Frank Winfield Woolworth New York, to John Hubbell Woolworth (1821–1907) and Fanny Woolworth (née McBrier; 1832–1878), and had a brother, entrepreneur Charles Sumner Woolworth (1856–1947). His parents, John and Fanny Woolworth, were devout Methodists and sympathetic to the Northern side during the Civil War – they raised their two sons, Frank Winfield and Charles Sumner, accordingly. At the age of four, Woolworth told his parents that one day he would become one of the peddlers that sometimes came calling; he and Charles would play "store"; Frank would set up merchandise to be sold to his brother. As was common at the time, Woolworth
Frank Winfield Woolworth after his mother's death that Woolworth's trademark concept of the 5-and-10 Cent store, or the "Five-and-Dime," was developed. Accounts on the conception of the five-and-dime differ. Scholar Gail Fenske suggests that Woolworth had heard of a "five-cent counter craze" while questioning his own sales ability at his first job. Jean Maddern Pitrone suggests the idea was conceived after a travelling salesman told Woolworth of stores with the five-cent counter concept in Michigan. Plunkett-Powell suggests the concept was overheard by Woolworth during a discussion between William Moore and a young man who had opened his own cut-rate goods store. Regardless of