Background
Ayer was born to Nathaniel Wheeler Ayer and Joanna B. Wheeler in Lee, Massachusetts, though he was raised in western New New York
Ayer was born to Nathaniel Wheeler Ayer and Joanna B. Wheeler in Lee, Massachusetts, though he was raised in western New New York
Ayer taught in district schools and spent one year studying at the University of Rochester before moving to Philadelphia. There he was hired by a religious newspaper for the position of an advertising solicitor, but by 1867 he founded the company, North. West. Ayer & Son, which he named after his father to give a degree of longevity and credibility to the business (Fox, 1984). Besides himself, he began with only a bookkeeper and United States$25.
In 1873 his father Nathaniel died.
That same year he introduced the "open contract".