Carnegie Steel Company To J.P. example essay topic

473 words
Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland on November 25, 1835. In May of 1948, at the age of twelve, he immigrated to the United States with his parents William and Margaret, and his younger brother Thomas. Then, at the age of thirteen, Andrew got his first job working in a cotton factory for $1.20 per week. A year later he took a job as a messenger boy for a telegraph service. While in this job, he taught himself telegraphy and eventually changed jobs to work for Thomas Scott.

Andrew was so successful as Mr. Scott's personal assistant (working at $35 per month) that he eventually took over Mr. Scott's position as Superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. After spending 12 years with the railroad company Carnegie invested in the Woodruff Sleeping Car, producers of the first sleeping car. In 1865, Carnegie helped form the Keystone Bridge Company, a company that made steel bridges instead of wooden ones. Finally, realizing that the future of Pittsburgh may rely on steel, Carnegie left the railroad company and built the J. Edgar Thompson Steel Mill.

By 1901, The Carnegie Steel Company basically ran the steel business in Pittsburgh, and was involved with every other steel company in and around Pittsburgh. Also, in 1901 he sold the Carnegie Steel Company to J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Company, probably catapulting J.P. Morgan's career. Being a man of unlimited wealth, his career was doing very well, as he was making about $50,000 annually, Andrew Carnegie believed in distributing and sharing it with many different people. The first endowment he made was for the building of public baths in his home of Dunfirmline, Scotland.

His first donation to a library was also in this part of Scotland in 1882. Actually, Carnegie gave back most of his money. Over 300,000,000 dollars of it would go to the Carnegie Dunfirmline Trust, The Carnegie Hero Fund, The Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, and The Carnegie Endowment for World Peace. During the end of his life, Carnegie devoted himself as an advocate for world peace. He built the Huge Peace Palace in the Netherlands, and the Pan American Union building in Washington D.C. to support international peace. Andrew Carnegie died on August 11, 1919, in Lennox, Massachusetts.

During his lifetime he gave much back to Pittsburgh. Overall, by the time he had died, Carnegie gave approximately $350,695,653 away, and gave an additional $30,000,000 to pensions, foundations, and charities. He also, eventually, funded 2,507 libraries, 1,689 in the United States, 660 in Great Britain, and 125 in Canada. Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men ever to live, and made Pittsburgh what it is today..