Field, Marshall

Wikipedia page about Marshall Field,

In 1901, Marshall Field was a member of a Chicago-based syndicate composed of Frank Lowden, John J. Mitchell, and John C. Schaeffer.

The group purchased the entire Parmelee operation.

Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 1, page 165

Marshall Field, merchant and capitalist, was born in Conway, Massachusetts, on August 18, 1834, and grew up on a farm, receiving a common school and academic education. At the age of 17 he entered upon a mercantile career as clerk in a dry-goods store at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but, in 1856, came to Chicago and secured employment with Messrs. Cooley, Wadsworth & Company; in 1860 was admitted into partnership, the firm becoming Cooley, Farwell & Company, and still later, Farwell, Field & Company. The last named firm was dissolved and that of Field, Palmer & Leiter organized in 1865. Mr. Palmer having retired in 1867, the firm was continued under the name of Field, Leiter & Company, until 1881, when Mr. Leiter retired, the concern being since known as Marshall Field & Company. The growth of the business of this great establishment is shown by the fact that, whereas its sales amounted before the fire to some $12,000,000 annually, in 1895 they aggregated $40,000,000. Mr. Field's business career has been remarkable for its success in a city famous for its successful business men and the vastness of their commercial operations.

He has been a generous and discriminating patron of important public enterprises, some of his more conspicuous donations being the gift of a tract of land valued at $300,000 and $100,000 in cash, to the Chicago University, and $1,000,000 to the endowment of the Field Columbian Museum, as a sequel to the World's Columbian Exposition. The latter, chiefly through the munificence of Mr. Field, promises to become one of the leading institutions of its kind in the United States. Besides his mercantile interests, Mr. Field had extensive interests in various financial and manufacturing enterprises. Died in New York January 16, 1906, leaving an estate valued at more than $100,000,000, the largest single bequest in his will being $8,000,000 to the Field Museum.