Leon Leonwood Bean (October 13, 1872 – February 5, 1967) was an American inventor, author,
outdoor enthusiast
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...
, and founder of the company
L.L.Bean
L.L.Bean is an American privately-held retail company that was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, headquartered in the place in which it was founded, in Freeport, Maine, specializes in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. ...
.
History
Bean was born in the town of
Greenwood, Maine
Greenwood is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 774 at the 2020 census. The town was named for surveyor Alexander Greenwood. The village of Locke Mills, on State Route 26 in the northern part of Greenwood, is the ...
, on October 13, 1872, to Benjamin Warren Bean and Sarah (Swett) Bean,
one of six sons. According to a grandson of Leon L. Bean, the latter's middle name may have been originally "Linwood" and accidentally changed to "Leonwood". In fact, in the Freeport Town Clerk's Report for the 1898–1899 period, a "Leon Linwood Bean" married a "Bertha Davis Porter" on September 28, 1898.
[Town of Freeport, Town Records for 1898–1899, Town Clerk's Report, p. 88.]
Bean showed an early interest in business, earning his first money when he was nine years old. He learned that he could either attend the local fair or sell steel traps to his father, so he decided to sell the traps.
Bean's parents died four days apart when Bean was 12 years old. He subsequently moved to
South Paris, Maine
South Paris is a census-designated place (CDP) located within the town of Paris in Oxford County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 2,237 at the 2000 census. While the CDP refers only to the densely settled area in the southern p ...
, to stay with family.
When Bean was 13 years old, he killed his first deer, and at 14 sold another that he had shot to two unsuccessful hunters. For two years until he was 18, Bean worked on an uncle's farm in
West Minot West Minot is a neighborhood in Minot, North Dakota, located in the Souris River
The Souris River (; french: rivière Souris) or Mouse River (as it is alternatively known in the U.S., a calque of its French name) is a river in central North Ame ...
, while attending school in the winter. At 18 Bean worked on a farm in
East Hebron. At 19, Bean attended a year long business course at
Kents Hill School
Kents Hill School (also known as Kents Hill or KHS) is a co-educational, independent college-preparatory school for boarding and day students. Kents Hill is located in Kents Hill, Maine, 12 miles west of the state capital of Augusta. It is the 30 ...
, paying his way by selling soap.
In 1892, Bean worked in a Bangor
creamery
A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream re ...
, followed by a job clerking in an Auburn clothing store. Bean married Bertha Porter in 1898. They moved to Freeport, her hometown, where he worked in his brother Otho's dry goods and clothing store. They raised three children, Carlton, Warren and Barbara, before Bertha passed away in May 1939, age 73. Claire became his second wife in 1941.
[
]
Foundation of L.L.Bean
Bean was an avid hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and fisherman
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...
. In his outdoor activities, his boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...
s would become soaked with water, so he set out to resolve this inconvenience and developed plans for a waterproof boot. The boot was a combination of lightweight leather for the upper part and rubber on the bottom. He brought the plans to a cobbler and the first boots were made. Bean felt the boot produced to be of good quality, and obtained a list of non-resident Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
hunting license
A hunting license or hunting permit is a regulatory or legal mechanism to control hunting, both commercial and recreational. A license specifically made for recreational hunting is sometimes called a game license.
Hunting may be regulated ...
holders and prepared a descriptive mail order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing a ...
circular. He promised 100% money back for anyone who was unhappy with the boots. Because of this, Bean had to refund 90% of the costs of the first 100 sets of boots made, when the rubber on the bottom developed cracks. He seemed not to mind returning the money, and the popularity of the boots was clear. In 1911, he took out a loan in the amount of US$400 and set off to Boston, where he offered the United States Rubber Company
The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemi ...
the remainder of his US$400 to produce a better quality boot for him. With the better quality boots available, Bean set up a boot shop in his brother's basement
A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...
in Freeport, Maine
Freeport is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 8,737 at the 2020 census. Once home to a prominent shipbuilding industry, timber operations, and farming, it is now known for its numerous outlet stores; Freeport ...
. His skills and trials as an entrepreneur, along with his promise to return 100% money back on all items, were detailed by many local and national newspapers of the time. By 1917, he had sold enough of his boots to buy a dedicated building for his shop on the main street of Freeport. In 1918, Bean realized the importance of patenting his invention. As the patent was granted, he moved on to inventing and improving more outdoor equipment
Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tools or other objects commonly used to achieve a particular objective. Different job
Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and ...
and expanding his store to what L.L.Bean
L.L.Bean is an American privately-held retail company that was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, headquartered in the place in which it was founded, in Freeport, Maine, specializes in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. ...
is today.
According to Bean, "I took a pair of show rubbers from the stock on the shelves and had a shoemaker cut out a pair of size 7 tops. The local cobbler stitched the whole thing together." Bean sold a pair to Edgar Conant, his first customer. Over the summer of 1912, Bean sold a hundred pairs. According to Montgomery, Bean "...took rubbers out of his store stock, and got two locals, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Goldrup, to cut out tops and stitch them to the rubbers. The soft, pliable rubber simply ripped apart after a few miles of hard going." Bean paid U.S. Rubber in Boston to make a mold for the rubber bottoms, and then became their biggest customer until the mid-1960s, when Bean switched to the La Crosse Rubber Company in Wisconsin. In 1918, Bean hired the Goldrup's daughter, Hazel,as a full-time bookkeeper and cashier. In 1918, he moved to a new building across the street, and by 1920, owned it. According to Montgomery, "All of this had been accomplished on the strength of direct-mail
Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...
sales, especially through the out-of-state license list."[
During ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Bean served as a consultant for the U.S. Army and Navy, while his company manufactured a version of the Maine Hunting Shoe for military use.[
]Gross sales
In bookkeeping, accounting, and financial accounting, net sales are operating revenues earned by a company for selling its products or rendering its services. Also referred to as revenue, they are reported directly on the income statement as ''Sal ...
for his company amounted to $1 million in 1946, increasing to $3 million in 1967.[
]
As an author
Bean published a book in 1942, called ''Hunting, Fishing and Camping'' and an autobiography, in 1960, called ''My Story: the Autobiography of a Down-East Merchant.''
Death and legacy
Bean died in Pompano Beach, Florida
Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 ...
, on February 5, 1967, at the age of 94. He was buried in Webster Cemetery in Freeport, Maine
Freeport is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 8,737 at the 2020 census. Once home to a prominent shipbuilding industry, timber operations, and farming, it is now known for its numerous outlet stores; Freeport ...
. At the time of his death, the annual sales of his company were in the hundreds of millions. Company policy of giving 100% money back on returned products applied until February 9, 2018.
Maine Medical Center
Maine Medical Center (commonly abbreviated to ''MMC'' or contracted to ''Maine Med'') is a 700-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Portland, Maine, United States. Affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine, it is located in the Western ...
has named one of its wings in his honor.[ ] In addition, his portrait hangs in a ground-floor corridor at the hospital.
References
External links
Finding L.L. Bean's Birthplace
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bean, Leon Leonwood
1872 births
1967 deaths
American hunters
20th-century American inventors
Retail company founders
People from Greenwood, Maine
People from Freeport, Maine
American businesspeople in retailing
Writers from Maine
Businesspeople from Maine
L.L.Bean
Kents Hill School alumni