30 Richest Americans of All Time

Alexander Turney Stewart slowly transformed his $3,000 inheritance into one of the largest retail empires in U.S. history. Born in Ireland, Stewart traveled to America to sell dry goods. He became one of the first retailers to offer standard prices instead of haggling with customers. Stewart’s company became so large, it won a contract to supply uniforms for Union soldiers during the Civil War.

At a time when considerable portions of America’s new transportation infrastructure were being built, Andrew Carnegie’s company supplied the needed steel. Carnegie Steel Corporation used technologically advanced methods to make prodigious amounts of steel and it owned the requisite raw materials to make production cheaper. In 1901 Carnegie sold his company for $200 million and focused on philanthropy. He once wrote the “man who dies rich dies disgraced.”

Stephen Van Rensselaer was born into considerable wealth. His father died when he was just 5 and left him a large amount of land and holdings. Stephen Van Rensselaer decided to rent out much of this property and at one point reportedly had as many as 100,000 tenants.

In 1882 Richard Mellon and his brother Andrew took over a bank run by their father. The pair also made money from the steel and coal industries, as well as the new burgeoning railroad business. Andrew ended up entering politics, becoming Treasury secretary, while Richard remained in the private sector.

Though he was born before the founding of the United States, Stephen Girard became one of its most important early business tycoons. He amassed a fleet of trading ships and invested much of his money in the First Bank of the United States. He eventually bought the bank’s assets and used them to lend millions of dollars to the young country. during the War of 1812, keeping its government afloat.