Charles Rudolph Walgreen: The Life of the Walgreens Founder

In 1901, Charles Rudolph Walgreen paid $6,000 for the South Side Chicago pharmacy where he worked. The shop at Bowen and Cottage Grove Avenues measured about 20 by 50 feet. Roughly $2,000 in borrowed funds helped him make the purchase.

From that storefront grew a chain that reached cities across the United States. Walgreen expanded the drugstore beyond prescriptions, adding his own branded goods and developing a business in which food service, customer attention, and local store managers all had a place.

His path to ownership had begun far from Chicago, with a machinery injury in an Illinois shoe factory. The career that followed brought rapid expansion, leaner years during the Great Depression, a public clash over university teaching, and a transfer of leadership to his son before his death.

A Quick Look at the Life of Charles Rudolph Walgreen

From a Dixon Shoe Factory to a Drugstore Counter

Walgreen was born on October 9, 1873, on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois, to Swedish immigrant parents. In 1887, the family moved to Dixon, where he attended school and studied for about a year at Dixon Business College. His first work included a short period as a bookkeeper followed by employment in a shoe factory.

A factory machinery accident cost him the top joint of a middle finger. The physician who treated him suggested pharmacy work, and Walgreen took a $4-a-week job at Horton’s drugstore in Dixon. That job gave him his first experience behind a pharmacy counter.

He worked at Horton’s for roughly 18 months. In a recollection later retold in a company history, Walgreen said an argument over snow and ice left on the sidewalk ended with his dismissal just as he intended to resign. The details come from his later account; what followed is clearer. He continued working in pharmacies.

Chicago, a Pharmacy Examination, and an Interruption in Cuba

In the 1890s, Walgreen moved to Chicago and worked in several drugstores before joining William G. Valentine’s pharmacy. Valentine encouraged him to study, and Walgreen passed the Illinois examination for registered pharmacists in 1897. His qualification came through the examination; the available sources document no pharmacy-college degree.

The Spanish-American War interrupted his Chicago career. In 1898, Walgreen enlisted in an Illinois military unit and served in Cuba, where he became seriously ill. Historical accounts particularly mention yellow fever, although the precise medical diagnoses are not settled.

After his military service, Walgreen worked at a smaller South Side Chicago pharmacy operated by Isaac W. Blood. He would soon buy the shop and move from employee to proprietor.

The 1901 Purchase and a Broader Idea of a Pharmacy

Buying Blood’s pharmacy in 1901 gave Walgreen his first store. Although nine stores would eventually be brought together as Walgreen Co., the original purchase marks the founding of the Walgreens business.

As proprietor, Walgreen prepared some drug products himself and stocked goods bearing the Walgreens name. Those products gave his business more control over merchandise and pricing. Company accounts also emphasize orderly displays, personal attention, and prompt service in its early stores. The pharmacy counter remained central, but it was no longer the whole retail offering.

A Second Store, a Family Contribution, and Food All Year

Walgreen married Myrtle Ruth Norton in 1902. She also became part of the business: histories of the chain credit Myrtle with preparing soups and other foods as its food service developed.

In 1909, Walgreen added a second Chicago store. Business historian Richard E. Hattwick describes the acquisition of a store associated with Walgreen’s former employer, Valentine. Pharmacist Arthur Thorsen operated the original location under a shared-ownership arrangement. The growing business increasingly relied on other pharmacists and managers.

Soda fountains and ice cream attracted customers, but cold refreshments were less useful in cooler weather. Soups, sandwiches, and lunches gave the food counters a purpose through more of the year, with Myrtle’s cooking helping to establish the offering. Customers could visit for a meal as well as medicines and everyday goods.

In 1916, nine stores were consolidated under the Walgreen Co. name. The company’s historical chronology reports approximately $270,000 in annual business that year. The 1916 date marks consolidation, distinct from the founding-store purchase in 1901.

Common purchasing, storage, food preparation, and a central office supported the expanding chain. Individual store managers still carried substantial responsibility for local decisions. Growth depended on that combination of shared systems and people running the stores.

From a Chicago Chain to Stores Across the Country

Walgreens had around 20 stores in 1919–20. The 1920s brought a much wider geographic reach, through both new locations and the purchase of existing businesses. Acquisitions included businesses in St. Louis and the Minneapolis–St. Paul area in 1925; further expansion extended the chain westward as the decade continued.

Food service produced a lasting company story, but its central figure was an employee. Walgreens credits soda-fountain worker Ivar “Pop” Coulson with a 1922 “double-rich” malt made by adding vanilla ice cream to a malted-milk drink. It was a Walgreens variation on existing drinks, not an invention by Charles Walgreen of the milkshake itself.

Advertising grew alongside the stores. The company also adopted a creed promoted by Walgreen: “We believe that honest goods can be sold to honest people by honest methods.” It expressed a principle the chain wanted to uphold, not proof that every transaction met that standard.

Walgreens opened its first New York City store in 1927. That year, Walgreen Co. shares also became publicly traded; a New York Stock Exchange listing would follow later.

By the end of 1929, Walgreens’ detailed corporate chronology counted 397 stores in 87 cities, with approximately $47 million in annual sales. The chain had become a national business through new openings, acquisitions, wider merchandising, and the efforts of its employees and managers.

Medicinal alcohol formed another part of the Prohibition-era retail setting: pharmacies could legally fill qualifying physicians’ prescriptions. Historian Daniel Okrent has suggested that such sales may have contributed to Walgreens’ growth, drawing in part on a later recollection by Charles R. Walgreen Jr. about liquor stored in stores. How much of the chain’s business came from medicinal alcohol remains unknown, and these accounts provide no evidence that Walgreen Sr. personally broke the law.

Running a National Chain Through the Depression

The Great Depression checked the rapid expansion of the 1920s. Business historian Richard E. Hattwick reports falling earnings and pressure on sales, though Walgreens remained profitable. The chain cut costs, including some wages, and closed marginal stores.

Even amid those pressures, the company developed its operating infrastructure. A major warehouse and laboratory opened in 1930, and the company continued advertising. In 1934, Walgreen Co. shares received their New York Stock Exchange listing, seven years after they first became publicly traded.

Walgreen now faced the demands of running an established chain through difficult economic conditions, rather than concentrating on expansion alone. In 1935, he became the focus of a very different public dispute.

The 1935 Dispute Over Teaching at the University of Chicago

In 1935, Walgreen withdrew Lucille Norton, his wife’s niece, from the University of Chicago. He alleged that materials and influences in her classes encouraged communism. The claim became a public dispute about the university’s teaching, though the accusation was not proof of classroom indoctrination.

An Illinois Senate committee investigated during the spring. Walgreen testified, while the university defended its faculty and instruction. Robert Maynard Hutchins was the university’s president.

In June 1935, four of the five committee senators issued a report broadly rejecting charges of seditious practices at the university. The outcome was not an unqualified defense of every individual: the majority criticized faculty member Robert Morss Lovett, and two senators added criticism of his activities outside the classroom. The committee did not substantiate Walgreen’s central charge of classroom indoctrination.

The case became a public argument over politics and academic independence. Yet in 1937, Walgreen funded an educational program at the same university he had challenged.

A $550,000 Foundation at the University He Had Challenged

In June 1937, Walgreen contributed $550,000 to establish the Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions at the University of Chicago. The foundation was intended to support lectures, scholarships, instruction, and research concerning American life and institutions.

University accounts describe Walgreen and president Robert Maynard Hutchins eventually becoming friendly, with Hutchins encouraging support for a lecture program. The gift showed a changed relationship with the institution after the 1935 dispute. The accounts document neither an apology nor a reversal of his views, and his private reasons for the gift remain unclear.

The foundation’s surviving records document lectures, research, and educational activities beyond Walgreen’s lifetime. Its work became a distinct part of his legacy outside retailing.

Illness, Succession, and the End of the Founder’s Life

Walgreen’s health declined in the late 1930s. Historical accounts report cancer, and a contemporary obituary described an illness lasting almost a year. His son, Charles R. Walgreen Jr., was already working in the family business and was positioned to lead it.

In the summer of 1939, Walgreen stepped down as company president and Charles Jr. succeeded him. The founder died at home in Chicago on December 11, 1939, aged 66. Historical accounts describe a chain approaching 500 stores around the time of his death, though reported totals differ by date and counting method.

What Charles Rudolph Walgreen Left Behind

Walgreen began with an existing pharmacy, not an invented product or an entirely new type of store. He developed its merchandise and service, worked alongside Myrtle and other employees as food became part of the business, and helped create a chain with shared systems and local management.

The chain survived the Depression, but his public record was more complicated than a story of commercial success alone. The largely rejected university allegations and the later educational foundation both belong to it. By the time Walgreen died in 1939, his name was attached to a national retailer and an academic institution he had once publicly challenged.

Timeline

These milestones trace Charles Rudolph Walgreen’s progression from pharmacy apprentice to the founder of a national drugstore enterprise.

October 9, 1873

Born on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois.

1887

Moves with his family to Dixon, Illinois.

Late 1880s–early 1890s

Works in bookkeeping and a shoe factory. A machinery injury precedes his pharmacy apprenticeship at Horton’s in Dixon.

1897

Passes the Illinois examination to become a registered pharmacist.

1898

Serves with an Illinois military unit in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and becomes seriously ill.

1901

Purchases the South Side Chicago drugstore that becomes the first Walgreens store.

1902

Marries Myrtle Ruth Norton.

1909

Expands to a second Chicago store.

1916

Nine locations are consolidated under the Walgreen Co. name.

1919–1920

The chain has about 20 stores.

1922

Walgreens credits employee Ivar “Pop” Coulson with the “double-rich” malt variation.

1927

Walgreen Co. shares become publicly traded, and the chain opens its first New York City store.

End of 1929

Walgreens’ detailed corporate chronology reports 397 stores in 87 cities and approximately $47 million in annual sales.

1930

The company opens a major warehouse and laboratory.

1934

Walgreen Co. shares receive a New York Stock Exchange listing.

1935

Walgreen’s University of Chicago allegations lead to Illinois Senate hearings; the committee majority broadly rejects the charges of seditious practice while criticizing a faculty member.

June 1937

Establishes the Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions with a $550,000 contribution.

Summer 1939

Leaves the company presidency, which passes to his son Charles R. Walgreen Jr.

December 11, 1939

Dies at home in Chicago, aged 66.

FAQs

Did Charles Rudolph Walgreen invent the milkshake?

No. Walgreens credits employee Ivar “Pop” Coulson with a particular ice-cream-enriched malted drink in 1922. Milkshakes and malted drinks already existed; the company credits Coulson with its popular variation, not Walgreen with inventing the entire category.

Was Walgreens founded in 1901 or 1916?

Both dates refer to different events. Charles Rudolph Walgreen bought the original Chicago drugstore in 1901. Nine stores were consolidated as Walgreen Co. in 1916.

What did the 1935 University of Chicago investigation find?

After Charles Rudolph Walgreen alleged that teaching at the university encouraged communism, an Illinois Senate committee investigated. Four of five senators broadly rejected charges of seditious practices, although committee members also criticized professor Robert Morss Lovett. The committee’s findings did not support Walgreen’s allegation of classroom indoctrination.

What did Charles Rudolph Walgreen’s 1937 University of Chicago gift fund?

His $550,000 gift established the Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions, supporting lectures, scholarships, instruction, and research. University accounts describe a friendlier relationship with president Robert Maynard Hutchins after the 1935 dispute, but leave his personal motivation for the gift unclear.

Did Charles R. Walgreen Jr. become president only after his father died?

No. Charles Rudolph Walgreen stepped down during the summer of 1939, and his son Charles R. Walgreen Jr. became president before the founder died on December 11 that year.

Further Reading

• University of Chicago Library — Harold Swift Papers: An archival finding aid identifying hearing and correspondence files connected with the 1935 Walgreen case.

Sources

• Walgreens: Our History; A Better Way, from Day 1
• American National Business Hall of Fame / Richard E. Hattwick: Charles Walgreen
• Harvard Business School: Charles R. Walgreen — Great American Business Leaders
• John U. Bacon / John Wiley & Sons: America’s Corner Store — Chapter 1 excerpt
• Business Leader Profiles for Students / Encyclopedia.com: Walgreen, Charles
• United Press / The Abilene Reporter-News: Drugs Tycoon Walgreen Dies (December 12, 1939)
• The Fort Worth Press: Walgreens to Close as Tribute to Founder (December 13, 1939)
• John W. Boyer / University of Chicago: Academic Freedom and the Modern University
• University of Chicago Library: Charles R. Walgreen Foundation Records; Robert Maynard Hutchins
• University of Chicago Magazine: News of the Quadrangles — 1935 Walgreen Hearings
• Daniel Okrent / Los Angeles Times: An Illegal Substance Sold Legally
• Smithsonian Magazine / Megan Gambino: During Prohibition, Your Doctor Could Write You a Prescription for Booze