The idea for selling products through the mail came from a peddler name of Montgomery Ward. After the Civil War he noticed farmers paid higher prices than folks who shopped in large city stores. So in 1872 Ward produced a one-page sheet with 162 items for sale. Farm families loved it. They could get things their small country store did not carry and often at cheaper prices. By 1883, Montgomery Ward's catalog had 240 pages containing 10,000 items!

See Montgomery Ward's Story

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