William H. Rand was born in Quincy, Massachusetts

Quincy, Massachusetts

Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...

. As a young man, he was an apprentice at his brothers' print shop in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. He was enticed west in September, 1849, by the California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

. He settled in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and co-founded the state's first newspaper, the Los Angeles Star. In 1856, he returned to Boston for a short time before moving to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and opening a print shop in June of that year. Two years later he hired an Irish immigrant, Andrew McNally

Andrew McNally

Andrew McNally was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, and immigrated to New York City in 1857. A printer by trade, he moved to Chicago in 1858 and got a job in a print shop owned by William Rand at a wage of $9 per week. Rand and McNally became business partners and incorporated Rand, McNally & Co...

, to work in his shop for $9 per week. The two formally established Rand, McNally & Co.

Rand McNally

Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...

 in 1868 and became one of the biggest and best-known map publishers in history. Rand retired as president of Rand McNally in 1899 and returned to his boyhood home of East Milton, Massachusetts. He died in New Canaan, Connecticut

New Canaan, Connecticut

New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...

 at his daughter's home after being ill for some time.

Sources

• Short, John Rennie (2001). Representing the Republic: Mapping the United States, 1600-1900. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1861890869
• New York Times, 22 June 1915. W.H. RAND, PUBLISHER, DIES; Former Head of Rand, McNally & Co. Was a Pioneer Printer.
• Rand McNally & Company: Information and Much More from Answers.com