Forest Home Cemetery Overview
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    • Haymarket Monument >
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    • Radical Row >
      • Eddie Balchowsky
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      • Eugene Dennis
      • Raya Dunayevskaya
      • Joseph Dietzgen
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      • Ben Reitman
      • Lucy Parsons
      • Franklin Rosemont
      • Ann Sosnovsky Winokur
    • Labor and Political Burials >
      • Joe Mariani
      • Cigar Makers' International
      • International Alliance of Bill Posters and Billers of America
  • People of Interest Buried in Cemetery
    • Ashbel Steele
    • Austin Family
    • Philander Barclay
    • Edwin Oscar Gale
    • Sophy and Charles Drechsler
    • Fedinand Haase
    • Doris Humphrey
    • Flora Gill
    • Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway
    • Dr. Frank and Phyllis Oreland
    • Augustin and Elizabeth Porter
    • Edward Hand and Lillie Morey Pitkin
    • Martha Louise Rayne
    • Origen White Herrick
    • Dr Thomas Roberts Hurlbut
    • Joseph and Betty Kettlestrings
    • Roos Family
    • James Fletcher Skinner
    • Billy Sunday
    • Adolph Westphal
  • Ethnic and Other Groupings
    • African American
    • Dutch
    • Hispanic
    • Roma (Gypsy)
    • Children
    • Military
  • Disaster Victims
    • Eastland ship disaster
    • Iroquois Theatre Fire
    • Smallpox Epidemic
    • St. Valentine's Day Massacre
  • Cemetery Tours
  • Addtional Resources
    • Forest Park Review articles

James Fletcher Skinner
(
1868-1917)

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At age seven, James F. Skinner moved with his family to Redwood Falls, Minnesota. He later became a merchant, operated the town's general store, and wed Hattie Persons. He also met an individual who would change his life: Richard W. Sears, who operated the telegraph at the local train station and sold watches to travelers as a side business.

Sears and Skinner often discussed ways of improving business. They brain-stormed about developing a merchandising mediod that would reduce the number of middlemen and cut costs for transactions between producers and consumers. The result was a direct response mail order house which Sears opened in Minneapolis.

In 1895 Sears moved the business to Chicago and invited Skinner to join him. Skinner accepted and for a time both men lived in Oak Park. When Sears died in 1914, Skinner was deeply affected by the loss of his business partner and devoted friend. His health began to fail, and he felt a "sense of loneliness from which he never escaped."

In his lifetime Skinner was a successful businessman, yet he was always kind and considerate to others less fortunate than himself. He was a strong supporter of theYMCA. At his death, the union printers of the Sears' firm eulogized him as a "friend and co-worker."


Information from Nature's Choicest Spot

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Additional Resources

Two Maywood Homes To Be Designated Local Landmarks
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