Richard W. Sears is born in Stewartville, Minnesota. While a railroad freight agent in Redwood Falls, he bought an unclaimed shipment of watches and sold them through the mail at bargain prices. From this mail-order idea developed the A. C. Roebuck and Company, housed on the seventh floor of the Globe Building in Minneapolis. Renamed Sears, Roebuck and Co., the business was eventually headquartered in Chicago.