Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on February 17, 1844, in Chatham, New Jersey, to a family whose ancestors had served as officers in the French and Indian Wars as well as in the American Revolution. He was named after General G. Aaron Montgomery Ward, a general in George Wahington's Army. When Aaron was nine, his father, Sylvester Ward, moved the family to Niles, Michigan. Aaron's schooling ended when he was 14. According to his brief memoirs, he first earned money in a barrel Stave factory, "doing a man's work at the cutting machine at $.25 ....