Division Manager.

Joseph was division manager in 1917 for Sears, Roebuck & Co. at at 925 South Homan Avenue. In 1906 Sears had opened its mail order plant in West Chicago, the largest building of its type in the world. The massive complex housed separate restaurants for men and women, training rooms, a clinic, gardens and even residences for the employees.

Family tales include a story that Joseph had invented a conveyor belt to move the merchandise within the facility. Though the developer is not named, the Sears website explains:

"…they introduced a time schedule. Under it, each order, as it arrived, was given a time to be shipped. Then no matter what happened, the order had to be in the appropriate bin in the merchandise-assembly room at the assigned time. It traveled to the room by an intricate system of belts and chutes..."
"The time-scheduling system brought order to mail order, enabling the Chicago plant, according to one expert, to handle 10 times the business it handled before the system was introduced. Before long, the system became a sort of 'seventh wonder' of the business world. Henry Ford is reported to have visited the Chicago plant to study the assembly-line technique used in the system."

The innovative mail order catalog company shipped every conceivable item to buyers - everything from clothes, watches, tools, phonographs, violins, razors for shaving, Winchester rifles, Kewpie Kameras and groceries could be delivered to one's home.