1903: Dr. Chauncey B. Forward

Here is the incredible story of a guy who could not settle down to one thing and simply focus.

From a 1903 issue of Successful American:

1922: Grocer David Pender

From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine:

What I Learned In a Tarboro Grocery

Keep away from the easy job — when the choice is yours, pick a hard one

by David Pender
President, The D. Pender Grocery Company and The Pender-Dillworth Company, Inc.

Every time I go by a little store on a little side street I wonder if the man behind the counter is properly discontented with his job.

1922: Editor W. O. Saunders

From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine:

The Autobiography Of A Crank

by W. O. Saunders

I guess I was predestined to be a crank. My father was a Hard-shell Baptist, my mother a Southern Methodist, and I a robust, mischievous, enthusiastic, ambitious American boy, born and raised in a poor little antique Southern town, where three churches struggled to prepare everybody to live a life hereafter and one little two-teacher school half-heartedly taught a few children to read, write and figure their own way through this life.

1922: Poet Edgar A. Guest

From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine:

What I Owe the Other Fellow

There is no such thing as a self-made man. No one achieves anything by his own efforts alone; all along the way are countless others who contribute to his progress, who help him to reach his goal

by Edgar A. Guest

All my life I have heard about the self-made man. He has been written up in all the leading publications of the world. He has frequently written of himself — not always from a spirit of pride, but often from a desire to inspire others even at the sacrifice of his own modesty.