(Excerpt from N. W. Ayer and Son's American Newspaper Annu...)
Excerpt from N. W. Ayer and Son's American Newspaper Annual, 1884: Containing a Catalogue of American Newspapers, a Carefully Prepared List of All Newspapers and Periodicals Published in the United States, Territories, and Dominion of Canada, With Valuable Information Regarding Their Circulation, Issue The annual is arranged by States in geographical order for the convenience of advertisers who destre to cover any particular section of the country. The grouping together of neighboring States saves time and labor in making up advertising lists. For those, however, who prefer an alphabetical arrangement, the alphabetical index, running head-lines and title pages afford ample means for ready reference. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Francis Ayer was born on February 4, 1848 in Lee, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of Nathan Wheeler and Harriet A. P. Ayer.
His father, a graduate of Brown University, was admitted in 1852 to the Massachusetts bar, but preferred to make his living by school-teaching.
Francis passed his boyhood and youth in western New York and early in 1869 he came to Philadelphia, where his father had opened a girls' school.
In western New York, Francis went to district schools for five years and attended the University of Rochester for another year.
In 1869, he found employment as advertising solicitor for a religious paper in Philadelphia. He liked the work and on April 1, 1869, he founded his own firm, N. W. Ayer & Son with $250 in cash. The firm consisted of himself, his father and a bookkeeper.
Ayer's interests, however, extended into other fields. He was president of the Merchants' National Bank of Philadelphia from 1895 till 1910, when it was merged with the First National. He also developed a farm of 2, 000 acres at Meredith, New York that imported pure bred Jersey cattle and went into the butter, milk powder. Fine dairy cattle from his farm were shipped to all parts of the United States, and even to South America, China, Japan, and India.
For a half century he was superintendent of the Sunday-school of the North Baptist Church of Camden, New Jersey. He also was president of the New Jersey State Convention of Baptists for more than twenty-five years, was president of the Northern Baptist Convention, and held other important positions in the work of the church. He likewise gave generous support to the Y. M. C. A.
Francis Ayer contributed to the growth of American advertising into a well organized business that exerted a powerful influence on the national life. His "open-contract" plan of operation made the advertising agent the responsible agent of the advertiser and did much for the ethical standards of advertising men. Ayer developed trade-marks, slogans, pictorial displays, and all the other things of the business that incidentally made possible the modern newspaper and popular magazine. The well-known American Newspaper Annual and Directory was the product of his firm's activities. As his business expanded, he also showed excellent judgment in selecting employees who ultimately became his partners.
(Excerpt from N. W. Ayer and Son's American Newspaper Annu...)
A devout Baptist, he gave freely of his time, money, and judgment to the Baptist Church.
On May 5, 1875 Ayer married Rhandena Gilman, who died on October 3, 1914. On April 21, 1919 he married Martha K. Lawson.
