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C. R. Anthony Co.

C.R. Anthony Co., stores branded as Anthony's, was a chain of family-owned and - operated upscale department stores founded in 1922 in Cushing, Oklahoma by C.R Anthony. The company began expanding outside Oklahoma, first into Kansas in 1924, then into Texas in 1925. By 1972, Anthony's had 325 stores in 21 states, all west of the Mississippi River. Anthony's was acquired by Stage Stores Inc. in 1997 and most stores were rebranded as Stage or Beall's.

C.R. Anthony
Charles Ross Anthony, better known as C.R. Anthony, was born near Trenton on August 10, 1885. Little has been published about his early life, other than that he was the orphan son of farmers. He moved to Oklahoma as a young man. C. R. spent some time working as a bookkeeper for the very successful Wewoka Trading Company in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He also met and married, Lutie Mauldin, on July 10, 1910 while he lived in Wewoka. Anthony donated $5,800 to the Seminole Nation Museum in Wewoka, Oklahoma to establish an arts and crafts gift shop in the museum. Shortly afterward, he donated 200 shares of Anthony Co. stock, valued at $10,000, to the museum. Dividends from the donated stock funded a cash prize, the C. R. Anthony Award, to a deserving local Native American artist. Finally, before his death he added a provision in his will for a $50,000 bequest to the local historical society, which became the basis for the Seminole Nation Historical Society Endowment Fund. Reportedly, he learned the retailing business by working for the J. C. Penney retail chain. After leaving Penney's, C. R. went to work for J. P. Martin Company, a retailer in Cleveland, Oklahoma. In 1918, Martin made C. R. Vice president and sold him a one-third interest in the J. P. Martin Company, Anthony remained with Martin until 1922, when he left the company and sold all of his shares to start his own retail business. ==Anthony company history==
Anthony company history
On September 1, 1922, he opened his own store, named the Dixie Store, in a 25-foot storefront in Cushing, Oklahoma. By the following year, Anthony owned six stores: four Dixie Stores at Cushing, Pawhuska, Hominy and Barnsdall; and two C. R. Anthony Stores, at Anadarko and Chickasha, Oklahoma. In March 1986, the Oklahoma City station KOCO-TV, as a part of the Five Who Care Awards, gave its 1986 Corporate Humanitarian Award to C.R. Anthony Co. in recognition of contributions to Oklahoma City in areas of community service, monetary donations, employee voluntarism and the overall quality of life. The same article said that Anthonys had 88 department stores in Oklahoma in 1985, and reported sales of more than $427.5 million. ==Further reading==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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