Some Key Dates and Events In the Life of Andrew Carnegie

by

Professor Joseph Spoerl

Saint Anselm College

1835    Born on Nov. 25 in Dunfermline, Scotland, son of William, a poor handloom weaver, and Margaret (nee Morrison); receives only a few years of formal schooling. His extended family were political radicals (Chartists) and religious nonconformists; they favored a universal franchise and opposed established religion, the British monarchy, British imperialism, and aristocratic privilege.

1848    His father’s livelihood destroyed by steam-powered looms, Carnegies move to Pittsburgh, PA; Carnegie begins work as bobbin-boy in cotton mill. 

1849    Becomes messenger boy in a Pittsburgh telegraph office where he teaches himself Morse code.

1853    Becomes secretary and telegrapher for Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, considered at the time the best-managed corporation in the world. Here Carnegie learns methods of strict cost-accounting and personal accountability that he would apply later to the iron and steel business.

1855    Carnegie’s father William dies, never having recovered from the loss of his livelihood; at age 20, Andrew must support his mother, Margaret,  and younger brother, Tom.

1859    Carnegie named superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of Pennsylvania Railroad.

1861    An ardent Republican and abolitionist, Carnegie volunteers to serve in the Civil War and plays a role in organizing eastern military rail and telegraphic lines for the Union Army.  Within less than a year illness forces him to return to Pittsburgh.

1865    Leaves Pennsylvania Railroad to run his own businesses, chiefly Keystone Bridge Works (founded 1862 as Piper & Shiffler Co.) and an iron manufacturing concern to supply quality iron to Keystone Bridge Works (Cyclops Mills, founded 1864; renamed Union Iron Mills in 1867).

1867    Carnegie moves to New York City; he manages his manufacturing concerns in Pittsburgh by mail and telegraph, nonetheless maintaining tight control and paying great attention to detail.

1868    Another Carnegie enterprise, Freedom Iron and Steel, begins small-scale production of Bessemer steel rails.  Large deposits of iron ore in Upper Michigan are discovered to be phosphorus-free, making mass-production of Bessemer steel possible in U.S.

1872    Carnegie visits Great Britain and tours Bessemer steel plants there.  Carnegie builds the “Lucy” blast furnace in Pittsburgh, 75 feet tall and 20 feet wide.  At a time when an average blast furnace produces 50 tons of pig iron per day, Lucy is soon producing over 100 tons per day.

1873    Carnegie and partners begin construction of the massive Edgar Thomson Steel Mill south of Pittsburgh at Braddock, PA (named for the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad). A financial panic forces Carnegie to liquidate other investments to protect his new steel mill.  Carnegie travels to Europe to sell bonds to supplement the funds supplied by partners. The plant begins operations in 1875 with entirely fire-proof buildings, two 5-ton Bessemer converters, two 5-ton Siemens open-hearth furnaces, a rail-rolling mill, a coal-gas producing department, a boiler department, machine and smithy shops, an electric railway, and a complete waterworks.  At its opening it is the most modern and efficient Bessemer plant in the world.  Moreover, the open-hearth furnaces, included at Carnegie’s insistence, are among the first in the U.S.; they allow the company to produce special-orders of high-grade steel and also prove to be a valuable laboratory for experimentation that will eventually prove the practicality of the open-hearth system for the mass-production of steel.  By the late 1880s, the open-hearth furnace begins to rival the Bessemer converter.

1874    Keystone Bridge Works completes first bridge across Mississippi River at St. Louis, the Eads Bridge (begun 1868); 1500 feet long and still in use today, it includes the longest iron beams ever rolled in America up to that time.  Though mainly iron, it is the first bridge to incorporate large quantities of steel.  Carnegie plays a major role in this project.

1877    Carnegie institutes the eight-hour workday at the Edgar Thomson Works.  His competitors do not follow suit, and in 1888 Carnegie reverts to the 12-hour day to keep his labor costs competitive.

1878    Carnegie Steel lands contract to manufacture the steel beams for the Brooklyn Bridge (completed 1883).

1879    While traveling in Europe Carnegie learns of the newly-patented Thomas basic process and organizes a group of steel manufacturers to purchase permission collectively to use it in U.S.  Negotiations last two years; after 1881, vast stores of phosphorus-laden iron ore thereby become useable. 

1881    Carnegie builds a new public library in Dunfermline, Scotland; by the time of his death, he will pay for 2811 free public libraries, 1946 of them in the U.S., including a good portion of the New York City public library system (65 branches). 

1883    Carnegie Steel purchases majority of shares in Frick Coke Company to secure supply of coke, deepening Carnegie’s partnership with the brilliant and ruthless manager Henry Clay Frick, whom he had first met in 1881; Frick stays on as general manager and chairman of the board of Frick Coke Co.  Carnegie Steel also purchases Homestead Mill, with its modern Bessemer converters, rolling mills, and unionized workforce; the previous owners sell at a loss out of frustration over labor difficulties at the Homestead mill.

1885    The first steel-framed office building in the U.S. is completed in Chicago (the Home Insurance Building), with steel beams made by Carnegie Steel.

1886    Death of Carnegie’s mother Margaret and brother Tom.  Carnegie overcomes his pacifist scruples and begins to produce steel armor for U.S. Navy.

1887    Carnegie marries Louise Whitfield.

1889    Frick appointed Chairman of Carnegie Steel; his ownership stake in Carnegie Steel is increased from 2% to 11%.

1890    Carnegie and Frick purchase the innovative Duquesne Steel Works for bargain price after spreading false reports about the quality of its rails. They then adopt Duquesne’s new continuous manufacturing technology at their other mills.

1892    Homestead strike put down, the union broken.  Carnegie uses spies to prevent any reorganizing of the union.  U.S. steel mills will remain largely non-union until the 1935 National Labor Relations Act makes it illegal to fire employees for union activity.  Also in this year the first iron ore is shipped from the Mesabi range in northern Minnesota, which proves to be the most valuable iron ore deposit ever discovered in North America; strip-mined Mesabi ore is cheaper to produce than was possible by hard-rock mining of older deposits.

1896    Carnegie and Rockefeller enter a partnership to mine and ship iron ore from the Mesabi range.

1897    Daughter Margaret born; Carnegie purchases and begins rebuilding Skibo Castle in Scotland, his summer residence until 1914.

1900    Frick and Carnegie bitterly break up their partnership, arguing over the value of Frick’s shares in Carnegie Steel.  Also in this year Carnegie founds Carnegie Institute of Technology (today Carnegie-Mellon University, in Pittsburgh).

1901    Carnegie Steel sold to J. P. Morgan, who forms U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion-dollar corporation.  Collecting $300,000,000, Carnegie becomes richest man in world,  begins philanthropic endeavors by granting pensions to Carnegie Steel’s  retired and disabled steelworkers and families of those killed on the job.  Also founds Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

1902    Establishes Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC to fund scientific research.  Carnegies move into new mansion on 91st St. in New York City.

1906    Establishes Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to support higher education.

1907    A life-long pacifist, Carnegie builds the Peace Palace for the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in the hope that arbitration might replace war as a means of settling international disputes.

1909    Begins writing Autobiography, on which he ceases work in 1914; published posthumously in 1920.

1910    Establishes the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

1911    Establishes Carnegie Corporation of New York to fund philanthropic endeavors such as library construction, universities, technical schools, and scientific research.  The bulk of Carnegie’s remaining fortune goes into this endowment ($125,000,000).

1913    Establishes the United Kingdom Trust to fund philanthropic endeavors in Great Britain, especially public library construction.

1919    Dies on August 11 at his Shadowbrook estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, having given away about ninety percent of his fortune.

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