Charles Michael Schwab; the hand-written dedication is to Andrew Carnegie

For the founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation brokerage firm, see Charles R. Schwab.

Charles Michael Schwab (February 18, 1862 in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania - October 18, 1939 in London, England) was an American industrialist who became a multimillionaire in the steel industry but died bankrupt. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Andrew Carnegie (last name pronounced IPA: )[1] (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of Pittsburghs Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ... The Charles Schwab Corporation NASDAQ: SCHW is the worlds largest discount broker. ... Charles R. Schwab (born 1937) is the founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation. ... is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about 1862 . ... Williamsburg in Morrison Cove, is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ...

Schwab was born into a German Catholic family in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania and grew up in Loretto, Pennsylvania, which he would always consider his "home town". He attended Saint Francis College, now Saint Francis University, but left after two years to find work in Pittsburgh. Loretto is a borough located in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. ... North Campus Saint Francis University is a four-year, coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Loretto, Pennsylvania. ... Pittsburgh redirects here. ...

He started as a stake driver in Andrew Carnegie's steelworks and in 1897 rose to become president of the Carnegie Steel Company at the age of 35. In 1901, he negotiated the secret buyout of Carnegie Steel to a group of New York-based financiers led by J.P. Morgan. After the buyout, Schwab became the first president of the U.S. Steel Corporation, the company formed out of Carnegie's former holdings. Andrew Carnegie (last name pronounced IPA: )[1] (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of Pittsburghs Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Carnegie-Illinois Steel blast furnaces in Etna, Pennsylvania (1941) Andrew Carnegie constructed a profitable steel mill at Braddock, Pennsylvania in the mid-1870s. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Financier (IPA: /ËŒfi nãn ˈsjei/) is an elegant term for a person who handles large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. ... John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913), American financier and banker, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, a son of Junius Spencer Morgan (1813–1890), who was a partner of George Peabody and the founder of the house of J. S. Morgan & Co. ... The United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States and Central Europe. ...

However Schwab found U.S. Steel to be unwieldy and inefficient. After several clashes with Morgan and company executive Elbert Gary, he resigned in 1903. He left the company to run the Bethlehem Steel Company, which under his direction became the largest independent steel producer in the field. Elbert Henry Gary (1846-1927) was an American lawyer and corporation official, born at Wheaton, Ill. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Bethlehem Steel Corporations manufacturing facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the United States. ...

Part of Bethlehem Steel's success was the development of the H-beam, a precursor of today's ubiquitous I-beam. Charlie Schwab was interested in producing such a wideflange steel beam, a risky venture that required capitalization and new plant construction to make an unproven product. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... I-beams are beams with an I- or H-shaped cross-section. ...

"I've thought the whole thing over," Schwab told his secretary, "and if we are going bust, we will go bust big." It is his most famous remark.

In 1908, Bethlehem Steel began producing the beam, which revolutionized building construction and made possible the age of the skyscraper. Its success helped make Bethlehem Steel the second-largest steel company in the world. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was incorporated, virtually as a company town, by uniting four previous villages. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... For other uses, see Skyscraper (disambiguation). ... Location in Lehigh and Northampton Counties, Pennsylvania Coordinates: , Country State Counties Lehigh and Northampton Founded 1741 Government  - Mayor John B. Callahan Area  - City  19. ... A company town is a town or city in which most or all real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company. ...

In 1910, Schwab broke the Bethlehem Steel strike by calling out the newly-formed Pennsylvania State Police. Schwab kept labor unions out of Bethlehem Steel, which was not organized until 1941, two years after his death. Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ...

Schwab eventually moved to New York City, specifically the Upper West Side, which at the time was considered the "wrong" side of Central Park, and where he built "Riverside", the most ambitious private house ever built in New York. The US$7 million 75 room house combined details from three French chateaux on a full city block. After Schwab's death, New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia turned down a proposal to make the mansion the official mayoral residence, considering it to be too grandiose. It was eventually torn down and replaced by a drab apartment block. The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River above West 59th Street. ... Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres, 3. ... Riverside was the name of an extravagant private residence on the Upper West Side of New York City that existed in the first half of the 20th century. ... A château ( French for castle; plural châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of gentry, usually French, with or without fortifications. ... Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (December 11, 1882–September 20, 1947) was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945. ...

He also owned a 44 room summer estate on 1,000 acres (4 km²) in Loretto called "Immergrün" (German for "evergreen"). The house featured opulent gardens and a nine hole golf course. Rather than tear down the existing house, Schwab had the mansion raised on rollers and moved 200 feet to a new location to make room for the new mansion. Schwab's estate sold Immergrün after his death and it is now Mount Assisi Friary on the grounds of Saint Francis University.

Schwab was considered to be a risk taker and was highly controversial. He circumvented American neutrality laws during the early years of World War I by funneling goods through Canada. After America's entry into the war, he was accused of profiteering but was later acquitted. His lucrative contract providing steel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad came after he provided a US$200,000 "gift" to the mistress of the Grand Duke Alexis Aleksandrovich. Thomas Edison once famously called him the "master hustler". “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The act of price gouging in an undersupplied market. ... Trans-Siberian line in red; Baikal Amur Mainline in green. ... “Edison” redirects here. ...

Schwab was notorious for his "fast lane" lifestyle including opulent parties, high stakes gambling, and a string of extramarital affairs producing at least one illegitimate child. He became an international celebrity when he "broke the bank" at Monte Carlo and traveled in a US$100,000 private rail car named "Loretto".^[1] Even before the Great Depression, he had already spent most of his fortune estimated at between $25 million and US$40 million. Adjusted for inflation, that equates to between $275 million and US$440 million in modern terms. The affairs and the illegitimate child soured his relationship with his wife. Monte Carlo is a very wealthy section of the city-state of Monaco known for its casino, gambling, beaches, glamour, and sightings of famous people. ... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ...

The stock market crash of 1929 finished off what years of wanton spending had started. He spent his last years in a small apartment. He could no longer afford the taxes on "Riverside" and it was seized by creditors. He had offered to sell the mansion at a huge loss but there were no takers. For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ...

At his death ten years later, his holdings in Bethlehem Steel were virtually worthless due to the company's bankruptcy. He was over US$ 300,000 in debt. Had he lived a few more years, he probably would have seen his fortunes restored when Bethlehem Steel was flooded with orders for war material. He was buried in Loretto.

A fine bust-length portrait of Schwab painted in 1903 by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862-1947) was formerly in the Jessica Dragonette Collection at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, but has recently been donated to the American National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Müller-Ury also painted his nephew as a boy in a sailor-suit around the same date. Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862-1947) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter. ...

He was not related to Charles R. Schwab, founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation. Charles R. Schwab (born 1937) is the founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation. ... The Charles Schwab Corporation NASDAQ: SCHW is the worlds largest discount broker. ...

References

• Hessen, Robert, Steel titan: the life of Charles M. Schwab, Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press (1990).
• James H. Bridge, The Inside History of the Carnegie Steel Company (1903)
• Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Elbert H. Gary (1925)
• Arundel Cotter, The Story of Bethlehem Steel (1916) and United States Steel: A Corporation with a Soul (1921)
• Burton J. Hendrick, The Life of Andrew Carnegie (2 vols., 1932; new introduction, 1969)
• Stewart H. Holbrook, Age of the Moguls (1953)
• Joseph Frazier Wall, Andrew Carnegie (1970) and Louis M. Hacker, The World of Andrew Carnegie (1968).
• Burton W. Folsom, Jr., The Myth of the Robber Barons, Young America.
• Hill, Napoleon, Think and Grow Rich (1937)

1. ^ North Carolina Transportation Museum: Rail Equipment1

Ida M. Tarbell, 1904 Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857–January 6, 1944) was a teacher, an author and journalist. ... o_o ... Think and Grow Rich! (ISBN 1-59330-200-2) is a classic motivational book. ...

External Links

• Schwab biography at the Bethlehem website
• Loretto Railcar Restoration