J.P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913)
Early Life
J.P. Morgan was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut to Junius Spencer Morgan (1813–1890) and Juliet Pierpont (1816–1884). In the fall of 1848, Pierpont transferred to the HartfordPublic School and then to the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut (now called Cheshire Academy), boarding with the principal. In September 1851, Morgan passed the entrance exam for the English High School of Boston, a school specializing in mathematics to prepare young men for careers in commerce.
After graduating, his father sent him to Bellerive, a school near the Swiss village of Vevey. When Morgan had attained fluency in French, his father sent him to the University of Göttingen in order to improve his German. Attaining a passable level of German within six months and also a degree in art history, Morgan traveled back to London via Wiesbaden, with his education complete.[2]
Morgan went into banking in 1857 at his father's London branch, moving to New York City in 1858 where he worked at the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Company, the American representatives of George Peabody & Company. From 1860 to 1864, as J. Pierpont Morgan & Company, he acted as agent in New York for his father's firm. By 1864–1872, he was a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan, and Company. In 1871, he partnered with the Drexels of Philadelphia to form the New York firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company.
During the American Civil War, Morgan was required by law to either serve himself or provide a substitute; he paid $1000 for a substitute while he worked to finance the Union war effort.
Major Accomplishments
During his career, his wealth, power, and influence attracted a lot of media and government scrutiny. During the late 1800s and even after the turn of the century, much of the country's industries were in the hands of a few powerful business leaders, especially Morgan. He was criticized for creating monopolies by making it difficult for any business to compete against his. Morgan dominated two industries in particular—he helped consolidate railroad industry in the East and formed the United States Steel Corporation in 1901. A crucial material in the extensive growth of the nation, U.S. Steel became the world's largest steel manufacturer.
Philanthropy (Donations, Good Deeds)
Morgan had many interests beyond the world of banking. He enjoyed sailing and participated in a number of America's Cup yacht races. He was an ardent art collector, creating one of the most significant collections of his time. He later donated his art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his collection of written works to the Morgan Library—both in New York City.
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John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937)
Early Life
Rockefeller was the second of six children born in Richford, New York, to William Avery Rockefeller and Eliza Davison. His father, first a lumberman, then a traveling salesman, billed himself as a “botanic physician” and sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as "Big Bill," and "Devil Bill". Rockefeller’s mother, Eliza put up with her husband’s philandering and his double life, which included bigamy.Thrifty by nature and necessity, she taught her son that "willful waste makes woeful want."[15] Young Rockefeller did his share of the regular household chores, and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy, and eventually loaning small sums of money to neighbors. He followed his father’s advice to "trade dishes for platters", and always get the better part of any deal. Big Bill once bragged, "I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make ‘em sharp."[16]
Rockefeller attended Cleveland's CentralHigh School and then took a ten week business course at Folsom's Commercial College where he studied bookkeeping.[18] In September 1855, when Rockefeller was sixteen, he got his first job as an assistant bookkeeper, working for a small produce commission firm called Hewitt & Tuttle. He worked long hours and delighted, as he later recalled, in “all the methods and systems of the office”.[19] He was particularly adept at calculating transportation costs, which served him well later in his career.
In 1859, Rockefeller went into the produce commission business with a partner, Maurice B. Clark, and they raised $4,000 in capital. Rockefeller went steadily ahead in business from there, making money each year of his career.
Major Accomplishments
Sensing the commercial potential of the expanding oil production in western Pennsylvania in the early 1860s, he built his first oil refinery, near Cleveland, in 1863. Within two years it was the largest refinery in the area, and thereafter Rockefeller devoted himself exclusively to the oil business.
In 1870 Rockefeller and a few associates incorporated the Standard Oil Company (Ohio). Because of Rockefeller's emphasis on economical operations, Standard prospered and began to buy out its competitors until, by 1872, it controlled nearly all the refineries in Cleveland. That fact enabled the company to negotiate with railroads for favored rates on its shipments of oil. It acquired pipelines and terminal facilities, purchased competing refineries in other cities, and vigorously sought to expand its markets in the United States and abroad. By 1882 it had a near monopoly of the oil business in the United States. In 1881 Rockefeller and his associates placed the stock of Standard of Ohio and its affiliates in other states under the control of a board of nine trustees, with Rockefeller at the head. They thus established the first major U.S. “trust” and set a pattern of organization for other monopolies.
Philanthropy (Donations, Good Deeds)
A devout Baptist, Rockefeller turned his attention increasingly during the 1890s to charities and benevolence; after 1897 he devoted himself completely to philanthropy. He made possible the founding of the University of Chicago in 1892, and by the time of his death he had given it more than $80 million. In association with his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., he created major philanthropic institutions, including the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (renamed RockefellerUniversity) in New York City (1901); the General Education Board (1902); and the Rockefeller Foundation (1913). Rockefeller's benefactions during his lifetime totaled more than $500 million.
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877)
Early Life
Born in Staten Island, New York, Vanderbilt began working on his father's ferry in New York harbor as a boy, quitting school at the age of 11. At the age of 16 Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service. He began his business by ferrying freight and passengers between Staten Island and Manhattan.
On December 19, 1813, Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson. He and his wife eventually had 13 children, one of whom died in childhood.In addition to running his ferry, Vanderbilt bought his brother-in-law John De Forest's schooner Charlotte, and traded in food and merchandise, in partnership with his father and others. But on November 24, 1817, a ferry entrepreneur named Thomas Gibbons asked Vanderbilt to captain his steamboat between New Jersey and New York. Though Vanderbilt kept his own businesses running, he became Gibbons's business manager.
Working for Gibbons, Vanderbilt learned to operate a large and complicated business. He moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, a stop on Gibbons's line between New York and Philadelphia, where his wife Sophia operated a very profitable inn, using the proceeds to feed, clothe, and educate the children. Vanderbilt also proved a quick study in legal matters, representing Gibbons in meetings with lawyers.
Major Accomplishments
The gold rush to California presented another opportunity to him and he started a line from New York to California through Nicaragua. This was so successful that it netted him in the region of $1 million a year.
Nearing the age of 70, he saw the future was in railroads and got started by acquiring the New York and Harlem Railroad. He managed this by cornering the stock. He also bought the Hudson River Railroad with the purpose of consolidating it with the New York and Harlem.
He also acquired the New York Central Railroad and merged it with the Hudson River Railroad. He extended his line to Chicago by acquiring LakeShore- and Michigan Southern Railroad, Canadian Southern- and the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1873, he built the Grand Central Station, and provided work to thousands of men, despite the panic and depression in the economy.
Philanthropy (Donations, Good Deeds)
Cornelius Vanderbilt is not remembered as a very generous man. He did, though, donate $1 million to the Central University of Tennessee that became the VanderbiltUniversity. Rather, he is remembered for the transportation empire he had built and his contribution to the economy of the United States. By the time of his death on January 4, 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt was the richest man in the world with an estate of $100 million.
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Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835– August 11, 1919)
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in a typical weaver's cottage with only one main room consisting of half the ground floor which was shared with the neighboring weaver's family. Falling on very hard times as a handloom weaver and with the country in starvation, William Carnegie decided to move with his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in the United States in 1848 for the prospect of a better life.Andrew's family had to borrow money in order to migrate. His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. His starting wage was $1.20 per week.
In 1850, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week. He was a very hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men. He made many connections this way. He also paid close attention to the telegraph's instruments and within a year was promoted as an operator.
Starting in 1853, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company employed Carnegie as a secretary/telegraph operator at a salary of $4.00 per week. His employment by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company would be vital to his later success. The railroads were the first big businesses in America, and the Pennsylvania was one of the largest of them all.
In 1855, Scott made it possible for Carnegie to invest $500 in the Adams Express, which contracted with the Pennsylvania to carry its messengers. A few years later, he received a few shares in T.T. Woodruff's sleeping car company, as a reward for holding shares that Woodruff had given to Scott and Thomson, as a payoff. Reinvesting his returns in such inside investments in railroad-related industries: (iron, bridges, and rails), Carnegie slowly accumulated capital, the basis for his later success.
Major Accomplishments
By the next decade, most of Carnegie's time was dedicated to the steel industry. His business, which became known as the Carnegie Steel Company, revolutionized steel production in the United States. Carnegie built plants around the country, using technology and methods that made manufacturing steel easier, faster, and more productive. For every step of the process, he owned exactly what he needed: the raw materials, ships and railroads for transporting the goods, and even coal fields to fuel the steel furnaces. This start-to-finish strategy helped Carnegie become the dominant force in the industry and an exceedingly wealthy man. By 1889, Carnegie Steel Corporation was the largest of its kind in the world.
Philanthropy (Donations, Good Deeds)
Carnegie, an avid reader for much of his life, donated approximately $5 million to the New York Public Library so that the library could open several branches in 1901. Devoted to learning, he established the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, which is now known as Carnegie-MellonUniversity in 1904. The next year he created the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1905. With his strong interest to peace, he formed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910. He made numerous other donations as well and it is said that more than 2,800 libraries were opened with his support.
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