Eli Lilly
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Eli Lilly | |
---|---|
Republican | |
Board member of | Grand Army of the Republic |
Spouse(s) | Emily Lemen (m. 1860–66) Maria Cynthia Sloan (m. 1869–98) |
Children | Josiah K. Lilly Sr. Eleanor Lilly |
Relatives | Eli Lilly Jr. (grandson) Josiah K. Lilly Jr. (grandson) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/ | Union Army |
Years of service | 1861–1865 |
Rank | |
Regiments | |
Signature | |
Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded the
Lilly remarried and worked with business partners in several pharmacies in
Using his wealth, Lilly engaged in numerous
Colonel Lilly was an advocate of federal regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, and many of his suggested reforms were enacted into law in 1906, resulting in the creation of the
Background and early life
Eli Lilly, the son of Gustavus and Esther (Kirby) Lilly, was born in
In 1852, the family settled at Greencastle, Indiana,[6] where Lilly's parents enrolled him at Indiana Asbury University (later known as DePauw University). Eli attended classes from 1852 to 1854. He also assisted at a local printing press as a printer's devil.[4][7] Lilly grew up in a Methodist household, and his family was prohibitionist and anti-slavery; their beliefs served as part of their motivation for moving to Indiana.[3] Lilly and his family were members of the Democratic Party during his early life, but they became Republicans during the years leading up to the Civil War.[8]
Lilly became interested in chemicals as a teen. In 1854, while on a trip to visit his aunt and uncle in Lafayette, Indiana, the sixteen-year-old Lilly visited Henry Lawrence's Good Samaritan Drug Store, a local apothecary shop, where he watched Lawrence prepare pharmaceutical drugs.[9] Lilly completed a four-year apprenticeship with Lawrence to become a chemist and pharmacist. In addition to learning to mix chemicals, Lawrence taught Lilly how to manage funds and operate a business. In 1858, after earning a certificate of proficiency from his apprenticeship, Lilly left the Good Samaritan to work for Israel Spencer and Sons, a wholesale and retail druggist in Lafayette, before moving to Indianapolis to take a position at the Perkins and Coons Pharmacy.[4][10][11]
Lilly returned to Greencastle in 1860 to work in Jerome Allen's drugstore. He opened his own drugstore in the city in January 1861, and married Emily Lemen, the daughter of a Greencastle merchant, on January 31, 1861.[10][11] During the early years of their marriage, the couple resided in Greenfield.[4][10][11] The couple's son, Josiah Kirby, later called "J. K.", was born on November 18, 1861, while Eli was serving in the military during the American Civil War.[3][12]
Career
American Civil War
In 1861, a few months after the start of the American Civil War, Lilly enlisted in the Union Army and joined the 21st Indiana Infantry Regiment on July 24. Lilly was commissioned as a second lieutenant on July 29, 1861. On August 3, the 21st Regiment reached Baltimore, where it remained for several months. Lilly resigned his commission in December 1861, and returned to Indiana to form an artillery unit.[4][13]
In early 1862, Lilly actively recruited volunteers for his unit among his classmates, friends, local merchants, and farmers. He had recruitment posters created and posted them around
Lilly was elected to serve as the commanding officer of his battery from August 1862 until the winter of 1863, when his three-year enlistment expired. His only prior military experience had been in a Lafayette, Indiana,
In 1864, when Lilly's term of enlistment ended, he resigned his commission and left the 18th Indiana. Lilly joined the 9th Indiana Cavalry (121st Regiment Indiana Volunteers) and was promoted to major.
In September 1864, at the
Lilly later obtained a large atlas, and marked the path of his movements during the Civil War and the location of battles and skirmishes in which he participated. He often used the atlas when telling war stories.[16] His colonel's title stayed with him for the rest of his life, and his friends and family used it as a nickname for him. In 1893, Lilly served as chairman of the Grand Army of the Republic, a brotherhood of Union Civil War veterans. During his term, he helped organize an event that brought tens of thousands of Union Army veterans, including Lilly's battery, together in Indianapolis for a reunion and a large parade.[8][10]
Early business ventures
After the war, Lilly remained in the South to begin a new business venture. Lilly and his business partner leased Bowling Green, a 1,200-acre (490 ha) cotton plantation in Mississippi. Lilly traveled to Greencastle, Indiana, and returned with his wife, Emily, his sister, Anna Wesley Lilly, and son, Josiah.[4][17] Shortly after the move the entire family was stricken with a mosquito-borne disease, probably malaria, that was common in the region at that time. Although the others recovered, Emily died on August 20, 1866, eight months pregnant with a second son, who was stillborn. The death devastated Lilly; he wrote to his family, "I can hardly tell you how it glares at me ...it's a bitter, bitter truth ... Emily is indeed dead."[3][18] Lilly abandoned the plantation and returned to Indiana. The plantation fell into disrepair and a drought caused its cotton crop to fail. Lilly's business partner, unable to maintain the plantation because of the drought, disappeared with the venture's remaining cash. Lilly was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1868.[11]
Lilly worked to resolve the situation on the plantation and find other employment while his young son, Josiah, lived with Colonel Lilly's parents in Greencastle.[19] In 1867, Lilly found work at the Harrison Daily and Company, a wholesale drug firm. In 1869, he began working for Patterson, Moore and Talbott, another medicinal wholesale company, before he moved to Illinois to establish a new business.[10] In 1869, Lilly left Indiana to open a drugstore with James W. Binford, his business partner. Binford and Lilly opened The Red Front Drugstore in Paris, Illinois, in August 1869.[19]
In November 1869, Colonel Lilly married Maria Cynthia Sloan. Soon after their marriage they sent for his son, Josiah, who was still living in Greencastle, to join them in Illinois.[3][19] Eli and Maria's only child, a daughter named Eleanor, was born on January 25, 1871, and died of diphtheria in 1884 at the age of thirteen.[4][20] Maria died in 1932.
Although the business in Illinois was profitable and allowed Lilly to save money, he was more interested in medicinal manufacturing than running a pharmacy. Lilly began formulating a plan to create a medicinal wholesale company of his own. Lilly left the partnership with Binford in 1873 to return to Indianapolis, where, on January 1, 1874, he and John F. Johnston opened a drug manufacturing operation called Johnston and Lilly. Three years later, on March 27, 1876, Lilly dissolved the partnership. His share of the assets amounted to an estimated $400 in merchandise (several pieces of equipment and a few gallons of unmixed chemicals) and about $1,000 in cash.[4][19]
When Lilly approached Augustus Keifer, a wholesale druggist and family friend, for a job, Keifer encouraged Lilly to established his own drug manufacturing business in Indianapolis. Keifer and two associated drugstores agreed to purchase their drugs from Lilly at a cost lower than they were currently paying.[4][11]
Eli Lilly and Company founder
On May 10, 1876, Lilly opened his own laboratory in a rented two-story building at 15 West Pearl Street that has since been demolished, and began to manufacture drugs. The sign for the business said "Eli Lilly, Chemist".[10][21][22] Lilly's manufacturing venture began with $1,400 ($34,024 in 2020 chained dollars) in working capital and three employees: Albert Hall (chief compounder), Caroline Kruger (bottler and product finisher), and Lilly's fourteen-year-old son, Josiah, who had quit school to work with his father as an apprentice.[3][19]
Lilly's first innovation was gelatin-coated pills and capsules. Other early innovations included fruit flavorings and sugarcoated pills, which made medicines easier to swallow.[3] Following his experience with the low-quality medicines used in the Civil War, Lilly committed himself to producing only high-quality prescription drugs, in contrast to the common and often ineffective patent medicines of the day. One of the first medicines he began to produce was quinine, a drug used to treat malaria,[23] that resulted in a "ten fold" increase in sales.[24] Lilly products gained a reputation for quality and became popular in the city. At the end of 1876, his first year of business, sales reached $4,470 ($108,635 in 2020 chained dollars), and by 1879 they had grown to $48,000 ($1,333,200 in 2020 chained dollars).[23]
As sales expanded rapidly he began to acquire customers outside of Indiana. Lilly hired his brother, James, as his first full-time salesman in 1878. James, and the subsequent sales team that developed, marketed the company's drugs nationally. Other family members were also employed by the growing company; Lilly's cousin Evan Lilly was hired as a bookkeeper and his grandsons, Eli and Josiah (Joe), were hired to run errands and perform other odd jobs. In 1881 Lilly formally incorporated the firm as Eli Lilly and Company, elected a board of directors, and issued stock to family members and close associates.[22][25] By the late 1880s Colonel Lilly had become one of the Indianapolis area's leading businessmen, with a company of more than one hundred employees and $200,000 ($5,760,741 in 2020 chained dollars) in annual sales.[10][21]
To accommodate his growing business, Lilly acquired additional facilities for research and production. Lilly's business remained at the Pearl Street location from 1876 to 1878, then moved to larger quarters at 36 South Meridian. In 1881 he purchased a complex of buildings at McCarty and Alabama Streets, south of downtown Indianapolis, and moved the company to its new headquarters. Other businesses followed and the area developed into a major industrial and manufacturing district of the city. In the early 1880s the company also began making its first, widely-successful product, called Succus Alteran (a treatment for venereal disease, types of rheumatism, and skin diseases). Sales of the product provided funds for company research and additional expansion.[22][26]
Believing that it would be an advantage for his son to gain a greater technical knowledge, Lilly sent Josiah to the
Although there were many other small pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Eli Lilly and Company distinguished itself from the others by having a permanent research staff, inventing superior techniques for the mass production of medicinal drugs, and focusing on quality.[28] At first, Lilly was the company's only researcher, but as the business grew, he established a research laboratory and employed others who were dedicated to creating new drugs.
In 1886, Lilly hired his first full-time research chemist, Ernest G. Eberhards, and botanist, Walter H. Evans.[22] The department's methods of research were based on Lilly's. He insisted on quality assurance and instituted mechanisms to ensure that the drugs being produced would be effective and perform as advertised, had the correct combination of ingredients, and had the correct dosages of medicines in each pill. He was aware of the addictive and dangerous nature of some of his drugs, and pioneered the concept of giving such drugs only to people who had first seen a physician to determine if they needed the medicine.[29][30]
Philanthropy
By the time of his retirement from his business, around 1890, Lilly was a millionaire who had been involved in civic affairs for several years. Later in life he had become increasingly more philanthropic, granting funds to charitable groups in the city.[31]
In 1879, with a group of 25 other businessmen, Lilly began sponsoring the
Lilly was interested in encouraging economic growth and general development in Indianapolis. He attempted to achieve those goals by supporting local commercial organizations financially and through his personal advocacy and promotion. In 1879 he made a proposal for a
In 1890, Lilly and other civic leaders founded the Commercial Club; Lilly was elected as its first president.
After the
During the Panic of 1893, Lilly created a commission to help provide food and shelter to the poor people who were adversely affected.[31] His work with the commission led him to make a personal donation of funds and property to the Flower Mission of Indianapolis in 1895. Lilly's substantial donation allowed it to establish Eleanor Hospital, a children's hospital in Indianapolis named in honor of his deceased daughter. The hospital cared for children from families who had no money to pay for routine medical care; it closed in 1909.[35]
Lilly's friends often urged him to seek public office, and they attempted to nominate him to run for Governor of Indiana as a Republican in 1896, but he refused. Lilly shunned public office, preferring to focus his attention on his philanthropic organizations. He did regularly endorse candidates, and made substantial donations to politicians who advanced his causes.[8]
After former Indiana governor Oliver P. Morton and others suggested the creation of a memorial to Indiana's many Civil War veterans, Lilly began raising funds to build the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Construction began in 1888, but the monument was not completed until 1901, three years after Lilly's death. The interior of the monument houses a civil war museum, established in 1918, that is named in Lilly's honor.[36][37]
Lilly's main residence was a large home in Indianapolis on Tennessee Street, renamed Capitol Street in 1895, where he spent most of his time. Lilly, an avid fisherman, built a family vacation cottage on Lake Wawasee near Syracuse, Indiana, in 1886 and 1867. He had enjoyed regular vacations and recreation at the lake since the early 1880s. Lilly also founded the Wawasee Golf Club in 1891. Lilly's lakeside property became a haven for the family. His son, Josiah, built his own cottage on the estate in the mid-1930s.[31][38]
Death
Lilly developed cancer in 1897, and died in his Indianapolis home on June 6, 1898. His funeral, held on June 9, was attended by thousands. His remains are interred in a large mausoleum at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.[33][39]
Legacy
At the time of Lilly's death in 1898, Eli Lilly and Company had a product line of 2,005 items and annual sales of more than $300,000 ($9,332,400 in 2020 chained dollars).[33] His son, Josiah, inherited the company following his father's death,[19] and became its president in 1898. Josiah continued to expand its operations before passing it on to his own sons, Eli Jr. and Josiah Jr. (Joe).[40]
Lilly's son and two grandsons, as well as the Lilly company, continued the philanthropic efforts that Lilly practiced. Eli Lilly and Company played an important role in delivering medicine to the victims of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[35]
In 1937, Lilly's son and grandsons established the Lilly Endowment, which became the largest philanthropic endowment in the world in terms of assets and charitable giving in 1998. (Other endowments have since surpassed it, but it still remains among the top ten.)[24][41]
Lilly's firm grew into one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Under the leadership of Lilly's son, Josiah (J. K.) and two grandsons, Eli and Joe, it developed many new innovations, including the pioneering and development of
According to Forbes, Eli Lilly and Company ranked as the 243rd-largest company in the world as of 2016, with sales of $20 billion and a market value of $86 billion (USD).[42][43] It is the largest corporation and the largest charitable benefactor in Indiana.[2]
Lilly's greatest contributions to the industry were his standardized and methodical production of drugs, his dedication to research and development, and the therapeutic value of the drugs he created. As a pioneer in the modern pharmaceutical industry, many of his innovations later became standard practice. Lilly's ethical reforms, in a trade that was marked by outlandish claims of miracle medicines, began a period of rapid advancement in the development of medicinal drugs.[44] During his lifetime, Lilly had advocated for federal regulation on medicines; his son, Josiah, continued that advocacy following his father's death.[35][45]
Honors and tributes
The Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum, located beneath the Sailors' and Soldiers' Monument in Indianapolis, is named in Lilly's honor. It features exhibits about Indiana during the war period and the war in general.[46]
Colonel Lilly is featured in the Indiana Historical Society exhibition, "You Are There: Eli Lilly at the Beginning," at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis. The temporary exhibition (October 1, 2016, to January 20, 2018) includes a recreation of the first Lilly laboratory on Pearl Street in Indianapolis and a costumed interpreter portraying Lilly.[47]
See also
Notes and references
- ^ "Gustavus and Esther Lilly".
- ^ a b Price, Indiana Legends, p. 58
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Price, Indiana Legends, p. 59
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Colonel Eli Lilly (1838–1898)" (PDF). Lilly Archives. January 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
- ^ Kahn, pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b "On-line biography". Archived from the original on August 15, 2004. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Madison, p. 1
- ^ a b c d e Price, Indiana Legends, p. 60
- ^ Hallett and Hallett, p. 313
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 911
- ^ a b c d e f Hallett and Hallett, p. 314
- ^ Madison, p. 7
- ^ Terrell, v. II, pp. 197, 208–09
- ^ a b Terrell, v. III, pp. 226, 231.
- ^ Dyer, p. 1109
- ^ Madison, p. 2
- ^ Price, Legendary Hoosiers, p. 103
- ^ She was initially buried on the plantation, but her remains were later exhumed and moved to Indiana for reburial at Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery. See Hallett and Hallett, p. 314.
- ^ a b c d e f g Madison, p. 6
- ^ Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., pp. 585–86.
- ^ a b Madison, p. 4
- ^ a b c d "Eli Lilly & Company" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 29, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f Price, Indiana Legends, p. 57
- ^ a b Price, Legendary Hoosiers, p. 104
- ^ Kahn, p. 23
- ^ Madison, p. 27
- ^ Podczeck, pp. 12–13
- ^ Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 540
- ^ "Milestones in Medical Research". Eli Lilly and Company. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
- ^ Madison, p. 3
- ^ a b c d Madison, p. 5
- ^ Justin Torres. "The Philanthropy Hall of Fame: Eli Lilly". Philanthropy Roundtable. Archived from the original on December 10, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
- ^ a b c Bodenhamer and Barrows, eds., p. 912
- ^ Glass, p. 16
- ^ a b c d "Eli Lilly & Co". The Indianapolis Star. January 1, 2001. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ Price, Indiana Legends, pp. 59–60
- ^ Rose, p. 50
- ^ Taylor, Stevens, Ponder, and Brockman, p. 544
- ^ Wissing, Tobias, Dolan, and Ryder, pp. 69–70
- ^ Price, Indiana Legends, pp. 60–61, and Madison, pp. 83, 119–20.
- ^ "Top 100 U.S. Foundations by Asset Size". Foundation Center. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
- ^ "World's Biggest Public Companies". Forbes. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
- ^ Forbes ranked Eli Lilly and Company as the 229th largest company in the world and 152nd in the United States in 2007, with a worth of $17 billion (~$24.1 billion in 2023) (USD). See "Eli Lilly & Company (NYSE: LLY) At A Glance". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 14, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ Madison, pp. 17–18, 21
- ^ Madison, pp. 51, 112–115
- ^ "Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum". Indiana Historical Bureau. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ "The Man Behind State's Most Successful Startup". Kendallville New Sun. Kendallville, Indiana: KPC News. September 9, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016. See also Tom Alvarez, ed. (Fall 2016). "Fall Arts Guide". UNITE Indianapolis. Indianapolis: Joey Amato: 32. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
Bibliography
- Bodenhamer, David J.; Robert G. Barrows, eds. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
- "Colonel Eli Lilly (1838-1898)" (PDF). Lilly Archives. January 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
- Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion: Compiled and Arranged from Official Records of the Federal and Confederate Armies, Reports of the Adjutant Generals of the Several States, the Army Registers, and Other Reliable Documents and Sources. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Company. p. 1109. OCLC 08697590.
- Glass, James A.; Kohrman, David (2005). The Gas Boom of East Central Indiana. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3963-5.
- Hallett, Anthony; Dianne Hallett (1997). Entrepreneur Magazine Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs. New York: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-17536-6.
- Kahn, E. J. (1975). All In A Century: The First 100 Years of Eli Lilly and Company. West Cornwall, CT. pp. 15–16. )
- Madison, James H (1989). Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885–1977. Indianapolis: ISBN 0-87195-047-2.
- Podczeck, Fridrun; Jones, Brian E (2004). Pharmaceutical capsules. Chicago: Pharmaceutical Press. ISBN 0-85369-568-7.
- Price, Nelson (1997). Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers From Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman. Carmel, Indiana: Guild Press of Indiana. pp. 57–61. ISBN 1-57860-006-5.
- Price, Nelson (2001). Legendary Hoosiers: Famous Folks from the State of Indiana. Zionsville, Indiana: Guild Press of Indiana. ISBN 1-57860-097-9.
- Rose, Ernestine Bradford (1971). The Circle: The Center of Indianapolis. Indianapolis: Crippin Printing Corporation.
- Taylor Jr.; Robert M.; Errol Wayne Stevens; Mary Ann Ponder; Paul Brockman (1989). Indiana: A New Historical Guide. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. p. 544. ISBN 0-87195-048-0.
- Terrell, William H. H. (1869). Indiana in the War of the Rebellion: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana. Vol. II. Indianapolis: State of Indiana, Office of the Adjutant General. pp. 197, 208–09.
- Wissing, Douglas A.; Marianne Tobias; Rebecca W. Dolan; Anne Ryder (2013). Crown Hill: History, Spirit, and Sanctuary. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9780871953018.
- "World's Biggest Public Companies". Forbes. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
External links
- "On-line biography". Archived from the original on August 15, 2004. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- "Eli Lilly & co. website". Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- Ivcevich, Kelly A. "Lilly Endowment". Community League. Archived from the originalon September 12, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2009.