it was here that the Wrigley’s industry started.  He introduced a series of branded gums in 1983, including Juicy Fruit and Spearmint.  In 1898, he founded William Wrigley Jr. Company. 15.  

While this type of industry-making is nothing new or special, what set Wrigley apart from his competitors, including the Adams company, was his marketing and advertising.  Wrigley is famously quoted as saying, “Anyone can make gum. The trick is to sell it.”16.  And sell it he did.  Wrigley began by doing a modest advertising campaign in 1906 in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, with successful results.  The campaign then evolved to massive billboards, placards in streetcars and subways, and one of the first electric signs,