Gillette had a tough early life
One of the most interesting facts about King Gilette is he had a tough early life. King Camp Gillette, the son of George Wolcott Gillette and Fanny Lemira Camp, was born on January 5, 1855, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He had two sisters in addition to being the youngest of three sons. His royal first name paid homage to a Judge King who was a close friend of George Gillette, according to biographer Adams.
Gillette described his mother as "serene" but also as a "stern disciplinarian, always in control of her household," and his father as "a sometime postmaster, weekly-newspaper editor, and inventive thinker." She most likely had an impact on King Gillette's lifetime commitment to efficiency and abhorrence of time waste. Young Gillette was raised and educated in Chicago, Illinois after the Gillette family relocated there. The Gillette boys were encouraged to use their hands to create things, to discover how things function and how they may be improved.
The city of Chicago was destroyed by fire in October of 1871. After losing everything, Gillette's father decided to relocate his family to New York City. The 17-year-old Gillette remained in Chicago and worked as a clerk for a distributor of hardware. He accepted a post in New York City two years later. When he was 21 years old, a Kansas City, Missouri company hired him and advanced him to a traveling salesperson position.
