Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland, to a poor weaver family. His family immigrated to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, around 1848 due to economic hardship. At age 13, he worked as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill for $1.20 per week, then as a telegraph messenger, teaching himself the equipment to become an operator. By 1853, Thomas A. Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, made him private secretary and telegrapher, promoting him to Pittsburgh division superintendent by 1859. During this time, Carnegie invested wisely in sleeping cars, oil, ironworks, railroads, and steamers, amassing significant wealth by age 30 with an annual income of $50,000. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad to focus on bridges and iron, founding the Keystone Bridge Company and adopting the Bessemer process for efficient steel production at his Homestead Steel Works. From 1872–73, he concentrated on steel, building plants with full vertical integration—controlling raw materials, transportation, coal, and furnaces. Partnering with Henry Clay Frick in 1881, he consolidated holdings into Carnegie Steel Company in 1889, dominating U.S. steel output, which surpassed Britain's by 1890 despite events like the 1892 Homestead strike. Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 for $480 million, becoming one of the world's richest men at age 65. He then pursued philanthropy full-time, having earlier built libraries and donated to churches. He funded thousands of libraries, church organs, colleges, and schools globally, established Carnegie-Mellon University in 1904, and created the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911 with $135 million for education and peace, embodying 'scientific philanthropy.' He authored books like 'Triumphant Democracy' and 'The Gospel of Wealth,' influencing figures like Napoleon Hill.