Born in Chicago , Illinois , he attended school for 6 years until the Great Chicago Fire forced him , at the age of 12 , to look for full-time employment , which he found with Tolman and King for $ 2.50 per week . He moved to St. Louis in 1897 to work for Meyer Brothers Drug Company , one of the largest wholesale pharmaceutical companies at the time . Two years later , he spent his life savings in purchasing a sulfur refinery ; it burned down the next day . Two years after that , he founded Monsanto Chemical Works , and began producing saccharine , which he sold to Meyer Brothers . He started to turn a profit in 1905 , but it was not until 1906 that he left Meyer Brothers to work for Monsanto full-time
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
John Francis Queeny