The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captains of Industry, by James Parton pot

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Industry, by James Parton
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Title: Captains of Industry
or, Men of Business Who Did Something
Besides Making Money
Author: James Parton
Release Date: January 4, 2007 [EBook
#20064]
[This file was first posted on December 9,
2006]
Language: English
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CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY ***
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CAPTAINS OF
INDUSTRY
OR
MEN OF BUSINESS
WHO DID

SOMETHING
BESIDES MAKING
MONEY
A BOOK FOR YOUNG
AMERICANS
BY
JAMES PARTON
FIFTH THOUSAND
BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND
COMPANY
New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1890
Copyright, 1884,
By JAMES PARTON.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S.
A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton
& Company.
PREFACE.
In this volume are presented examples of
men who shed lustre upon ordinary
pursuits, either by the superior manner in
which they exercised them or by the noble
use they made of the leisure which success
in them usually gives. Such men are the
nobility of republics. The American

people were fortunate in having at an
early period an ideal man of this kind in
Benjamin Franklin, who, at the age of
forty-two, just mid-way in his life,
deliberately relinquished the most
profitable business of its kind in the
colonies for the sole purpose of
developing electrical science. In this, as
in other respects, his example has had
great influence with his countrymen.
A distinguished author, who lived some
years at Newport, has expressed the
opinion that the men who occupy the villas
of that emerald isle exert very little power
compared with that of an orator or a
writer. To be, he adds, at the head of a
normal school, or to be a professor in a
college, is to have a sway over the
destinies of America which reduces to
nothingness the power of successful men
of business.
Being myself a member of the fraternity of
writers, I suppose I ought to yield a joyful
assent to such remarks. It is flattering to
the self-love of those who drive along
Bellevue Avenue in a shabby hired
vehicle to be told that they are personages
of much more consequence than the heavy
capitalist who swings by in a resplendent
curricle, drawn by two matched and

matchless steeds, in a six-hundred dollar
harness. Perhaps they are. But I advise
young men who aspire to serve their
generation effectively not to undervalue
the importance of the gentleman in the
curricle.
One of the individuals who has figured
lately in the society of Newport is the
proprietor of an important newspaper. He
is not a writer, nor a teacher in a normal
school, but he wields a considerable
power in this country. Fifty men write for
the journal which he conducts, some of
whom write to admiration, for they are
animated by a humane and patriotic spirit.
The late lamented Ivory Chamberlain was
a writer whose leading editorials were of
national value. But, mark: a telegram of
ten words from that young man at
Newport, written with perspiring hand in
a pause of the game of polo, determines
without appeal the course of the paper in
any crisis of business or politics.
I do not complain of this arrangement of
things. I think it is just; I know it is
unalterable.
It is then of the greatest possible
importance that the men who control
during their lifetime, and create
endowments when they are dead, should

share the best civilization of their age and
country. It is also of the greatest
importance that young men whom nature
has fitted to be leaders should, at the
beginning of life, take to the steep and
thorny path which leads at length to
mastership.
Most of these chapters were published
originally in "The Ledger" of New York,
and a few of them in "The Youths'
Companion" of Boston, the largest two
circulations in the country. I have
occasionally had reason to think that they
were of some service to young readers,
and I may add that they represent more
labor and research than would be
naturally supposed from their brevity.
Perhaps in this new form they may reach
and influence the minds of future leaders
in the great and growing realm of
business. I should pity any young man who
could read the briefest account of what
has been done in manufacturing towns by
such men as John Smedley and Robert
Owen without forming a secret resolve to
do something similar if ever he should
win the opportunity.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS.
David Maydole,

Hammer-Maker 9
Ichabod Washburn,
Wire-Maker 18
Elihu Burritt, the
Learned Blacksmith 27
Michael Reynolds,
Engine-Driver 36
Major Robert Pike,
Farmer 43
George Graham,
Clock-Maker, buried
in Westminster Abbey 51
John Harrison,
Exquisite Watch-
Maker 58
Peter Faneuil, and the
Great Hall he built 65
Chauncey Jerome,
Yankee Clock-Maker 79
Captain Pierre
Laclede Liguest,
Pioneer 89
Israel Putnam, Farmer 96
George Flower,
Pioneer 104
Edward Coles,
Noblest of the
Pioneers, and his
Great Speech
117

Peter H. Burnett,
Banker 126
Gerrit Smith 133
Peter Force, Printer 140
John Bromfield,
Merchant 148
Frederick Tudor, Ice
Exporter 156
Myron Holley,
Market-Gardener 163
The Founders of
Lowell 170
Robert Owen, Cotton-
Manufacturer 180
John Smedley,
Stocking-
Manufacturer
188
Richard Cobden,
Calico Printer 195
Henry Bessemer 206
John Bright,
Manufacturer 212
Thomas Edward,
Cobbler and
Naturalist 224
Robert Dick, Baker
and Naturalist 232
John Duncan, Weaver
and Botanist 240

James Lackington,
Second-Hand
Bookseller 247
Horace Greeley's
Start 254
James Gordon
Bennett, and how he
founded his "Herald"
264
Three John Walters,
and their Newspaper 275
George Hope 288
Sir Henry Cole 294
Charles Summers 300
William B. Astor,
House-Owner 307
Peter Cooper 313
Paris-Duverney,
French Financier 332
Sir Rowland Hill 342
Marie-Antoine
Carème, French Cook
349
Wonderful Walker,
Parson of all Work 355
Sir Christopher Wren 363
Sir John Rennie,
Engineer 372
Sir Moses Montefiore 379
Marquis of Worcester,

Inventor of the Steam-
Engine 385
An Old Dry-Goods
Merchant's
Recollections 392
PORTRAITS.
ICHABOD
WASHBURN Frontispiece.
CHAUNCEY
JEROME 79
GERRIT
SMITH 133
MYRON
HOLLEY 163
JOHN
BRIGHT 212
JOHN
DUNCAN 240
PETER
COOPER 313
SIR
ROWLAND
HILL 342
CAPTAINS OF
INDUSTRY.
DAVID MAYDOLE,
HAMMER-MAKER.
When a young man begins to think of
making his fortune, his first notion usually
is to go away from home to some very

distant place. At present, the favorite spot
is Colorado; awhile ago it was California;
and old men remember when Buffalo was
about as far west as the most enterprising
person thought of venturing.
It is not always a foolish thing to go out
into the world far beyond the parent nest,
as the young birds do in midsummer. But I
can tell you, boys, from actual inquiry, that
a great number of the most important and
famous business men of the United States
struck down roots where they were first
planted, and where no one supposed there
was room or chance for any large thing to
grow.
I will tell you a story of one of these men,
as I heard it from his own lips some time
ago, in a beautiful village where I
lectured.
He was an old man then; and a curious
thing about him was that, although he was
too deaf to hear one word of a public
address, even of the loudest speaker, he
not only attended church every Sunday, but
was rarely absent when a lecture was
delivered.