WA NA MAKER, won'e-mi-ker, John, American merchant: b. Philadelphia, 11 July 1838. He received a cointnon school education, and began his business career at 14 as errand boy in a store. In 1861 he established, with his brother-in-law, a clothing store under the firm name of Wanamaker and Brown, which in 1869 became the firm of John Wanamaker and Company. He soon became the foremost merchant of Philadelphia. His success is at tributable to his early comprehension of ad vertising, and of the principle of the depart ment store. He was the first in Philadelphia to expend large sums in the newspapers, and to hire high-priced men to write and systematize advertising. After building up an enormous establishment in Philadelphia, he observed the decadence of the A. T. Stewart business in New York, and in 1896 purchased the building, and proceeded to revive the trade of his dis tinguished predecessor. In a short time the historic Stewart block on Broadway, from Ninth street to 10th street, _proved too small, and in 1903 he erected a (Skyscraperp annex on the block south. Mr. Wanamaker has been
active in the public life of Philadelphia, and took a prominent part in the movement to secure pure water for the city, in 1886-87, and in other reform movements, and has taken part in State and national politics as an (anti-machine Re publican. In 1888 he was a presidential elector, and in 1889 entered President Harrison's Cabi net as Postmaster-General During his term of office he established the sea post offices, and strongly favored a postal telegraph system. He has taken an active part in religious work, was for several years president of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association, and in 1858 orgamzed a small Sunday school which became the Bethany (Presbyterian) Sunday school, one of the largest in the United States.