Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made

CHAPTER I.. Stephen Girard.

STEPHEN GIRARD.

The fog in the Delaware--News of the war--Alarm of the French skipper--A narrow escape from capture--Arrival of Girard in Philadelphia--Early history of Stephen Girard--An unhappy childhood--Goes to sea--Is licensed to command--Becomes a trader in Philadelphia--Marries Mary Lum--Unfortunate issue of the marriage--Capture of Philadelphia by the British--Early commercial life of Stephen Girard--How he earned his first money, and the use he made of it--Aid from St. Domingo--His rigid attention to business--Thoroughness of his knowledge--One of his letters of instructions--His subordinates required to obey orders though they ruin him--Anecdote of Girard and one of his captains--His promptness and fidelity in business--He never breaks his word--How he lost five hundred dollars--Buys the old Bank of the United States and becomes a banker--Cuts down the salaries of his clerks--Refuses his watchman an overcoat--Indifference to his employés--Contrast between his personal and business habits--His liberality in financial operations--He subscribes for the entire Government loan in 1814, and enables the United States to carry on the war--His generosity toward the Government--The suspension of specie payments--Financial troubles--How Girard saved his own notes--His public spirit--How he made half a million of dollars on a captured ship--Personal characteristics--Why he valued money--His ambition--His infidelity--Causes of the defects of his character--A favorable view--Heroic conduct of Stephen Girard during the prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia--The Good Samaritan--He practices medicine, and congratulates himself that he has killed none of his patients--His industry--Visit of Mr. Baring to Mr. Girard--A curious reception--Failing health and death of Stephen Girard--His will--His noble bequests--Establishment of Girard College.

CHAPTER II.. John Jacob Astor.

JOHN JACOB ASTOR.

Legitimate business the field of success--Reasons for claiming Astor as an American--Birth and early life--Religious training--The village of Waldorf--Poverty--The jolly butcher--Young Astor's repugnance to his father's trade--Unhappy at home--Loses his mother--His desire to emigrate to the "New Land"--Leaves home--His voyage down the Rhine--Reaches London and enters the service of his brother--His efforts to prepare for emigration--Learns to speak English--Peace between the United States and Great Britain--The road to the "New Land" open--Astor sets out for America--His first ventures in commerce--The voyage--How he proposed to save his Sunday clothes--Arrival in the Chesapeake--The ice-blockade--Astor makes a friend--The fur trader's story--Astor sees the way to fortune--Reaches New York--His first situation--Learning the business--His method of proceeding--An example to young men--His capacity for business operations--He is promoted--His journeys to Canada, and their results--Sets up in business for himself--The fur trade of North America--A survey of the field of Astor's operations--His capital--His tramps into the wilderness in search of furs--Predictions as to the future settlement of the country--His first consignment to England--His marriage--A good wife--Improvement in his prospects--Buys his first ship--The secret of his success--Close attention to business--His economical habits--His indorsement disputed by a bank clerk--Statements of the profits on furs--He engages in the Chinese trade--How the Government aided the early China traders--Amount made by Astor in his legitimate business--His real estate operations--His foresight and courage--How eight thousand dollars yielded eighty thousand--His real estate in the City of New York--Purchases the half of Putnam County--The Roger and Mary Morris estate controversy--Astor wins his suit, and makes half a million of dollars--Astor's scheme of colonization--A grand enterprise--Settlement of Astoria--Betrayed by his agents, and the scheme brought to failure--Astor withdraws from active business--His boyhood's vow and its fulfillment--Builds the Astor House--His voyage to Europe--The return--The troubles of a millionaire--The great man seasick--A curious draft--The last years of his life--His fondness for literary men--His death and burial--His will--Opposite views of his character--How his refusal to buy a chronometer cost him seventy thousand dollars--He remembers an old friend--His gift of a lease--His humor--"William has a rich father."

CHAPTER III.. Alexander T. Stewart.

ALEXANDER T. STEWART.

Birth and early life--Becomes his grandfather's ward--Designed for the ministry--A change in his plans--Comes to America--Teaches school in New York--Becomes a dry goods merchant--Receives a legacy--His first importation--How he began business--An energetic trader--His sample lots and their history--Success of his enterprise--He begins by encouraging honesty in trade--Wins a name for reliability--The system of selling at one price--Inaugurates the "selling off at cost" feature--His courage in business--How he raised the money to meet his note--Improvement in his business--He enlarges his store--As an inducement to the ladies, employs for clerks handsome young men--The crisis of 1837--Stewart comes out of it a rich man--How he did so--Builds his lower store--Predictions of failure--The result--Compels the Government to purchase goods from him--His foresight and liberality--Charged with superstition--Lucky and unlucky persons--Story of the old apple woman--Remarks at the opening of the St. Nicholas Hotel--Reasons of Stewart's success--A hard worker--How he receives visitors--Running the gauntlet--How he gets rid of troublesome persons--Estimate of Mr. Stewart's real estate in New York--His new residence--His benevolence--Aid for Ireland, and free passages to America--Home for women--Political sentiments--Mr. Stewart's appointment as Secretary of the Treasury--Feeling of the country--The retail store of A.T. Stewart & Co.--A palace of glass and iron--Internal arrangements--The managers and salesmen--List of sales--Wages given--Visitors--The principal salesroom--The parcel department--The wagons and stables--Extravagant purchases--Mr. Stewart's supervision of the upper store--The system of buying--The foreign agencies--Statement of the duties paid each day--Personal appearance of Mr. Stewart.

CHAPTER IV.. Amos Lawrence.

AMOS LAWRENCE.

The Lawrence family--A poor boy--Early education--Delicate health--Obtains a situation at Dunstable--Returns to Groton--Becomes Mr. Brazer's apprentice--The variety store--An amateur doctor--Importance of Groton in "old times"--Responsibility of young Lawrence--Is put in charge of the business--High character--Drunkenness the curse of New England--Lawrence resolves to abstain from liquors and tobacco--His self-command--Completes his apprenticeship--Visits Boston--An unexpected offer--Enters into business in Boston--Is offered a partnership, but declines it--His sagacity justified--Begins business for himself--Commercial importance of Boston--Aid from his father--A narrow escape--lesson for life--Amos Lawrence's method of doing business---An example for young men--His business habits--He leaves nothing unfinished over Sunday--Avoids speculation--His views upon the subject--Introduces double entry in book-keeping into Boston--His liberality to his debtors--Does not allow his business to master him--Property gained by some kinds of sacrifices not worth having--Forms a partnership with his brother Abbott--Business of the firm--They engage in manufactures--Safe business principles--A noble letter--Political opinions--His charities--Statement of his donations--Requests that no public acknowledgment of his gifts be made--Character as a merchant and a man--Advice to his son--His religious character--Loss of his health--His patience and resignation--The model American merchant.

CHAPTER V.. Andrew V. Stout.

ANDREW V. STOUT.

Early struggles--Acquires an education--Undertakes the support of his family--The boy teacher--Hard work--Is made instructor of Latin--A trying position--How he conquered his difficulties--Is made principal of a public school--His first business ventures--Engages in the building of houses--His platform of integrity--His success--A great mistake--He indorses a note--The consequence of a false step--Liberal action of the bank--Mr. Stout resolves to accept no accommodation--Pays the notes, and loses twenty-three thousand dollars--Establishes himself as a wholesale boot and shoe dealer--Enters the dry goods trade--Close attention to business--His system and its success--Organization of the Shoe and Leather Bank of New York--Mr. Stout is made Vice President, and subsequently President--Character as a citizen--Is made City Chamberlain--Generosity to the police force--Interest in church affairs--Kindness to the poor--Encouragement which his career affords others.

CHAPTER VI.. Jonas Chickering.

JONAS CHICKERING.

The largest building in the United States--The Chickering piano factory--Birth of Jonas Chickering--Early love of music--Is apprenticed to a cabinet-maker--Is employed to repair a piano--Succeeds in the undertaking--Consequence of this success--Becomes a piano-maker--Removes to Boston--Is employed as a journeyman--The labor of his life--His patience and skill--Is known as the best workman in the establishment--History of the piano--Chickering's first discovery--His hope of success based on intelligence--Becomes a master of the theory of sound--His studies and their result--Makes an improvement in the framing of pianos--Invents the circular scale for square pianos--Generously makes his invention free--A noble gift to the world--His business operations--Increase in the demand for his instruments--Death of Captain Mackay--Mr. Chickering undertakes the sole charge of his affairs--Fears of his friends--Magnitude of the business--The lawyer's question answered--The mortgages paid--Rapid success of Mr. Chickering--His varied duties--Sharp competition--A bogus Chickering--How a Boston bank lost his custom--His independence in business--His character as a merchant--Trains his sons to succeed him in business--The result of his efforts--The present house of Chickering & Sons--Destruction of the factory--Offers of aid--Mr. Chickering's kindness to his workmen--Sets to work to re-establish his business--The new factory begun--Sudden death of Mr. Chickering.

CHAPTER VII.. Nicholas Longworth.

NICHOLAS LONGWORTH.

The grape interest of the United States--Growing demand for American wines--Instrumentality of Mr. Longworth in producing this success--Early life of Mr. Longworth--Apprenticed to a shoemaker--Removes to South Carolina--Returns to Newark and studies law--Removes to Cincinnati--Admitted to the bar--His first case--Is paid in whisky stills, and trades them for lands which make his fortune--Rapid growth of Cincinnati--The oldest native inhabitant of Chicago--Longworth's investments in real estate--Immense profits realized by him--His experiments in wine growing--History of the Catawba grape--Longworth decides to cultivate it entirely--His efforts to promote the grape culture in the Ohio Valley--Offers a market for all the grape juice that can be brought to him--The result of his labors seen in the Ohio vineyards of to-day--His wine cellars--Amount of wine made annually by him--The process used--How "Sparkling Catawba" is made--Longworth's experiments with strawberries--His liberality--Gift of land to the Observatory--His challenge to a grumbler--Estimate of his character--His eccentricities--His generosity to his tenants--How he made money by helping others to grow rich--His politics--How he subscribed one hundred dollars to elect Clay--His hatred of vagabondage--His stone quarry--How he provided it with laborers--His system of helping the poor--Is charged with stinginess--The "devil's poor"--Personal appearance--The "Hard-times" overcoat--Charity to a millionaire--Death of Mr. Longworth.

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