Harris, Forbes & Co. began in 1882 as N. W. Harris & Co. At that time Founder Norman Wait Harris had an office on Chicago's Clark Street, three employes and $30,000. But he also had two ideas. First idea was to send salesmen out to sell bonds. In 1882 such procedure was regarded as undignified; Mr. Harris and his men were termed doorbell ringers. But Mr. Harris knew that he, small, new, obscure, would never prosper by waiting for investors to call upon him, so he rang the doorbells, sold the bonds, became ancestor of all bond salesmen since.
Second idea was to specialize in municipal bonds. In 1867 Mr. Harris had traveled through the south and west, had seen countless small but growing towns and cities. Farsighted, he looked ahead, saw the school houses, water works, roads, bridges, sewage plants and other public works of the future...It is said that every U. S. city with a population of more than 100,000 has put up part of its public buildings with bonds marketed through Harris, Forbes & Co. As a logical development of its municipal business, the company has in more recent years become almost equally outstanding in the field of public utility finance.