R.C. Wills & His Scranton “Rags to Riches” Story

                                

When Robert Charles Wills arrived in the United States from Ireland in 1876 at the age of 14, he was virtually penniless.  During a career of 52 years in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Wills became one of the city’s most influential citizens, a business tycoon owning multiple enterprises.  Shown right, Wills owed his ascent to selling whiskey.

Wills was born in 1858 in Ireland, some records say in County Mayo; others, County Sligo.  He was the son of Henry and Elizabeth O’Donaghoe Wills, said to be “sturdy old Irish folk.”  When he immigrated in 1872, it is not clear whether young Robert came with other relatives.  He initially settled in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, a borough in Lackawanna County, six miles northeast of downtown Scranton.  His education and early employment have gone unrecorded.  In time he became a traveling salesman in Pennsylvania for a New York dry goods firm.  After a brief sojourn in Missouri, Wills returned to Scranton in 1885 and stayed for the remainder of his life.

Two years later he married Anna E. Coroner, a woman of Irish descent who was born in the United States.  Both were 29 at the time of their nuptials.  Over the next five years Anna would bear Robert four sons.  Sadly only the eldest, Joseph, would live to maturity.  Henry, born in 1889 died at two years;  John, born 1890 died at ten, and Robert, born 1891, died at eight.  The pain in the Wills household often must have been intense.

By the time of his marriage and family Wills was well established in the Scranton business community.  With a brother-in law he owned and operated a hotel at 430 Lackawanna Avenue.  The hotel with its restaurant and bar gave Wills  acquaintance with the profitability of the liquor trade and he opened a liquor store in the building.   From that beginning he exited the hospitality industry and opened a larger liquor house at 329 Penn Avenue, the building here as it looks today.

From the beginning Wills seems to have had a genius for advertising.  Shown below are two ads.  The one at left advised:  “You would be much better off if you would keep a bottle of pure whiskey in the house during winter months. It would prevent chills, colds and grippe.”  It touts “Spring Valley Rye,” Wills’ proprietary brand. The other ad shows a doctor ostensibly prescribing rye whiskey and claims:  “If you mention our name to your physician, he’ll say:  Right, none better!”

Wills was selling liquor at both retail and wholesale.  He was receiving shipments of whiskey from Pennsylvania and perhaps out-of-state distilleries by rail in barrels and “rectifying” them on his premises.  That process involved combining the contents of several barrels to achieve a desired color, taste and smoothness.  He then decanted the blends into ceramic jugs ranging in size from four gallons to quarts.  Larger containers would have been sold to the saloons, restaurants and hotels carrying his liquor;  smaller ones directly to the public.  Shown throughout this post are examples of the various jugs employed by Robert C. Wills & Company over the 25 years it was in business. 

Meeting with great success at his Penn Street location, Wills then turned his attention to a struggling brewery called the Keystone Brewing Company, located in Dunmore, a suburb of Scranton.  Wills purchased it in 1899 and immediately applied his advertising genius.  One ad warned:  “The water which you drink may contain germs of typhoid fever, the milk which the dairyman sells you may contain the germs of tuberculosis, but your beer has been cooked and boiled sufficiently to kill every possible germ in it.  As to purity, beer is more reliable than milk or water.”  

Such pitches must have worked.  In September 1900 the Scranton Tribune newspaper reported of Will’s brewery:  “A year ago it was an experiment, now it is an unqualified success, and all through the Lackawanna Valley the mention of Keystone beer is the signal for honest and hearty commendation….”  Unlike his whiskey, Wills sold his beer in glass bottles of an amber shade.

Within a few years Wills became a very rich man and branched out with his investments.  Among his business affiliations were the United States Lumber Company, Blue Creek Coal and Land Company, and Kanawha & West Virginia Railroad.  He also gain a reputation in Pennsylvania banking circles for his position in the Scranton Trust Company, the Fidelity and Discount Bank of Dunmore, and the Dime Bank of Scranton.  A caricature book depicting Scranton “Men of Affairs,” shows Wills driving a team of horses past a vast pile of lumber, with captions indicating his many business interests.

Wills also was a major investor in the International Correspondence Schools, founded in Scranton to educate miners.  Because of many accidents, the State of Pennsylvania had passed a law in 1885 requiring miners and inspectors to pass examinations on mine safety. The test was exhaustive and the language was confusing, especially for miners who spoke little or no English. The schools  played an essential role in educating them. 

As befitted a prominent businessman, Wills also took an active role in local civic affairs. he was credited with fostering the growth of the Scranton Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations, as well as hailed for his contributions to charitable organizations.  Those including Scranton’s Mercy Hospital where he served as a director.  Wills most notable gift occurred in 1939, 15 years after his death, when it was disclosed that with the death of his son, Joseph, the bulk of his estate reverted to Scranton Diocesan Charities. Valued at $1 million then, the gift would be the rough equivalent of $18 million today.  Father and son are shown here.

With the coming of National Prohibition in 1920, Wills was forced to shut down his liquor house and a short time later sold his interest in the Keystone Brewery. From his office in the Dime Bank Building, he devoted his time to management of his investments.   Wills also continued to be active in Ireland related organizations, including the Irish-American Society of Lackawanna County, for which he served as president.

During the early 1920s, Wills began to suffer kidney failure. In a day before the advent of dialysis, this often meant a slow death from uremic poisoning.  In March 1924, Wills died at the age of 65. His passing made headlines in the Scranton newspapers as he was recorded as one of Scranton’s wealthiest men and most prominent citizens:  “News of his passing will come as a shock to the community, for as recently as three weeks ago he had been able to be about, while not in the best of health…A week ago his condition became critical and he had failed gradually during the past few days.”

As his widow, Anna, and son Joseph looked on, Wills was given an elaborate funeral at the Cathedral of Scranton, celebrated by his brother, a Catholic priest.The church was crowded with relatives, family friends, local dignitaries, and dozens of clergymen from the Scranton diocese.  After the service, Wills’ body was given temporary burial in the Cathedral cemetery, awaiting completion of the Wills mausoleum at a location nearby.

When Robert Wills arrived in America with a few coins in his pocket in 1876, neither he nor any onlookers could have imagined that 51 years later he would have become a multi-millionaire.  Given a chance in this “land of opportunity,” the impoverished Irish lad had used his native intelligence and hard work to rise to the top of his home town’s business community — an ascent attributable to his ability to sell whiskey.

Note:  This vignette on Robert C. Wills was created from a wide variety of sources, principally newspaper stories and advertisements spanning more than two dozen years.  The images similarly come from a variety of locations.