Abe Plough

Abe Plough (December 27, 1891 – September 14, 1984) was an American business owner who is best known for founding Plough Inc.
Plough Inc. merged with the German company Schering Corporation in 1971, now Schering-Plough a pharmaceutical company.

Early life and education

Abe Plough was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on December 27, 1891, to Moses and Julia Plough, with seven siblings: Sam, Leon, Milton, Alfred, Barney, Morris, and Clara. When he was 11 months old, he and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee where his father, Moses, operated a clothing and furnishings store. He attended Market Street School and learned to calculate without pencil or paper, which would help him later in life.

Plough also attended and graduated St. Paul Street Grammar School, and he worked at George V. Francis drug store after school and on weekends where he became interested in the pharmaceutical industry. His father Moses encouraged him to build his own business and lent him $125 to start, which he used to create Plough Chemical Company in 1908. At age sixteen, Abe Plough was owner, manager, and only employee of his new business.

Career

Plough started his career at George V. Francis drug store and quickly became interested in the pharmaceutical industry and was given $125 by his father to start his own company, Plough Chemical Company, in 1908. At age sixteen where he sold Antiseptic Healing Oil, a “sure cure for any ill of man or beast.” Success came quickly for his new company as it doubled in size within two years, and branched out into cosmetics Adding aspirin to his line of products in 1920, Plough also bought the St. Joseph Company.

In 1929, during the great depression, Plough raised his employees’ salaries and added one hundred others to his drug store and factory labor forces, and in 1951 transformed his company into Plough Incorporated at 3022 Jackson Avenue, a $2 million plant encompassing 250,000 square feet on six acres of land. The business reported net sales of $254.5 million by 1954, a figure that doubled by 1962 and eventually merged with Schering Corporation, and started Schering-Plough.

End of life and Death

Plough retired in September 1976 at age 84 as board chairman of both Plough Inc. and the Schering-Plough Corp., an international pharmaceutical firm. in 1981 when Plough was 90, his original firm, Plough Chemical Co., celebrated its 75th anniversary with the unveiling of a historical marker on the site where he opened the company. "This is the most wonderful moment of my business career," said Plough, he died the next year at 92 when he was hospitalized for surgery to remove a blood clot near his brain
on Aug. 6 he was released on sept. 5 but died 9 days later on sept 14, 1984.

References

* https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/abe-plough/ Tennessee encyclopedia
* https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-20thcenturyphoto3/406/#:~:text=Abe%20Plough%20(1891%2D1984),Corporation%2C%20a%20major%20pharmaceutical%20company. University of Memphis
*https://www.hbs.edu/leadership/20th-century-leaders/details?profile=abe_plough Harvard business school
*https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/09/14/Industrialist-Abe-Plough-dies/7177463982400/

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1891 births
1984 deaths