https://apus-b.wikispaces.com/gilded+age+political+cartoons
The image above represents the big companies having control over railroad industries and having control over certain parts of the country. One of the industrial leaders and large owners of the late 19th century American Railroad industry was Cornelius Vanderbilt. ( Click his name to find out more. )
There are two major corporate leaders that will be remembered in history forever during the 19th century, these men were very intelligent and saw the future in the industry, and how it would become more advanced. Andrew Carnegie was one of these leaders; at the age of eighteen he became a special assistant for Tom Scott who became a western superintendent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He learned a lot from Scott in the time that he was working with him. He mastered how to run trains through Pennsylvania’s mountains and the principle’s of modern management. He made easy profits in railroad related work. He was involved in bridge building, telegraphs, iron and steel mills, and railroad sleeping cars, which was basically having passengers in beds of one kind, the purpose of it was to make night travel more restful. His first fortune came from selling bonds to business European investors.He built Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Steel Company and became the second richest man in the country. His ability to figure out different ways on how to make money really interests me, because he is one man with a great mind that wasn’t afraid to make things happen.
John D. Rockefeller was one of the world’s richest men. How did he get there you may ask? well it was in his early years when he was twenty years old that he decided to get a business partner and work as a commission merchant in hay, meat, and other goods. In the first year the company did good and grossed 450,000. As a devout baptist he knew that if he tried hard enough to be successful everything would fall into it’s right place. In the early 1860’s he saw that getting involved with the oil business was a good idea and opened his first refinery. In the first two years it was the largest in the area. Rockefeller knew that this would be an amazing business opportunity and there would be a lot of money coming his way if he dedicated his time to his work to make it the best that he could. After he did, in his later years he decided to give away more than $530 million to various causes he thought were important. He was a smart man and all of his accomplishments helped shape the U.S in what it is today.
Below is an educational web site on the rise of “Robber Barons; The Captains of Industry”
Below is another site summarizing the development of early industry in the USA.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/timeline/pres_era/3_657.html