By all accounts, William Wrigley (1861-1932) is the "father of chewing gum." He transformed a small business selling soap into the top chewing gum manufacturer in the world. Although he did not invent chewing gum, it was his company that brought it to the world.

William Wrigley Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1861. His parents, William and Mary A. Ladley were second generation Americans. The Wrigley family traced its roots back to Saddleworth, a manufacturing town north of Yorkshire in England. The boy's great-grandfather, Edmund, was a woolen manufacturer in the "City of Brotherly Love," while his father went on to greater success as a soapmaker. In 1870, William Sr. founded and served as president of the Wrigley Manufacturing Company. The main product was Wrigley's Scouring Soap.

The younger Wrigley took an immediate interest in his father's soap business, which opened as the public began viewing soap...