The company was founded in Chicago , Illinois in 1844 as '' ' W.W. Barlow & Co. ' '' , which soon changed names to '' 'S . C. Griggs & Co. ' '' It was briefly known as '' ' Griggs , Bross & Co. ' '' after William Bross was admitted as a partner in 1848 ; the partnership dissolved after eighteen months . Alexander C. McClurg , a former law student who moved to Chicago to join the mercantile trade , joined the company in 1859 . McClurg joined Griggs as a junior partner after he returned a general from the Civil War . The company building was burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 . After the fire , Griggs sold his share of the company and it became '' ' Jansen , McClurg & Co. ' '' McClurg became senior partner in 1887 and the company took the name of A. C. McClurg & Co . The company was again destroyed in a fire in 1899 , but McClurg financed a new building . McClurg died in 1901 , but the company retained his name in subsequent decades
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
A. C. McClurg