Join host Greg Dowdy on Traveler’s Tales as he retells the surprising spiritual journey of James Cash Penney — the man behind the J.C. Penney empire. This episode traces Penney’s early life in Missouri, his family’s faith influence, and the founding of his first store in Kemmer, Wyoming, which grew into a national chain built on the Golden Rule: “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

The episode covers Penney’s extraordinary rise in business, the establishment of the J.C. Penney Company in 1913, and the devastating 1929 crash that wiped out his fortune, damaged his health, and exposed a deeper spiritual void. Penney realized he had been living off "spiritual capital"—the inherited faith and moral principles of his upbringing—rather than maintaining an ongoing, personal relationship with God. But that all changed!

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