Andrew's father was a weaver, a profession the young Carnegie was expected to follow. The town o Dunfermline, fell on hard times when industrialism made home-based weaving obsolete, leaving workers such as Carnegie’s father, Will, hard pressed to support their families.
Andrew's mother, Margaret, fearing for the survival of her family, pushed the family to leave the poverty of Scotland for the possibilities in America in search of better economic opportunities.
Carnegie and his family immigrated to Pennsylvania, where they lived a better lifestyle. At the age of 13, Carnegie worked from dawn until dark as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, before rising to the position of division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859.
In 1865 he founded the Keystone Bridge Company, where he focused on replacing wooden bridges with stronger iron ones. In three years, he had an annual income of $50,000. By 1868 Carnegie, then 33, was worth $400,000 (nearly $5 million today).
In the early 1870s, he entered the steel business, and over the next two decades became a dominant force in the industry with Carnegie Steel Corporation becoming the largest steel manufacturing company in the world.
In addition to the success of his company, Carnegie became a very successful angel investor. Using the money made through his steel company, he invested in various car companies, messenger services, and land that contained oil reserves.
In 1901, banker John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) purchased Carnegie Steel for some $480 million, making Andrew Carnegie one of the world’s richest men. Retiring from business, Carnegie set about in earnest to distribute his fortune. In addition to funding libraries, he paid for thousands of church organs in the United States and around the world.
Upon his death in 1919, Carnegie had an estimated net worth of $350 million, which, in 2021 dollars, would be worth nearly $5.5 billion.
Andrew Carnegie - Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist
