Today Procter & Gamble's product line includes household names that generate yearly sales of $75 billion.

But it can trace its roots to much more humble beginnings.

Back in 1837, brothers-in-law William Procter, a candle maker, and James Gamble, a soap maker, opened a shop in Cincinnati. The river city was nicknamed Porkopolis because of its many pig slaughterhouses. At that time, candles and soap were made from leftover fat.

The pair had a tough time scraping together $7,192.24 — the equivalent of $156,000 in 2006 dollars — to launch the company.

"It had in fact required months of scrounging and sacrifice," Oscar Schisgall wrote in his book "Eyes on Tomorrow: The Evolution of Procter & Gamble." "In the end the financing had been accomplished by pooling savings, borrowing from friends, even selling William Procter's most cherished possessions — two wagons, a carriage and two horses."

William Procter and James Gamble had come to the U.S. to flee economic depression. Procter set sail after a devastating financial downturn wiped out his woolen goods shop in England. His wife, Martha, died shortly after the couple arrived in America.

Gamble (1803-91) came with his parents from England in 1819. His father was a Methodist minister in Ireland, and the family escaped the depression gripping that country.

By the time the Gambles reached Pittsburgh, they had exhausted nearly all of their savings.

"The only accommodation they could afford, sailing down the Ohio River, was space on a flat boat," Schisgall wrote. "Young James, age 16, became violently ill on the boat."

Gamble's parents took him ashore to find a doctor when the boat docked in Cincinnati. They were so impressed with the bustling city and the opportunities it offered, they decided to stay and the senior Gamble opened a greenhouse.

James worked for his father for a while, but soon turned his attention to soap making — one of the city's most lucrative industries. "Determined to learn the trade, he apprenticed himself to William Bell, one of Cincinnati's veteran soap manufacturers," Schisgall wrote.

Gamble spent eight years working for Bell before opening his own soap and candle shop with a friend.

In 1833, he married Elizabeth Ann Norris. A few months later her sister married Procter, who had set up a candle making business.

The new brothers-in-law decided to pool their money to buy animal fat for their products.

In 1837 they established Procter & Gamble's Manufactory.

Gamble oversaw production of the candles and soap. Procter was in charge of the office and sales.

Gamble strove to make his products the best. In the early days of the partnership, he hired a chemist from Philadelphia to keep him apprised of the latest information on soap and candle making.

Religion played a big part in the business. "Even during the Civil War, when P&G worked long hours to supply soap to the Union Army, the plants would close on Sundays," Alecia Swasy wrote in her book "Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble."

She notes that the firm's Ivory soap brand took its name from Psalms 45:8, which says, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

They also tried to be honest in all their business dealings. This meant refusing to make false claims about their products — not always easy in the days of magic tonics and purported quick-cure concoctions.

"To make an untrue claim for their products would have been to utter a falsehood and this they refused to do," Schisgall wrote. "They might lower their prices to meet competition, but as for lowering quality, they would as soon have condoned larceny."

Those ethics were noticed by their customers and others.

"A newspaperman reported, 'Suppliers of fats and oils could take a signed order from Messrs. Procter & Gamble and pass it along in lieu of cash,' " Schisgall wrote.

The firm was also thrifty. It channeled many of the leftover byproducts from its soap and candle making into oil for lamps, machinery and other items it could sell.

With 17 other soap and candle manufacturers in Cincinnati, competition was fierce. Procter and Gamble had to vie for supplies to make their products.

"In this they developed buying skills they were never to lose," Schisgall wrote. "They sought every possible opportunity to store raw materials for the future. It was wiser to tie up funds than to risk a future without products to sell."

After a rocky start, their business reaped the gains of Procter and Gamble's combination of hard work, honesty and thrift. By 1848, the firm was earning an annual profit of $28,000 ($685,000 in 2006 dollars).

Gamble's habit of planning proved invaluable as the Civil War loomed, and helped his company survive the shortages and supply disruptions that the conflict spawned.

In 1860, Procter and Gamble each sent a son to New Orleans to scout for supplies of rosin — a key ingredient in soap. When the young cousins found a supplier with a large reserve of rosin for a dollar a barrel, they bought it all and quickly shipped it back to Cincinnati.

Soon the Civil War broke out, and the Union Army needed a wide range of supplies, including soap. Demand for rosin surged, and the price shot up to $15 a barrel. When the Army found out about P&G's rosin supply, it struck a deal for the company to supply soap to all Union encampments in the West.

After the war ended in 1865, the company continued to thrive in the decades that followed.

In 1890 the company incorporated, with $4.5 million of stock divided into 45,000 shares. The Procter and Gamble families kept a large stake in the business and used the money they raised from the stock sale to expand the company.

P&G's 87-year-old co-founder, James Gamble, died less than a year later at his Cincinnati home.

He had "built for himself a reputation and character that are enviable," Gamble's pastor said at his funeral. "In business he was industrious and upright."

A Cincinnati newspaper declared that "not one dollar of his estate carries the odor of fraud or dishonorable dealing."


BY CHRISTINA WISE