What does JC Penny and our ancestors have in common? source The home of the first JC Penny store was Kemmerer, Wyoming and Kemmerer is next door to the town of Frontier, where the John Richard Roberts family settled. John Richard Roberts(3) is the son of Hugh(1) and Margaret(2) Roberts and the older brother of Isaac Roberts(5). The John Richard Roberts family was already living in Kemmerer when the store was opened 111 years ago; 14 April 1902. The first store was named The Golden Rule store and was a partnership between James Cash Penny, Jr., Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan. The reason Mr. Penny opened that first store in Kemmerer: “I chose that because, I thought that I could get to the hearts of the people quicker, in a small town, than I could in a large town.” (Interview with Edward R Murrow in 1957, CBS, Person to Person see CBS News Sunday morning source.) (Sources: Wikipedia J. C. Penny online and CBS News Sunday Morning, air d...