Bee, Frederick Alonzo (9 Sept. 1825–26 May 1892), telegraph and railroad entrepreneur and vice-consul of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, was born in Clinton, New York, the son of John Bee and Mary Wilson. The couple emigrated from Northumberland, England to Clinton, New York in ...
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Bee, Frederick Alonzo (9 Sept. 1825–26 May 1892), telegraph and railroad entrepreneur and vice-consul of the Chinese consulate
Anthony Oertel
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Crown, Henry (1896-1990), entrepreneur and philanthropist
Jacob A. Vander Meulen
Crown, Henry (13 June 1896–14 August 1990), entrepreneur and philanthropist, was born Henry Krinsky in Chicago, the son of Arie Krinsky, a Lithuanian immigrant garment worker, and his wife Ida Gordon. At some point they changed their name to Crown. To help his poor family, Crown took a job at age fourteen as clerk at the Chicago Firebrick Company. In 1912 he began work at the Union Drop Forge Company, while taking night courses in accounting. In 1915 he and his two older brothers, Sol and Irving, formed a small steel-brokerage company, S. A. Crown and Company, and Crown quickly established a local reputation as an aggressive and reliable deal maker with a discerning eye for opportunity, a striking power of recall, and an acute sense of timing....
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Fulton, Robert (1765-1815), artist, engineer, and entrepreneur
C. M. Harris
Fulton, Robert (14 November 1765–23 February 1815), artist, engineer, and entrepreneur, was born on a farm in Little Britain (later Fulton) Township, south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert Fulton, a Scotch-Irish tailor and tradesman, and Mary Smith. Fulton’s father had left the prosperous market town of Lancaster to establish his family on the land, but like so many others with the same goal, he failed. The farm and the dwelling were sold at sheriff’s sale in 1772, and he took his family back to Lancaster. He died two years later....
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Fulton, Robert (1765-1815)
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Robert Fulton. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-102509).
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Hale, James Webster (21 November 1801–17 August 1892), entrepreneur
Richard R. John
Hale, James Webster (21 November 1801–17 August 1892), entrepreneur, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Hale, a sail maker, and Marianna Foxwell Lowell. Hale was a restless youth who, after attending public school in Boston, went to sea at age fifteen. He sailed to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the West Indies, eventually becoming a sea captain. It was probably Hale’s maritime exploits that brought him into contact with ...
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Hertz, John Daniel (1879-1961), transportation entrepreneur and investment banker
Douglas Shaw
Hertz, John Daniel (10 April 1879–08 October 1961), transportation entrepreneur and investment banker, was born in Ruttka, a village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the north of Budapest (now a part of Slovakia), the son of Jacob Hertz and Katie Schlessinger. The family immigrated to the United States in 1884 and settled in Chicago. The family was poor and parental discipline strict....
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Keith, Minor Cooper (1848-1929), entrepreneur
Thomas Schoonover
Keith, Minor Cooper (19 January 1848–14 June 1929), entrepreneur, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Minor Hubbell Keith, a lumber merchant, and Emily Meiggs, sister of Henry Meiggs, who built railroads in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. Keith was educated in private schools in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1883 he married Cristina Castro, daughter of José María Castro, who served twice as Costa Rican president. They had no children....
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Lamar, Gazaway Bugg (1798-1874), business entrepreneur
Susan Hamburger
Lamar, Gazaway Bugg (20 October 1798–05 October 1874), business entrepreneur, was born near Augusta, in Richmond County, Georgia, the son of Basil Lamar, a landholder, and Rebecca Kelly. Lamar received little formal education, although he had private Latin instruction. By age twenty-three and married to his first wife Jane Meek Creswell, whom he wed in October 1821, Lamar became a commission merchant in Augusta and, by 1823, in Savannah. Lamar’s expanding enterprises included banking and steamboating....
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Lear, William Powell (1902-1978), electrical engineer and aeronautical entrepreneur
Roger E. Bilstein
Lear, William Powell (26 June 1902–15 May 1978), electrical engineer and aeronautical entrepreneur, was born in Hannibal, Missouri, the son of Reuben Lear, a carpenter and teamster, and Gertrude Powell. His parents separated when Lear was six, and his mother married a plasterer in Chicago. The family’s meager income represented a lifelong goad to Lear to become financially secure. After finishing the eighth grade, he left school and found work as a mechanic. At age sixteen Lear decided to leave home and enter military service. Lying about his age, he signed up in 1918 with the navy and was posted to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, where he was trained in radio technology. After the armistice, he found employment with a succession of electrical and radio businesses and developed several technical improvements while gaining valuable experience in a rapidly developing industry. During the early 1920s he built and patented the first practical radio for autos but lacked financial support to go into production and sold the design to Motorola in 1924....
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Mills, Darius Ogden (1825-1910), banker and mining and railroad entrepreneur
George W. Hilton
Mills, Darius Ogden (05 September 1825–03 January 1910), banker and mining and railroad entrepreneur, was born in North Salem, Westchester County, New York, the son of James Mills, a town supervisor of North Salem (1835), and Hannah Ogden. From a prominent family, Mills was educated at the North Salem Academy and then at the Mount Pleasant Academy at Ossining, New York. His father’s death in 1841 deprived Mills of a college education. Instead he became a clerk in a mercantile establishment in New York City. In 1847, at the invitation of a cousin, he became cashier of the Merchants’ Bank of Erie County in Buffalo, New York....
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Ogden, Aaron (1756-1839), soldier, public official, and entrepreneur
Paul G. E. Clemens
Ogden, Aaron (03 December 1756–19 April 1839), soldier, public official, and entrepreneur, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, the son of Robert Ogden II, a lawyer, and Phebe Hatfield. He attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and graduated with the class of 1773. Over the next three years he taught school, first in Princeton, then in Elizabethtown, but with the outbreak of hostilities between Great Britain and its American colonies, he was quickly drawn into the revolutionary confrontation....
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Pope, Albert Augustus (1843-1909), manufacturer
Ballard C. Campbell
Pope, Albert Augustus (20 May 1843–10 August 1909), manufacturer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Pope, a merchant, and Elizabeth Bogman. Maintaining his New England roots, Pope made Boston and its environs his residence during a lifetime in which his business interests were scattered in numerous northeastern and midwestern states. He attended school in the suburb of Brookline until age fifteen, when family financial misfortune forced his full-time employment, first in the Quincy Market in downtown Boston and then as a clerk in a shoefinding store (supplying shoe manufacturing materials)....
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Reeside, James (1789?–03 September 1842), mail contractor and stagecoach proprietor
Pamela Baker
Reeside, James (1789?–03 September 1842), mail contractor and stagecoach proprietor, was born in Scotland, the son of Edward Reeside and Janet Alexander. His parents moved to Baltimore County, Maryland, shortly after his birth. Because the family had limited financial resources, Reeside received little formal schooling. In 1816 he married Mary Weis, and they had one son and two daughters....
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Smith, Francis Marion (1846-1931), mining and railroad entrepreneur
Delmer G. Ross
Smith, Francis Marion (02 February 1846–27 August 1931), mining and railroad entrepreneur, was born in Richmond, Wisconsin, the son of Henry Grovier Smith and Charlotte Paul, farmers. After completing grade school in Richmond, Smith attended high school in nearby Milton and Allen’s Grove. He worked on the farm until he reached the age of twenty-one, when he succumbed to the lure of the West. In 1867 he traveled to Montana Territory, where he tried prospecting and both placer and hard-rock mining. Unimpressed with the return, he resumed his travels, working at various jobs until he reached western Nevada, where he became a restaurateur. After a few months he decided that prospecting was more interesting, and for the next five years he followed various mineral rushes in the region....
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White, Maunsel (1781-1863), commission merchant and entrepreneur
Arthur Scully
White, Maunsel (1781–17 December 1863), commission merchant and entrepreneur, was born in Tipperary, Ireland, the son of Lawford White and Anne Maunsell. White’s early years were typical of early Irish emigrants to America; despite his poverty, he came hoping for opportunity. Orphaned in Ireland at about age thirteen, he joined his older brother who had emigrated to Louisville, Kentucky. As a boy, White met ...
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Worthington, Thomas (1773-1827), entrepreneur, politician, and U.S. senator
Donald J. Ratcliffe
Worthington, Thomas (16 July 1773–20 June 1827), entrepreneur, politician, and U.S. senator, was born near Charlestown, Berkeley County, Virginia (now Jefferson County, W.Va.), the son of Robert Worthington, a prominent planter, and Margaret Matthews, from Frederickton, Maryland, who was of Irish background. Orphaned by the age of seven, he received little formal education and in May 1791 went to sea for two years. On his return he farmed the Berkeley County estate, took up surveying, and bought up Virginia military land warrants that he located near Chillicothe in the Northwest Territory. In December 1796 he married Eleanor Van Swearingen of Shepherdstown, Virginia, herself an orphan with a rich property. The couple had ten children. In spring 1798 Worthington freed his slaves and moved his family to Chillicothe; they were joined by his brother-in-law and lifelong political ally, ...
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Yerkes, Charles Tyson (1837-1905), investment banker and traction entrepreneur
Stephen Salsbury
Yerkes, Charles Tyson (25 June 1837–29 December 1905), investment banker and traction entrepreneur, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Charles Tyson Yerkes, a bank president, and Elizabeth Link Broom. Yerkes, of Quaker descent, graduated from Philadelphia Central High School and began his career as a clerk in a commission broking house, James P. Perot Brothers. In 1859 Yerkes married Susanna Gutteridge Gamble; they had six children. In 1862 Yerkes started his own investment bank. He specialized in high-risk deals, and in 1866 he gained a reputation as a financial wizard by selling a new issue of Philadelphia Municipal Bonds at par while the city’s other debt was selling at 65 percent of issued value. In 1871 the Chicago Fire caused panic on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Yerkes was overcommitted and unable to pay to the city monies he had been paid for municipal bonds. He was indicted for embezzlement, tried, convicted, and received a jail sentence of two years and nine months, of which he served seven months before obtaining a pardon....
