Rowland Hussey Macy was born into a Quaker family on Nantucket. He became a sailor, traveling on the sea for four years. When he returned to Massachusetts, he was unsure of which direction to take, and he drifted from job to job. In 1844, he ended up in Boston, where he opened a dry goods shop.

Five years later, he left his wife and children and joined the California Gold Rush. He did not strike gold, but he did open another dry goods store--Macy and Company. It did not strike gold, either. The business folded and was sold at public auction.

Macy returned to Massachusetts and opened yet another dry goods store. Again, the business failed. He decided to try his luck in Superior City, Wisconsin. His luck continued to be bad. His plan was to go into real estate, but his timing was less than ideal--the one-time boom town was no longer booming. So he left Wisconsin for New York City, where be opened a small fancy goods store called Macy's Grand Central Fancy Goods Establishment. He could afford only a storefront far from the main shopping district in a location where several other businesses had failed. Three weeks after he opened, his store was robbed. A few months later, there was, a fire. Still, he persevered. The small store added new lines of merchandise and, bit by bit, he was able to expand by buying surrounding stores.

By the late 1860s. Macy's was taking in thousands of dollars a day. Macy died in Paris in 1877. He was 55, Macy's Department Store lived on.