Francis Ayer
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Francis Wayland Ayer (February 4, 1848Template:Spaced ndashMarch 5, 1923) was an American advertising businessman.
Biography
Ayer was born on February 4, 1848, to Nathaniel Wheeler Ayer and Joanna B. Wheeler in Lee, Massachusetts, though he was raised in western New York.<ref name=PennBio237>Template:Cite book</ref> Ayer's mother died when he was three years old, and his father remarried Harriett Amanda Post. Ayer taught in district schools and spent one year studying at the University of Rochester before moving to Philadelphia. There he was hired by a religious newspaper for the position of an advertising solicitor, but by 1867 he founded the company N. W. Ayer & Son, which he named after his father to give a degree of longevity and credibility to the business.<ref name=PennBio237/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Besides himself, he began with only a bookkeeper and US$25.
In 1873 his father Nathaniel died. Two years later, May 5, 1875, he married his first wife, Rhandera Gilman. They had two daughters together.<ref name=PennBio243>Template:Cite book</ref> That same year he introduced the "open contract".
In 1914 his first wife died, and five years later he remarried to Martha K. Lawson, on April 21, 1919.<ref name=PennBio243/>
Francis Ayer died from pneumonia at his country home at Meredith, New York on March 5, 1923, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
- Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders A-G. Greenwook Publishing Group, 1983. Template:ISBN p. 31-32
- 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.