East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1860-09-27
EAST SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER q, 1860
History ola Dry Goo Is Prince-IIow A. T.
Stewart Made his S2O,OOO,OOO.

History ofa Dry Goo Is Prnce-IIow A. t.
stewart Made his S2O,0O0,OOO.
Probably the most stupendous success
in mercantile career, of no extraordi-
nary length, has been that of A. 7.
Stewart, the present great wholesale and
retail dry gools dealer. ssl o.
Mr. Stewart is now about the age of
GA, having been born in Ireland in 1895
or 1896. After the yellowfever in 1922,
Mr.. Stewart opened retail dry goods
store in Broadway, in IN old wooden
tenement directly opposite to where his
great marble palace now stands. Stew
arts store may have been about twenty
two feet wide and about twenty feet deep.
He was next door to the celebrated Bon
afanti, now nearly forgotten. AT the
time, Mr.. Stewart was not large or even
small dealer in the great staples. His
store was not large enough. He kept
hosiery, laces, silks, gloves, ribbons, and
the more costly fabrics. He attended
the great auction sales regularly, and
never missed sale of dry goods at Z. q
j.. Homes, John Hone & Sons, Dagger
ty, Austin & Co.'s, Mills & Mnturn's,
Adee, Timpson & Co.'s, and David Adee.
He invariably on these occasions bought
what was called stumbled lots or, more
properly speaking, sample lots" AT a
great shelf sale, samples would be flung
upon long tables, before the auctioneer.
He bought all, conveyed them to his lit
tie store, and as he was very expert in re-
dressing up gloves, laces, hosiery, &c, he
would soon make his ssmple lots equal to
the original goods before they were
mussed at the auction sales. Then fol-
lowed the trinmph of the patient, humble
little tradesman. He could undersell
anybody in that trade, of course. and la
dies of fashion were not long in finding
ont that fact. In this modest way he
worked along, slowly but surely, from
1922 to 1928. ii 1os3a no .aa.
About 1882, Stewart adopted the plan
of employing as clerks the handsomest
young fellows he could pick up in this
country, or even i'll England. His Gus
toners were the most dashing and fash
ionable young women in the city and
from the South TIe hired handsome
Boyle afterwards Boyle Il Humphries)
and Durham They were great fellows
among the women in 1888 and '34, and
drew crowds to Stewards already fashion
able store In 1S4S he moved to his
present marble palace. He had bought
Washington Hall from young John Cos
ter, for $4,000, and for . few thousand
dollars more, two additional buildings
and lots on Broadway, corner of Cham
bers street. Upon this magnificent site
he erected the present store. The whole
cost of the ground and the palace erected
did not reach S390,000 to-day it would
sell at auction for from 100000 to
S1,000,000. ripf| lfi .a
ireland has been the birthplace Of.
many remarkable men, but never has she
sent from her shores more sagacious
one than A. II. Stewart. Our land has
fostered the Frenchman Girard, Of Phil
adelphia, and the German Astor, and
they died worth millions. But they never,
even at great age, reached the wealth
of the Irishman Stewart. He is yet in
the gristle of his success, and not har-
dened into the bone of mammoth over
grown wealth. Stewart is this day
worth from fourteen to twenty millions
of dollars. He owns more real estate
than Astor, and If lie lives ten years
longer, Mr.. Stewart will be worth from
eighty to one hundred millions of dollars.