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- William Procter (7 December 1801 – 4 April 1884 ) was a British candlemaker and industrialist, who later emigrated to the United States. He was the founder and co-eponym of Procter & Gamble Company in 1837, along with James Gamble.
A native of England, William Procter was born in Herefordshire and educated at the Luckston School. He entered into business in 1818 and was connected with the clothing industry in London in the late 1820's. In 1827, he became acquainted with William Hooper, who urged Procter to emigrate to America. He arrived in the United States in 1830 and began to manufacture candles in New York City. He moved west with his first wife, Martha Peat Procter. She died during their westward journey in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1832. Planning only on staying for a short while before resuming his relocation plans, he decided to stay and spent the remainder of his life there. He started his business and married Olivia Norris in 1833. At his father-in-law Alexander Norris's suggestion, he joined forces in 1837 with his brother-in-law, James Gamble, to establish the company that bears their names. The company began to manufacture Ivory soap and profits grew to enormous proportions.
His son William Alexander Procter and grandson William Cooper Procter were company presidents.
Procter is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, as is his business partner, James Gamble.
Stories handed down the Long Blue Line—whether heartwarming or heartbreaking—give us great glimpses into the past that shine a light on our roots and inspire us to work harder to improve everyday life today, and tomorrow.
The account of founder William Procter’s journey with his wife Martha from England to Cincinnati is, as his grandson describes it in his memoirs, “a pathetic story of two young people starting out in the new world.”
Procter’s fledgling woolens store in London, ravaged by fire and ransacked by robbers in close succession in the early 1830s, left him destitute and desperate to start a new life and get out of debt. Had he not been given a gift of a thousand pounds by a friend of his father’s, Sir John Lubbock, who had “taken a great fancy to him”, he and Martha could not have even considered such a move.
Their pilgrimage west across America through the Allegheny Mountains was relatively uneventful, despite rumors of pirates along the riverbanks who would prey on westward travelers like them. Being warned of them early on, Procter kept his rifle ready and was spared their advances along the way.
But their fortune would come to an end one dark day on the Ohio River:
When the young couple reached Cincinnati and tied up, the plague was on and she took cholera and died; she was buried there with the cholera victims. He said he did not care to go any further...
Reeling from the sudden loss of his closest companion in life, Procter decided to settle in Cincinnati, where he "got a position in the bank." Perhaps it was the emotional connection to Martha’s burial plot, or the uncertainty of continuing on, that compelled him to stay. But he would never leave Cincinnati after that loss.
There is much more to this story. But the cause of Martha’s untimely death is a tragedy that we should stop to ponder, because of its sobering significance to P&G today.
Now, almost 180 years after Martha’s death, cholera is still a global killer, claiming the lives of thousands of children and adults with its deadly grip throughout the developing world.
How remarkable—and inspiring—that the small soap and candle company the grieving William Procter would soon form would one day devote significant energy and resources toward preventing the very disease that claimed the life of his wife. Today, P&G and 100 global partners have formed an all-out front against the spread of cholera and other water-borne diseases through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program.
Without a doubt, the P&G CSDW Program is one that, if alive today, William Procter would pour himself into with every ounce of passion he had.
How rewarding that so many of the everyday lives we touch today connect so closely to this "pathetic story" that took place at the dawn of our Long Blue Line. Though pathetic, it’s a story that serves to deepen the roots of our resolve to improve more lives caught in the crosshairs of cholera.
Manufacturer. Co-Founder of the Procter and Gamble Company. A native of England, he was born in Herefordshire and educated at the Luckston School. Procter entered into business in 1818 and was connected with the clothing industry in London in the late 1820's. In 1827, he became acquainted with William Hooper, who urged him to emigrate to America. Procter arrived in the United States in 1830 and began to manufacture candles in New York City. He moved west with his first wife, Martha Peat Procter. She died during their westward journey in Cincinnati, Ohio. Planning only on staying for a short while before resuming his relocation plans, he decided to stay and spent the remainder of his life there. He then married Olivia Norris in 1833 and was convinced by his father-in-law, Alexander Norris, to enter into a partnership with his brother-in-law, James Gamble. They established the Procter and Gamble Company in 1837. By 1859, sales reached $1 million. In the 1880's, the company began to manufacture Ivory soap and profits grew to enormous proportions. His son, William A. Procter, succeeded him as the company's president. Procter died in Cincinnati. (bio by: K Guy) Taken from Find A Grave.
William Procter left England for America in 1830, after his London woolens shop was destroyed by fire and burglary. He worked as a candlemaker in New York City, then headed west with his wife, Martha, to settle in the new frontier. When she became ill they stopped in Cincinnati to seek emergency medical help, and there she died of cholera. Procter remained in Ohio, where he continued as a candlemaker. He soon met the woman who would be his second wife, Olivia Procter, whose sister Elizabeth was married to James Gamble, a soapmaker. Eventually the sisters' father suggested that Procter and Gamble should merge their businesses, saving on larger quantity purchase of lye and sharing the ash and meat scraps they both used in preparing their products. The two men established their first storefront at Cincinnati's Main and Sixth streets on 12 April 1837, and their location -- near the Ohio River in a city that was a major rail hub -- allowed the business to expand quickly.
In 1851 an early version on Procter & Gamble's familiar moon-and-stars trademark -- needed to identify their products in a time when many customers were illiterate -- debuted on boxes of their Star brand candles, and the company's annual sales first surpassed $1M in 1859. As the US Civil War approached, Procter and Gamble worried that war could interrupt their supply of a certain kind of Southern pine sap used to make rosin, a key ingredient in several of their products, so the partners sent their sons, William Alexander Procter and James Norris Gamble, to purchase huge quantities of pine sap in Louisiana. This shrewd move allowed P&G to dominate the market during the Civil War, with a lucrative contract to provide numerous products for the Union Army.
Several years after Procter's death, his son William became President of P&G, and after his 1907 suicide Procter's grandson William Cooper Procter took charge of the business. According to company folklore, another of Procter's sons, Harley Procter, came up with the name "Ivory" for the company's new floating soap in 1858, inspired by the Biblical mention of "ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad" (Psalm 45:8).
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Gibbs Family Tree
1801 - 1884 (82 years)
