When he was ten, Harland Sanders got his job, working for farmer Charlie Norris, clearing land for two dollars per month.
He enlisted in the army at 16; then worked on the railroad; and after taking correspondence courses in law, began representing clients in court.
What by some accounts was a promising legal career ended with a courtroom incident in which Sanders was charged with assault and battery by his own client.
In 1930, Sanders got a job in Corbin, Kentucky as operator of a restaurant and service station on a busy US Route 25.
Soon he became as famous for his home cooking as for the service at his filling station.
He then expanded his operation from Sanders café to Sanders Court, a motel with seven rooms across the street and began experimenting with pressure cookers and a fried chicken recipe given to him by a neighbor. The growing fame of his chicken eventually attracted the acclaim of the celebrity food critic Duncan Hines.
As a result of this national exposure, in 1935 Kentucky governor Ruby Laffoon made Sanders a Kentucky Colonels.
In 1950 Colonel Sanders had settled on the cooking method and the 11 herbs and spices that would make his chicken world famous.
In 1960 Colonel Sanders established his new company headquarters in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
By 1960 there were more than 200 franchisees in the United States. The success of Sander’s brand increased the overall popularity of chicken as a mainstream American food, causing a surge in domestic chicken production and consumption.
He and his wife, Claudia built the business to six hundreds outlet by the time he sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million to Kentucky businessman, John Y. Brown Jr and Nashville entrepreneur Jack Massey in 1964.
Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC
