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The Chicago Business Elite: 1830–1930. A Collective Biography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Jocelyn Maynard Ghent  and
Frederic Cople Jaher
Jocelyn Maynard Ghent
Affiliation:
Urbana, Illinois
Frederic Cople Jaher
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois, Urbana
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Abstract

To the literature on social mobility and the question of earned versus inherited fortunes, Professor Jaher and Dr. Ghent add findings for the city of Chicago in the late nineteenth century that are in strong contrast to simuar studies for other cities. From the Civil War to the turn of the century, Chicago's rate of economic growth far exceeded the national average, and out of 1186 members of the Chicago business elite whose careers were embraced by the years 1830 to 1930, fully two-thirds made their own fortunes. This phenomenon was especially strong in manufacturing and the aggressive young industries of meatpacking and railroading.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1976 , pp. 288 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1976

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References

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2 Gutman, “Reality of the Rags-To-Riches ‘Myth’,” 108.

3 Ibid., passim.

4 Pessen, Riches, Class, and Power, 85.

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6 The 1,186 businessmen that we designated as the Chicago business elite were obviously not of equal eminence. No explanation is needed for the selection of Marshall Field, Philip D. Armour, Julius Rosenwald, George M. Pullman, Cyrus H. McCormick, Charles T. Yerkes, Samuel Insull, and Charles G. Dawes. The inclusion of other businessmen of less historical and national renown, but of considerable local importance and repute, needs more elaborate justification. Our standards were size of personal fortune (see below), rank within firm (proprietor, partner or chief executive), offices and board memberships in other important business establishments, positions held in such business associations as the Chicago Chamber of Commerce, and rank of firm in the local economic system. This last criterion consisted of the significance of the type of enterprise in the local economy (the most important types of business activity are listed in Table 1) and the particular firm's place in that category of business endeavor. Where quantitative data were available, the rank of the firm was determined by total assets, productivity, and share of the local or national market. Where such evidence was unavailable, we used local histories and other sources that described the role that the particular firm and its leaders played in the local economy. The changing historical context and the varying importance of the top concerns in different fields of business endeavor prevented us from using such uniform standards as the top five or ten establishments in any given field. For example, department store enterprise was relatively oligopolistic, but real estate operations, the commodity market and commercial banking, the latter at least before the 1890s, were not dominated by a few firms.

The data that provided the basis for our list of leading business figures was obtained through the following sources and strategy. Size of personal fortune and income came from biographies, obituaries, and newspaper articles. These sources sometimes contained inventories of wills. The federal income tax list of 1863 and the compilation of Chicago millionaires of 1892 (see references in footnote 7) provided additional information on the wealthiest businessmen. The sketches in the histories of Chicago and the biographical compilations cited in footnote 7 often contained substantial information about the commercial status and activities of their subjects. They invariably mentioned the type of business in which the subject was engaged, usually specified the firm with which he was associated, and frequently listed other activities, i.e. offices or directorships in other companies and in local business associations. The names obtained from these sources were then checked in national and sectional biographical volumes such as Who's Who in America, the Dictionary of American Biography, and Who's Who in the Central States. If individuals had sufficient eminence to appear in these places they were included in our list. Those who did not appear in the national and sectional biographical collections were checked in studies of prominent figures in various fields of business such as Leonard, John William, ed. Who's Who in Finance (New York, 1911).Google Scholar In addition to these sources, information regarding commercial position of Chicago businessmen and firms can be found in the standard histories of the city: Moses and Kirkland, History of Chicago, Illinois, Andreas, History of Chicago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, and Pierce, A History of Chicago (see full references in footnote 7) contain a wealth of data about the ranking and assets of various firms and businessmen. Similar information was obtained from more specialized local studies such as Huston, Financing an Empire, A History of Chicago Banking, James, F. Cyril, The Growth of Chicago Banks, 2 vols. (New York, 1938)Google Scholar, Josiah S. Currey, Manufacturing and Wholesale Industries of Chicago, Charles H. Taylor, History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, a mine of information on the great grain dealers and their firms, Hoyt, Homer, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago (Chicago, 1933)Google Scholar, a history of Chicago real estate, Clemen, Rudolf A., The American Livestock and Meat Industry (New York, 1923)Google Scholar, and Weber, Harry P., An Outline of Chicago Traction (Chicago, 1936).Google Scholar Pullman, Field, Armour, McCormick, Insull, Rosenwald, Dawes, meatpackers Edward Cudahy and Gustavus W. Swift, realtor-capitalist William B. Ogden, manufacturer Richard T. Crane, merchants Harlow N. Higinbotham and John V. Farwell, and bankers James B. Forgan and Lyman J. Gage wrote autobiographies or memoirs, or were the subjects of biographies. These sources yielded information about themselves, their firms, and the activities of their associates and competitors.

7 Biographical data are from the following sources: Pierce, Bessie Louise, A History of Chicago, 3 vols. (New York, 1937–1957)Google Scholar; Moses, John and Kirkland, Joseph, History of Chicago, Illinois, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1895)Google Scholar; Andreas, A. T., History of Chicago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1884–1886)Google Scholar; Huston, Francis M., Financing an Empire, 4 vols. (Chicago, 1926), II-IVGoogle Scholar; Currey, Josiah S., Manufacturing and Wholesale Industries of Chicago, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1918), II-IIIGoogle Scholar; N.a., Chicago: Its History and Its Builders: A Century of Marvelous Growth, 5 vols. (Chicago, 1912), IV-V; Taylor, Charles H., ed., History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1917), IIIGoogle Scholar; N.a., Industrial Chicago, 6 vols. (Chicago, 1891–1896), III-VI; Wood, David Ward, Chicago and Its Distinguished Citizens or the Progress of Forty Years (Chicago, 1881)Google Scholar; Gilbert, Paul and Bryson, Charles Lee, Chicago and Its Makers (Chicago, 1929)Google Scholar; N.a., Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois (Chicago, 1897); Waterman, A. N., Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1908)Google Scholar; N.a., Portrait and Biographical Record of DuPage and Cook Counties, Illinois (Chicago, 1894); N.a., Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago (Chicago, 1868); Goodspeed, Thomas Wakefield, The University of Chicago Biographical Sketches, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1925)Google Scholar; N.a., In Memoriam. Founders and Makers of Illinois (Chicago, n.d.); N.a., The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Illinois Volume (Chicago, 1876, 1883); N.a., The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1875); Bushnell, W. B., Biographical Sketches of Some of the Early Settlers of Chicago (Chicago, 1876)Google Scholar; N.a., The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1892); N.a., A Biographical History with Portraits of Prominent Men of the Great West (Chicago, 1894); Pritchard, E. R., Illinois of To-Day and Its Progressive Cities (Chicago, 1897)Google Scholar; Moses, John, ed., Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of the Representative Men of the United States. Illinois Volumes, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1892)Google Scholar; Flinn, John J., The Hand-Book of Chicago Biography. A Compendium of Useful Biographical Information for Reference and Study (Chicago, 1893)Google Scholar; Palmer, John M., ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1899)Google Scholar; Hall, Henry, ed., America's Successful Men of Affairs, 2 vols. (New York, 1896); IIGoogle Scholar; N.a., Men of Illinois (Chicago, 1912); Bishop, Glenn A. and Gilbert, Paul T., Chicago's Accomplishments and Leaders (Chicago, 1932)Google Scholar; N.a., Illinois and Its Builders (Chicago, 1925); Dunne, Edward F., Illinois the Heart of the Nation, 5 vols. (Chicago, 1933), III-VGoogle Scholar; Smith, George W., History of Illinois and Her People, 6 vols. (Chicago, 1925), IV-VIGoogle Scholar; N.a., Centennial History of the City of Chicago. Its Men and Institutions (Chicago, 1905); N.a., Prominent Citizens and Industries of Chicago (Chicago, 1901); Leonard, John W., ed., The Book of Chicagoans. A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago (Chicago, 1905)Google Scholar; N.a., Notable Men of Illinois and Their State (Chicago, 1912); N.a., Notable Men of Chicago and Their City (Chicago, 1910); Herringshaw, Mae F., ed., Clark J. Herringshaw's City Blue Book of Current Biography, Chicagoans of 1914 (Chicago, 1914)Google Scholar; Who's Who in the Central States. A Business, Professional and Social Record of Men and Women of Achievement in The Central States, 1929 (Washington, D.C., 1929); Malone, Dumas and Schuyler, Robert L., eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 22 vols. (New York, 1928–1958)Google Scholar; Who's Who in America 1899–1940 (Chicago). For individual biographies, we also consulted obituary articles in the New York Times, the Chicago Daily Tribune, the Chicago Record Herald, and the Chicago Inter-Ocean, memoirs of Chicago businessmen and other prominent residents, biographies and autobiographies of business leaders, and magazine and journal articles on the prominent businessmen. We also obtained names of wealthy Chicago businessmen from “Incomes of the First District of Illinois. List of Incomes Above and Including $3,000. Returned to the Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Year Ending December 31, 1863, Upon Which a Tax of Five Percent is assessed,” Chicago Tribune, January 7, 1865, 9; “American Millionaires,” The Tribune Monthly, 4 (June, 1892), 12–15. These varied sources were cross-checked to ensure accuracy.

8 For Paterson's growth see Gutman, “Reality of the Rags-to-Riches ‘Myth’,” 104–106.

9 Pierce, History, I, 44; II, 481–482; III, 20; Hoyt, Homer, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago (Chicago, 1933), 279–280, 483.Google Scholar

10 Moses and Kirkland, History, I, 141; Andreas, History, I, 183, 571; Hoyt, One Hundred Years, 55–56, 58, 337, 440; Norris, J. W., Norris' Business Directory and Statistics of the City of Chicago for 1846 (Chicago, 1883), 15Google Scholar; Pierce, History, II, 76; III, 154–156; Hill, Howard Copeland, “The Development of Chicago as a Center of the Meat Packing Industry,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, X (1923), 262.Google Scholar

11 Moses and Kirkland, History, I, 294; Bogart, Ernest L. and Thompson, Charles H., The Industrial State, 1870–1893 (Chicago, 1922), 376–378.Google Scholar

12 Hoyt, One Hundred Years, 481; Bogart and Thompson, Industrial State, 389; Bogart, and Mathews, John M., The Modern Commonwealth. 1893–1918 (Springfield, 1920), 94–95, 97, 102, 104, 107, 392, 400Google Scholar; Riley, Elmer A., The Development of Chicago and Vicinity as a Manufacturing Center Prior to 1880 (Chicago, 1911), 109, 128Google Scholar; McLaughlin, Glenn E., Growth of American Manufacturing Areas (Pittsburgh, 1938), 54–55, 98, 100–103, 111, 158–159, 166–170Google Scholar; N.a., Industrial Chicago, III, 596–630; Moses and Kirkland, History, I, 240–241; II, 447–478, 463.

13 James, F. Cyril, The Growth of Chicago Banks, 2 vols. (New York, 1938), I, 512Google Scholar; Rice, Wallace, The Chicago Stock Exchange (Chicago, 1923), 35–36Google Scholar; Hoyt, One Hundred Years, 489; Palyi, Melchior, The Chicago Credit Market (Chicago, 1937), 8–9, 210–211, 215–231, 252–254Google Scholar; Dawes, Charles G., “Chicago as a Banking Center,” The World Today, 13 (July 12, 1907), 914–915Google Scholar; Huston, Financing, I, 367; N.a., Industrial Chicago, IV, 176–184, 310; Moses and Kirkland, History, I, 532; Pierce, History, III, 201–203.

14 Hoyt, One Hundred Years, 205, 237, 242, 265–276, 337, 381, 470, 481, 487, 489; N.a., “Chicago as a Money Market,” University of Illinois Bureau of Business Research, Bulletin, No. 17 (1928), 13; Palyi, Chicago, 1, 4, 8–9, 11, 16, 52–54, 62–64, 67–68, 84–95, 252–254; McLaughlin, Growth, 54–55, 98, 100–103, 158–159.

15 Pierce, History, II, 481; III, 515.

16 Thernstrom, Stephan, Poverty and Progress, Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Cambridge, 1964), 102Google Scholar; Knights, Peter R., The Plain People of Boston, 1830–1860 (New York, 1971), 106–107Google Scholar; Thernstrom, Stephan and Knights, Peter R., “Men in Motion: Some Data and Speculations About Urban Population Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America,” Hareven, Tamara K., ed., Anonymous Americans. Explorations in Nineteenth-Century Social History (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1971), 32–33Google Scholar; Alcorn, Richard, “Leadership and Stability in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America: A Case Study of an Illinois Town,” Journal of American History LXI (December, 1974), 694–698.Google Scholar

17 Vintage of wealth is the most elusive and imprecise variable in this study. Where descendants of rich Chicago entrepreneurs became prominent business figures in their own right we sometimes had quantitative data on the size of ancestral accumulations. Otherwise we relied on the family background descriptions in the biographical sources. Many of the figures in this study appeared in more than one source, hence we frequently were able to cross-check the economic background of the leading businessmen. We ranked only those with clearly defined financial backgrounds. The sketches, memoirs, biographies and autobiographies of this elite often contained definite statements about their early life, the resources of their parents, and, more rarely, the pecuniary conditions of their grandparents. Such information, when available, enabled us to place the subject in one of the vintage of wealth categories. Particularly helpful in this regard were the paternal occupations of the self-made group, especially when they were described as poor or small farmers, or skilled or semi-skilled laborers. Since vintage of wealth is a category that measures generational origin of fortune, we included in the first generation designation those who, born into poor or moderate circumstances, later married money. They were the architects of their own wealth in the sense that they had not inherited riches from parents or more remote ancestors, although they may have used their entrepreneurial ability to make strategic alliances that aided their careers.

18 The latest and best treatments of political activity and party membership in the midwest are Kleppner, Paul J., The Cross of Culture (New York, 1970)Google Scholar; and Jensen, Richard J., The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888 to 1896 (Chicago, 1971).Google Scholar

19 Gregory and Neu, “American Industrial Elite,” 200; Miller, “American Historians and the Business Elite,” 326; Mills, “American Business Elite,” 122; Newcomer, Big Business Executive, 63.