William Wrigley, Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of nine children of a soap factory owner. He founded his own company in 1891 selling soap and baking powder, then introduced chewing gum to his sales. Soon gum became the company's only product. He also developed Catalina Island in Southern California as a resort and famously owned the Chicago Cubs Baseball team. He died a multi-millionaire in Phoenix, Arizona in January 1932. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Margaret C. Hall, William Wrigley, Jr., The Founder of Wrigley's Gum (Chicago, IL: The Heinemann Library, 2005), 6.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Business/Industry
