It’s a cold January day in 1886. James Wood Johnson, one of the three brothers who founded Johnson & Johnson, is on a train heading from New York to Philadelphia. In 1885, Johnson and his brothers Robert and Edward had left their former company Seabury & Johnson. James and Edward intended to start a new business that would focus on making the first mass-produced sterile surgical products to save the lives of surgery patients in American hospitals, and James was looking for a location. He was on a westbound Pennsylvania Railroad train from New York to Philadelphia. When the train stopped at a tiny station halfway through the journey, Johnson & Johnson found its hometown: the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey. A global company since the early 20th century, Johnson & Johnson has remained headquartered in New Brunswick since its founding.
In 1886, New Brunswick was a center of entrepreneurial and industrial activity thanks to three things: the railroad, the city’s position on the Raritan River and Delaware-Raritan Canal, and its placement halfway between New York and Philadelphia. The city’s approximately five square miles boasted a thriving, nationally known wallpaper manufacturer, a fruit jar manufacturer, a box manufacturer, an iron works, the Edison Illuminating Company, a hosiery manufacturer, a carriage factory and more. Johnson & Johnson would join the city’s fledgling first major hospital, founded in 1884, in forming the nucleus of New Brunswick’s significant healthcare and life sciences presence today.
When the Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive huffed to a stop at the little railroad depot bordered by George and Hamilton Streets in New Brunswick, Johnson looked out the window at the cold January landscape.
About 150 feet back from the then-street level railroad tracks, past the distinctive oval “Look Out for the Locomotive” street signs, Johnson noticed a four-story red brick building with a walk-in basement, a distinctive square chimney, arched windows and a “For Rent” sign. It was the former Janeway & Carpender wallpaper factory, outgrown by one of the city’s thriving businesses that had moved to larger quarters. Johnson got off the train to take a closer look, and he ended up renting the top floor of the building for Johnson & Johnson. The company was named for himself and his brother Edward Mead Johnson. Older brother Robert was still bound by the terms of the agreement dissolving the partnership of Seabury & Johnson and would not join until September of that year.
As it turns out, 1886 was a great time to start a business. Standard time had been introduced by the railroads in 1883 (before that, strange as it may seem, each town set its clocks to its own time, based on the sun’s position in the sky relative to that individual town). Technological advances such as telephones and typewriters were revolutionizing the workplace, and the economy was transforming from one based on farming to one based on industry. Innovation seemed to be everywhere, and the atmosphere for someone looking to go into business was one of great change and possibility.
Tall, dignified and thoughtful, James Wood Johnson must have presented a reassuring sight when he inquired about the brick factory building for rent. By 1886 he had solid experience as superintendent of manufacturing for Seabury & Johnson. Johnson was a skilled engineer who had designed the manufacturing machinery for his previous company. He would do so again for the tiny little startup that he and his brothers were creating.
By March of 1886, things were progressing. On March 3, 1886, The New Brunswick Times carried news of the new company with the headline “A New Factory.” The Times optimistically reported that Johnson & Johnson would begin manufacturing with “from 50 to 100 hands,” but in fact the company started with just 14 employees: eight women and six men. These employees had been recruited by the company’s founders to start the new business and included Matilda D—-, who would be the first woman in company history to run a manufacturing department.
Just 13 days after that newspaper article, the City Matters column in the Tuesday, March 16 edition of the newspaper noted:
“A building 20 x 30 feet and one story high is being erected in the rear of the factory of Mr. Parsons, above the railroad bridge. It will be used for a drying room by the Johnson Bros., who have leased the factory and will move into it about the 1st of May, or as soon as the present occupants vacate the premises. Mr. Johnson is staying in this city, and hopes to get in the factory before May. Already $10,000 worth of machinery has been contracted for and will arrive in this city in a few weeks.” [The Daily Times, New Brunswick, N.J., Tuesday, March 16, 1886, p. 3, courtesy of the New Brunswick Free Public Library.]
The Times went on to note that the majority of employees in the new business would be women.
On March 25, 1886, Johnson & Johnson wrote its first check, to the railroad freight master John W, for shipping raw materials or furniture on the railroad.
Now that they had space for their new company, James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson got to work setting up their new business with the eight women and six men recruited from their previous company. These employees helped Johnson & Johnson open its doors, and two of them—Matilda D--- and William R---—earned positions of supervisory and management responsibility as the company grew. But in January of 1886, the brand-new business was still setting up and beginning to make the connections that would help it thrive, taking its first steps on the pathway to becoming the global leader and innovator in healthcare that it is today.