The Gilded Age Family That Gave It All Away: The Carnegies (2024)

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The Gilded Age Family That Gave It All Away: The Carnegies? ›

In fact, the Carnegies signed one of America's first prenuptial agreements, which detailed the terms of the inheritance. That paved the way for Andrew

Margaret Carnegie Miller (March 30, 1897 – April 11, 1990) was the only child of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and Louise Whitfield, and heiress to the Carnegie fortune.

Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie would by today's standards be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars — far more than tech giants like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and even Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest individual in the world as of 2019.

The tycoons : how Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan invented the American supereconomy / Charles R. Morris | Smithsonian Institution.

By age 30, Carnegie had amassed business interests in iron works, steamers on the Great Lakes, railroads, and oil wells. He was subsequently involved in steel production, and built the Carnegie Steel Corporation into the largest steel manufacturing company in the world.

Barely anything is left of Andrew's fortune, which was once valued on par with the oil tycoon Rockefellers and the banking Morgan family. The 13 fourth-generation members of Andrew Carnegie's lineage now have the self-made wealth of white collar professionals.

Were the Russells a real family? The Russells are a fictional family. But the Russells are based on the real-life Vanderbilts, who were considered new money to the older, more established New York families. According to ScreenRant, the Vanderbilts acquired their wealth in shipping and railroads, much like the Russells.

Most sources agree that, adjusting for inflation, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) was the richest man in the United States.

1. The Vanderbilts. The patriarch of this wealthy family built a steamship and railway empire using $100 that he borrowed from his mother in 1810. Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt was so successful that by the end of his life, he had amassed a $100 million fortune.

Indeed, Gates would rank only fourth, behind Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie ($100.5 billion), and Cornelius Vanderbilt ($95.9 billion). The remainder of the top 10, according to Klepper and Gunther, are John Jacob Astor ($78 billion), Stephen Girard (shipping and banking, $55.6 billion), A. T.

Who was richer, Rockefeller or JP Morgan? ›

Even wealthier than JP Morgan was John D. Rockefeller, America's first billionaire and founder of the Standard Oil Company. While Morgan was born into wealth, Rockefeller started at the bottom as a clerk. After the Civil War, Rockefeller realized that oil would be the future of powering an industrialized America.

Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Company in 1870 and dominated the oil industry until the end of the century. He became the world's richest man and the first American worth a billion dollars. He retired in 1897 and spent the last 40 years of his life setting up the defining structure of modern philanthropy.

Of all the writers that Carnegie read and studied throughout his life, he said that the English philosopher Herbert Spencer was the one who influenced him most.

Sale to U.S. Steel and the Birth of a Conglomerate

In 1901, the Carnegie Steel Company was sold to U.S. Steel, a newly formed organization set up by J.P. Morgan. The sale, which was one of the largest business transactions of the early 20th century, made Carnegie one of the richest men in history.

Andrew Carnegie's most trusted confidant was his wife, Louise. “I can't imagine myself without Lou's guardianship,” he often said. He didn't make one decision without first asking “Lou's” opinion. In her quiet manner, she helped oversee one of the largest fortunes in US history, changing philanthropy forever.

During his lifetime, Carnegie gave away over $350 million. Many persons of wealth have contributed to charity, but Carnegie was perhaps the first to state publicly that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes.

Miller and Margaret Carnegie divorced in 1953, with Miller retaining the Millbrook estate and Carnegie relocating to Connecticut. He died in 1983, at 88 years old, while Margaret lived to the age of 93, passing away in 1990.

Carnegie allows J.P. Morgan to buy him out for $480 million, a move which allows Morgan to create US Steel, and makes Carnegie the richest man in the world.

Andrew Carnegie — Carnegie once said, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” While he didn't exactly die a billionaire, giving away massive swaths of his wealth to more than 3,500 public libraries, the Carnegie net worth at his richest was valued in today's dollars between $300 and $372 billion.