Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American who led the enormous expansions of the steel industry in the late 19th century. Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He died on August 11, 1919 in Shadow Brook, Massachusetts. He was 83 when Bronchial pneumonia caused his fatal death. He was married to Louise Whitfield and they had a girl named Margaret Carnegie Miller. Andrew was know as the second-richest man in history after John Rockefeller.
In 1848 he migrated to the United states with his parents. The cause of this was the changing labor conditions in their native land, where recently introduced steam looms were replacing many workers, Carnegie's father one of many. He was a factory worker in a bobbin factory and this was his first job in the United States. He then became a messenger boy and eventually progressed up the ranks of a telegraph company.
In 1873, Carnegie sold out his other interests and turned his full attention to steel; he began acquiring the components of what would become the Carnegie Steel Company. Charles Schwab was an early assistant who worked for Carnegie and he later became president of U.S. Steel and Bethlehem steel. In 1875, Carnegie he opened his first steel pant he named it for the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, J. Edgar Thompson. Shortly after Carnegie received an enormous order from that organization for the production of steel rails. His wealth that kept growing enabled him to profit from the depression of the 1890's. While others were facing bankruptcy, he managed to gain steel production facilities. By 1900, he controlled almost one-quarter of the nation's steel output.
The worst point in his steel making career was in 1892 during the infamous Homestead Steel Strike. He gained much good will in 1898 when he offered $20 million to the government of the Philippines. In 1901, J.P. Morgan offered to buy all of his steel holdings for the price of $500 million. Carnegie accepted the offer. Morgan than went on to form U.S. Steel, a corporation with a capitalization in excess of $1.4 billion.
He made a lot of money from his steel company and all the Colleges he founded. He gave most of his money to establish libraries, schools, and universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries. Carnegie began with nothing and used his drive and intelligence to become the world's richest man!
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