ANDREW CARNEGIE
“Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania” Vol. 3
Author: Jordan, John W., 1840 – 1941
Pg. 1452
ANDREW CARNEGIE was born at Dumferline, Fife, near Edinburgh, Scotland, November 25, 1835, son of WILLIAM and MARGARET MORRISON CARNEGIE.His father was a weaver of linen goods...In 1848, finding his occupation gone, MR. and MRS. CARNEGIE decided, for the sake of their two boys, to emigrate to the United States...The family settled in Pittsburgh (North Side) where the lad ANDREW obtained work in a cotton mill as bobbin boy at a salary of one dollar and twenty cents per week...(Pg. Z452 picture of ANDREW CARNEGIE)
(Pg. 1453) At the age of thirteen years young CARNEGIE obtained a position in a factory, making bobbins, his duty being to attend the engine that furnished power to the mill...His employer gave him a place in his office.At the age of fourteen years he secured a position as messenger boy in the office of the Ohio Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, at a salary of two dollars and fifty cents weekly....THOMAS A. SCOTT, superintendent and manger of the Pennsylvania railroad telegraph system, made him his clerk at a salary of thirty-five dollars monthly.He remained with the Pennsylvania thirteen years, and after the election of Mr. Scott to the vice-presidency was appointed superintendent of the Western, or Pittsburgh Division...During the war between the States, MR. CARNEGIE was placed in charge of military railroads and government telegraph lines...(pg. 1454)MR. CARNEGIE became interested in iron manufacture in connection with the Keystone Bridge Company...After a visit to Europe, he saw that steel would surely supplant iron, and on his return introduced the Bessemer process of making steel...(pg. 1455) MR. CARNEGIE had given generously for many years, principally to institutions in the Pittsburgh district...Upon retiring from business the first considerable gift MR. CARNEGIE made was one of five million dollars to his old employees – four millions for pensions and relief, and one million dollars for the endowment of the three institutions (libraries, music halls, workmen's clubs, etc.) at Homestead, Braddock and Duquesne....Mention is necessary of his great educational gift to the city of Pittsburgh, commonly known as the “Carnegie Institute.”This includes a wonderful building located in Schenley Park, covering four acres, and a separate building near by, across a deep ravine, the home of the Carnegie Technical Institute.Under the roof of the larger building is a free library of mammoth proportions, a magnificent gallery, a most perfect music hall, with a great organ where every Sunday afternoon a free organ recital is given; a hall of architecture and department of natural history.Twenty acres of floor space is in use, while the most costly marbles and finest of decorations adorn foyer, halls and stairways.Over the main entrance is engraved: “This Building, dedicated to Literature, Science and Art, is the gift of ANDREW CARNEGIE, to the People of Pittsburgh.”...
(pg. 1456) One fund created by MR. CARNEGIE is “The Hero Fund.”This is a reward to those displaying courage in emergencies, whether on sea or land.A fund for this purpose exists in Pittsburgh, embracing the United States and Canada, and others in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium.A recent newspaper credits MR. CARNEGIE with having achieved his purpose, and states that he has disposed of all of his fortune to a corporation which is to continue the operation of his various gifts generation after generation, except such sums as he will distribute by last will and testament.MR. CARNEGIE had made a statement that “it is a crime for a man to die rich.”He made good his word.
He married, in 1887, LOUISE WHITEFIELD, who had been in closest accord with him in all his plans for disposing of his fortune.Their only child, MARGARET, was born in 1897.Their time is divided between a magnificent estate in Scotland, “Skibo Castle,” and a palatial residence on Fifth Avenue, New York.Honors have been showered upon MR. CARNEGIE: universities have conferred honorary degrees; France created him a knight of the Legion of Honor; the Sorbonne gave him its metal; Saint Andrews, Aberdeen, and Glasgow Universities elected him Lord Rector.In 1886 he published “Triumphant Democracy,” which has run through many editions; this followed his “Around the World (1884); in 1906 appeared his “Gospel of Wealth,” followed by the “Empire of Business”;“Life of Watt,” in 1906; and “Problems of Today”, in 1909.He has always supported the principles of the Republican party, although he strongly opposed the annexation of the Philippines, following the Spanish War.He is as “canny a Scot as e'er drew breath; as shrewd a Yankee as the sun of New England e'er shone upon; as big hearted and happy as an Irishman; as stubborn as an Englishmen”; yet, withal, a man that, take him all in all, stands alone in the magnitude of his achievement.Wallace Bruce, the Scotch-American poet, after a visit to the CARNEGIE Institute in 1896, wrote a poem, presenting a copy to MR. CARNEGIE and one to the Library.
You have wrought a noble poem
In your home of early years,
Aye, a proud prophetic poem
In the land of peerless peers.
Cold the lines that fall and falter
Since the board of Colla passed.
Fruitless offerings on life's altar,
But your work abideth fast.
Oh! to wake the coming ages,
Idle wish of many a seer,
Dead the tome of weary sages,
But your note shall linger clear.
Hark, beneath yon swelling arches,
Knowledge, skill and hope enchime,
As the long procession marches
To the grandest song of time.
Ends on pg. 1457