ANDREW CARNEGIE
Steel Tycoon, Industrialist & Philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie was born “of poor but honest parents
(Carnegie, p. 2)” on November 25, 1935, in the attic of a small onestory house in Dunfermline, Scotland. His father Will was a hand loom weaver and became unemployed after the introduction of the steam-powered loom to Dunfermline. The family then emigrated to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh.
At the age of 14, Andrew became a bobbin boy at a textile mill earning $1.20 per week.
It was difficult work, but he felt he was doing something for his world – his family. He writes,
“I have made millions since, but none of those millions gave me such happiness as my first week’s earnings (Carnegie, p.34).” Andrew worked his way up from bobbin boy to tending the steam engine boiler to clerk to messenger boy in a telegraph office to a job at Pennsylvania
Railroad in five years’ time.
Andrew lived during the Industrial Age and learned about the railroad industry and business in general from Thomas Scott, the Superintendent, while working for him at
Pennsylvania Railroad. He began investing in 1856. First, he invested in sleeping cars by taking out a loan for $217.50. Two years later, his annual returns were three times greater than his salary from the railroad. He then used that money to invest in oil and received a return of
$17,868 after one year. In 1859, Andrew became superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s western division.
At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, he began working for the Union Army and assisted Thomas Scott, who was then Assistant Secretary of War in charge of the Transportation

Department. Andrew was “in charge of the military railroads and telegraphs of the Government and to organize a force of railway men. It was one of the most important departments of all at the beginning of the war (Carnegie, p. 99).” Andrew had contact with Pres. Abraham Lincoln when he “would occasionally come to the office and sit at the desk awaiting replies to telegraphs or perhaps merely anxious for information (Carnegie, p. 101).”
In 1865, Andrew retired from the railroad and founded the Keystone Bridge Company.
Two years later, in 1867, he founded the Keystone Telegraph Company. Andrew opened his first steel plant in 1875. In 1899, Andrew organized several of his steel companies into Carnegie
Steel and sold out to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million making Andrew Carnegie the richest man in the world.
His future plans were outlined in a letter he wrote in 1868. At age 35 he would retire and live on $50,000 per year, “devoting the remainder of his money to philanthropic causes, and most of his time to education (AE, p. 2).”
Andrew Carnegie published “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889. He argued “the wealthy have a moral obligation to serve as stewards for society (AE, p. 3).”
In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise; to assist, but rarely or never to do all. Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving
(Boardman, p. 219).
He established the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911 to make sure his money would be distributed wisely. The endowment was in the amount of $125,000,000. It was intended to aid colleges, universities, technical schools, and scientific research. He gave away
90% of his fortune. Andrew Carnegie passed away in Shadowbrook, an estate in Massachusetts on August 11, 1919.
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Works Cited
American Experience, (n.d.). Andrew Carnegie Rags to Riches Timeline.
Retrieved March 1,
2012, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/timeline/timeline2.html
.
Bio.True Story, (n.d.). Andrew Carnegie Biography.
Retrieved March 1, 2012, from http://www.biography.com/people/andrew-carnegie-9238756 .
Boardman, C.M., Sandomir, A.N., Sondak, H. (2011). From the Gospel of Wealth, Foundations
of Business Thought, Boston, MA: Pearson.
Carnegie, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie , (1920). Boston and New York.
Retrieved March 1, 2012, from http://books.google.com/books?id=RekoAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=Carnegie
+knows+the+presid...#v=onepage&q=Carnegie%20knows%20the%20presid...&f=true .
Photo, (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2012, from http://shelf1.library.cmu.edu/Andrew/01.htm
.
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