A Famous Person Who Never Gave Up
Al Ritter
Harland was the eldest child of three children. His father
was affectionate man his mother was a strict religious woman who didn’t believe
in alcohol, gambling, or tobacco or even whistling on Sunday! Work was tough on
their 80 acre farm and the whole family chipped in to do the work.
At a mere 6 years old Harland’s father passed away from a
complication of a broken leg that kept him from working the farm. His mother
found work at a local tomato cannery. Harland took the reins of the family and
did what her could to raise his siblings and be the “man of the family.” He
learned to cook and scrounge food where they could and cook for the kids and
his mother.
When Harland was 9 years old his mother married Edward Park
but within the year she was widowed for the second time. Because his mother was
slightly better off financially Harland found work outside the family for the
first time in his life. He found work as a farm hand and worked there for two
years when his mother remarried once again and moved to Greenwood Indiana but
his relationship with his new stepfather was tumultuous to say the least.
He dropped out of school in the 7th grade at once
again took a job as a farm hand at age 12, he worked there for a while but
later took a job painting wagons in Indianapolis. At age 14 he returned to
working on a farm until with his mother’s blessing he moved to New Albany,
Indiana to live with his Uncle.
His Uncle got him a job working for a streetcar company as a
conductor at age 16. Harland was restless and after lying about his age enlisted
in the Army at age 16 and stayed there until age 17 even serving in Cuba. Later
that next year he returned to live with his Uncle in Sheffield Alabama and was
reunited with his brother Clarence who was escaping his stepfather also.
His Uncle at this time worked for the Southern Railway and
got Harland a job in the company blacksmith shop and later on progressed to
cleaning out ash pans on the steam locomotives and was later promoted to
fireman feeding the boilers on locomotives. It was a good job but he was later
fired for insubordination after not reporting for work after a short illness.
He had a new job at Norfolk and Western Railway and it was
at age 19 he met Josephine King and was married shortly afterwards. They would
go on to have three children and live in Jasper Alabama... His career found him
working through the Midwest on the Illinois Railway and finally ending up in
Jackson Tennessee. He was yearning for a new career and took up correspondence
school to study law at La Salle Extension University. He eventually took up law
and was able pay his bills regularly in Little Rock Arkansas.
He worked for three years as an attorney but this was
certainly the low point in his career as he had a low threshold for self-control
and was in frequent brawls one of which with a client ruined his reputation as
an attorney and was probably the cause for Josephine and the children to move
back with her mother.
Following the incident Harland moved back with his mother
and got a job on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a laborer. At age 26 he joined
back up with his family and started selling Insurance for the Prudential Life
Insurance Company in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Once again he was fired for
insubordination and then moved to Louisville Kentucky to work for Mutual
Benefit Life of New Jersey.
Later Harland founded a ferry boat company that ran a route
from Jeffersonville to Louisville on the Ohio River and it was an instant
success, but his heart was restless and later cashed in his shares ($330,000 in
today’s money) in the Ferry boat company and started an acetylene lamp company.
Once again he failed as Delco had created an electric lamp
shortly after wards making all acetylene lamps obsolete.
Harland was now in his late 30’s early 40’s and was bouncing
around between jobs from a Michelin Tire Salesman to working for Oil Companies
but failing at each because of his self-described “bad nature.”
At age 40 he was offered a Shell Oil Gas Station in Kentucky
to which he added a small restaurant offering home cooked meals. The deal he
worked out with Shell Oil was for a small percentage of the restaurant
proceeds. As it turned out a competitor in town had forced things to a new
level and one of Harland’s employees was killed in the disagreement. His
competitor was convicted of murder and now his only competitor was in jail.
At age 49 he bought a Motel/ Restaurant 140 seat combo in
Ashville North Carolina, but typical for Harland’s luck the place burned down
by the end of the year. He rebuilt it and installed his mistress as manager, it
did pretty well until RT 75 traffic dried up because of a new interstate
highway. He was right back where he started. He later divorced Josephine and
married Claudia his mistress.
Out of money and yet another failed business, he was faced
with the prospect at age 65 of total failure, he had only his life savings and a
$105 monthly Social Security check. But he did have two things going for him.
He had his recipe for fried chicken and an honorary title given to him by his
friend the Governor of Kentucky.
He decided to franchise his recipe into stores for just .04
cents per chicken part……….and now you know the rest of the story…..Col Harland Sanders
Kentucky Fried Chicken.
3 comments:
Great story!
Cool story!
I never knew he was a success so late in life
Post a Comment