Cornelius Vanderbilt, nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States.
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the American South.
Old money is "the inherited wealth of established upper-class families " or "a person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth". It is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, often referring to perceived members of the de facto aristocracy in societies that historically lack an officially established aristocratic class, in contrast with new money whose wealth has been acquired within its own generation.
The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants went on to build grand mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City; luxurious "summer cottages" in Newport, Rhode Island; the palatial Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina; and various other opulent homes. The family also built Berkshire cottages in the western region of Massachusetts; examples include Elm Court.
A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the creation or ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed. Such individuals have been known by different terms throughout history, such as robber barons, captains of industry, moguls, oligarchs, plutocrats, or tai-pans.
The Rockefeller family is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothers John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr., primarily through Standard Oil. The family had a long association with, and control of, Chase Manhattan Bank. By 1987, the Rockefellers were considered one of the most powerful families in American history. The Rockefeller family originated in Rhineland in Germany and family members moved to the Americas in the early 18th century, while through Eliza Davison, with family roots in Middlesex County, New Jersey, John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr. and their descendants are also of Scots-Irish ancestry.
George Henry Bissell was an entrepreneur and industrialist who is often considered the father of the American oil industry. His company, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil, was the first Petroleum company in America. His businesses included oil companies, banks, railroads, and substantial real estate in New York. At his death in 1884, his son Pelham would inherit his fortune, making him among the richest men in the United States.
The du Pont family or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its fortune in the gunpowder business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it expanded its wealth through the chemical industry and the automotive industry, with substantial interests in the DuPont company, General Motors, and various other corporations.
Pierre Samuel du Pont was an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family.
Irénée du Pont I was an American businessman, president of the DuPont company, head of the Du Pont trust and Nazi sympathizer.
The Whitney family is a prominent American family descended from English immigrant John Whitney (1592–1673), who left London in 1635 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The historic family mansion in Watertown, known as The Elms, was built for the Whitneys in 1710. The Whitneys today occupy a distinguished position in American society as a result of their entrepreneurship, wealth, and philanthropy. They are also members of the Episcopal Church.
Robber baron is a term first applied as social criticism by 19th century muckrakers and others to certain wealthy, powerful, and unethical 19th-century American businessmen. The term appeared in that use as early as the August 1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. By the late 19th century, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. The term combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”) in a republic.
The Knickerbocker Club is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in the world.
The Ford family is an American family from the U.S. state of Michigan. They are best known for their control of the Ford Motor Company automobile manufacturer which was originally founded by Henry Ford in the early twentieth century. Henry's grandson William Clay Ford Sr. and his family have controlled the Detroit Lions franchise of the National Football League since late 1963. The Ford family are also members of the Episcopal Church.
The correlation between wealth and religion has been subject to academic research. Wealth is the status of being the beneficiary or proprietor of a large accumulation of capital and economic power. Religion is a socio-cultural system that often involves belief in supernatural forces and may intend to provide a moral system or a meaning to life. As of 2015, Christians hold the largest share of global wealth, at around 55%.
The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with famous members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions. Other notable figures include the prominent banker, R.B. Mellon, and his son R.K. Mellon, who provided funding and leadership for the first Pittsburgh Renaissance.
The Men Who Built America is an eight-hour, four-part miniseries docudrama which was originally broadcast on the History Channel in autumn 2012, and on the History Channel UK in fall 2013. The series focuses on the lives of Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Henry Ford. It tells how their industrial innovations and business empires revolutionized modern society. The series is directed by Patrick Reams and Ruán Magan and is narrated by Campbell Scott. It averaged 2.6 million total viewers across four nights.
America's 60 Families is a book by American journalist Ferdinand Lundberg published in 1937 by Vanguard Press. It is an argumentative analysis of wealth and class in the United States, and how they are leveraged for purposes of political and economic power, specifically by what the author contends is a "plutocratic circle" composed of a tightly interlinked group of 60 families.
The surname Yale is derived from the Welsh word "iâl", meaning fertile ground, which was the name of the lordship of Yale in Wales of the royal house of Mathrafal. The name was later given to the estate of Plas-yn-Iâl by the House of Yale, a cadet branch of Mathrafal through the princes of Powys Fadog and Fitzgeralds of Corsygedol.
George W. Gardner (1834–1911) was a grain dealer and the 28th and 30th Mayor of Cleveland, serving two terms as a Republican. He was also co-proprietor with John D. Rockefeller and Maurice B. Clark of the firm Clark, Gardner & Company, later Clark & Rockefeller, commission merchants. They were the largest grain dealers in Cleveland before Rockefeller went on with Clark in the oil industry.
