Kemp employed three salesmen to sell hardware products purchased from manufacturing plants in New York and Pennsylvania that he warehoused in Chicago. Kemp’s sales force traveled mostly by train and sold product to distribution in rural areas of Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. In 1945, Kemp’s Son, Bob Kemp, returned from World War II as one of the first POW’s. Bob dabbled in his father’s business however was never fully vested and left shortly thereafter.