List of richest Americans in history
- For the contemporary lists, see List of Americans by net worth and Forbes 400.
Most sources agree on John D. Rockefeller being the richest American in history, although they appear to define riches as an individual's wealth as a share of contemporary GDP.
This method of comparing individuals' wealth across time is disputed. For example, economic blogger Scott Sumner noted in 2018 that Rockefeller was worth $1.4 billion dollars when he died in 1937, which is about $24 billion in dollars nowadays. Meanwhile Bill Gates was worth nearly $150 billion in dollars nowadays in 1999.[1]
Second richest in terms of wealth over contemporary GDP is disputed, with various sources listing Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Jacob Astor IV, Bill Gates, or Henry Ford. Most sources agree on Carnegie. Further places are a matter of even bigger debate.
Given the economic rise of the United States of America since its origins, with America becoming the foremost economic power in the world by the late 19th century, the wealthiest men in America were often also the wealthiest men in the world.
Fortune's Wealthiest Americans (1957)
In 1957, Fortune magazine developed a list of the seventy-six wealthiest Americans, which was republished in many American newspapers.
Getty, when asked his reaction on being named wealthiest American and whether he was really worth a billion dollars, said "You know, if you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars" and then famously added, "But remember, a billion dollars isn't worth what it used to be."[2]
The person with the greatest impact on the list was arguably Andrew W. Mellon, who had been dead for 20 years: the second category, covering the second to eighth richest individuals, included his son, daughter, niece and nephew. The list also included seven members of the Rockefeller family, five members of the Ford family, four members of the Du Pont family (and a non-family DuPont executive), and four General Motors executives.
Five separate categories divided the list based on the amount of the fortune. Fortunes smaller than $75,000,000 were not considered worthy of inclusion in the list. Notably[original research?] absent from the list are Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Forrest Mars Sr., Sam Walton, Jack Heinz, Robert Wood Johnson II, Gussie Busch, William Alvin Moncrief, Charles Revson, Malcolm Forbes, William S. Paley, Kay Kimbell, Fred C. Koch, Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy, Electra Waggoner Biggs, Huguette Clark, Estee Lauder and Sunny Von Bulow. As a rough point of comparison, one billion dollars then is close to nine billion dollars today.
$700,000,000 to $1,000,000,000
- Jean Paul Getty, Oil; business headquarters is in Los Angeles, California.
$400,000,000 to $700,000,000
- Mrs Mellon Bruce, the former Ailsa Mellon, New York, New York. Inherited wealth: Mellon Bank, Gulf Oil Company, Alcoa.
- Arthur Vining Davis, Miami, Florida; Alcoa, Florida real estate.,
- H. L. Hunt, Dallas, Texas; independent oil operator.
- Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; inherited wealth.
- Richard King Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; inherited wealth: Alcoa, Gulf Oil, Mellon Bank, etc.
- John D. Rockefeller Jr., New York inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- Mrs. Alan M. Scaife, the former Sarah Mellon, Pittsburgh. Inherited wealth.
$200,000,000 to $400,000,000
- Irénée du Pont, Wilmington, Delaware and Cuba; inherited wealth: E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co.
- William du Pont Jr., Wilmington; inherited wealth: E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co.
- Mrs. Frederick Guest, the former Amy Phipps, Palm Beach, Florida. Inherited wealth.
- Howard Hughes, Los Angeles; inherited wealth: Hughes Tool Company.
- Joseph P. Kennedy, Boston, Massachusetts-New York; real estate.
- Daniel K. Ludwig, New York; National Bulk Carriers.
- Sid Richardson, Fort Worth, Texas; independent Oil operator.
- Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., New York; General Motors Corporation.
$100,000,000 to $200,000,000
- James Abercrombie, Houston, Texas; independent oil operator.
- Vincent Astor, New York; inherited wealth: real estate.
- Stephen Bechtel, San Francisco; construction, Bechtel Corporation.
- William Blakley, Dallas; Braniff Airways, real estate.
- Jacob Blaustein, Baltimore, Maryland; American Oil Company.
- Lammot du Pont Copeland, Wilmington; E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co..
- Clarence Dillon, New York; Dillon, Read & Co.
- Doris Duke, New York. New Jersey. Inherited wealth: tobacco
- Mrs. Alfred I. du Pont, Jacksonville, Florida-Wilmington; inherited wealth: St. Joe Paper Company, E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co..
- Mrs. Edsel Ford, Detroit, Michigan. Inherited wealth: Ford Motor Company
- Amory Houghton, Ambassador to France; inherited wealth: Corning Glass.
- Arthur A. Houghton Jr., New York; Corning Glass.
- Roy Arthur Hunt, Pittsburgh; Alcoa.
- William Keck, Los Angeles; Superior Oil.
- Charles F. Kettering, Dayton, Ohio; General Motors Corporation.
- Mrs. Jean Mauzé, the former Abby Rockefeller, New York. Inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust
- Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, the former Marion Deering, Chicago, Illinois. Inherited wealth
- William L. McKnight, St. Paul, Minnesota; Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
- John Mecom, Houston; independent oil operator.
- Clint Murchison, Dallas; independent oil operator.
- Mrs. Charles Payson, the former Joan Whitney, New York. Inherited wealth.
- John L. Pratt, Fredericksburg, Virginia; General Motors Corporation.
- David Rockefeller, New I York; Chase Manhattan Bank and inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- John D, Rockefeller 3d, New York. inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- Laurance Rockefeller, New York; venture capital: Eastern Air Lines, Reaction Motors, International Nickel and inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- Nelson Rockefeller, New York; Rockefeller Center,-, Inc., International Basic Economy Corporation and inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas; ranching, Ibec Housing and inherited wealth: Standard Oil Trust.
- R. E. Smith, Houston; independent oil operator.
- John Hay Whitney, New York, Ambassador to Britain; venture capital and inherited wealth.
$75,000,000 to 100,000,000
- Michael Late Benedum, Pittsburgh-West Virginia; Benedum-Trees Oil Company, Hiawatha Oil and Gas, etc.
- Donaldson Brown, Port Deposit, Maryland., E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co..
- George R. Brown, Houston; Brown & Root, Inc.
- Herman Brown, Houston; Brown & Root, Inc.
- John Nicholas Brown I, Newport, Rhode Island; inherited wealth: real estate..
- Godfrey L. Cabot, Boston; Godfrey L. Cabot, Inc., etc.
- James A. Chapman, Tulsa, Oklahoma; inherited oil wealth.
- Leo Corrigan, Dallas; real estate.
- Mrs. Horace Dodge, Jr.,, Palm Beach-Detroit. Inherited wealth: automobiles.
- John T. Dorrance, Jr., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; inherited wealth: Campbell Soup Company.
- Benson Ford, Detroit; inherited wealth: Ford Motor Company.
- Henry Ford 2d, Detroit; inherited wealth: Ford Motor Company.
- William C. Ford, Detroit, inherited wealth: Ford Motor Company.
- Erle P. Halliburton, Duncan, Oklahoma; Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company (died in Los Angeles Oct. 13, 1957).
- Averell Harriman, Albany¬New York; Governor of New York. Inherited wealth: Investment banking.
- Henry J. Kaiser, Oakland, California; Kaiser Industries, etc.
- John W., Kieckhefer, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Prescott, Arizona; Kieckhefer Container, Eddy Paper (absorbed by Weyerhaeuser).
- Robert Kleberg Jr., King Ranch, Texas.; inherited wealth: cattle, oil, land.
- John E. Mabee, Tulsa; independent oil operator.
- John D. MacArthur, Chicago; Bankers Life and Casualty Company.
- A. H. Meadows; Dallas; General American Oil.
- Charles S. Mott, Flint, Michigan; General Motors Corporation.
- John M. Olin, Alton, Illinois; inherited wealth: Olin Mathieson Chemical.
- Spencer T. Olin, Alton, Ill.; inherited wealth: Olin Mathieson Chemical.
- J. Howard Pew, Philadelphia; inherited wealth: Sun Oil Company.
- Joseph Pew, Philadelphia; inherited wealth: Sun Oil.
- Mrs. M. Merriweather Post, Washington, DC; inherited wealth: General Foods.
- James Sottile Jr., Miami; Pan American Bank.
- George W. Strake, Houston; inherited wealth: independent oil operator.
- Louis Wolfson, Miami Beach, Florida; Merritt-Chapman & Scott, New York Shipbuilding, etc.
- Robert Woodruff, Atlanta, Georgia; The Coca-Cola Company.
Klepper & Gunther (1996)
In the 1996 book The Wealthy 100, authors Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther placed John D. Rockefeller atop the list of the richest Americans in history, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor.[3] Bill Gates was the top living person, coming in fifth.
American Heritage (1998)
American Heritage magazine published the following list of 40 richest Americans ever in 1998.[4]
- John D. Rockefeller
- Andrew Carnegie
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- John Jacob Astor
- Bill Gates
- Stephen Girard
- Alexander Turney Stewart
- Frederick Weyerhaeuser
- Jay Gould
- Marshall Field
- Sam Walton
- Henry Ford
- Warren Buffett
- Andrew W. Mellon
- Richard B. Mellon
- James Graham Fair
- William Weightman
- Moses Taylor
- Russell Sage
- John Insley Blair
- Cyrus H. K. Curtis
- Paul Allen
- J. P. Morgan
- E. H. Harriman
- Henry Huddleston Rogers
- Oliver Hazard Payne
- Henry Clay Frick
- Collis Potter Huntington
- Peter Arrell Browne Widener
- Nicholas Longworth
- Philip Danforth Armour
- James Clair Flood
- Mark Hopkins Jr.
- Edward Cabot Clark
- Leland Stanford
- Hetty Green
- James J. Hill
- William Rockefeller
- Elias Hasket Derby
- Claus Spreckels
Bernstein & Swan (2008)
Bernstein and Swan in All the Money in the World (2008) mention the 15 richest Americans of all time.[5]
- John D. Rockefeller
- Andrew Carnegie
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- John Jacob Astor
- Stephen Girard
- Richard B. Mellon
- A. T. Stewart
- Frederick Weyerhäuser
- Marshall Field
- Sam Walton
- Jay Gould
- Henry Ford
- Bill Gates
- Andrew W. Mellon
- Warren Buffett
Business Insider (2011)
Business Insider agreed on Rockefeller in first, but placed Andrew Carnegie second, followed by Vanderbilt, and Gates.[6]
- John D. Rockefeller
- Andrew Carnegie
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Bill Gates
- John Jacob Astor
- Stephen Girard
- A. T. Stewart
- Frederick Weyerhäuser
- Jay Gould
- Stephen Van Rensselaer
- Marshall Field
- Sam Walton
- Warren Buffett
CNN Money (2014)
The following is a list compiled by CNN Money in 2014.[7]
- John D. Rockefeller
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- John Jacob Astor
- Stephen Girard
- Richard Mellon
- Andrew Carnegie
- Stephen Van Rensselaer
- A. T. Stewart
- Frederick Weyerhäuser
- Jay Gould
- Marshall Field
- Bill Gates
- Henry Ford
- Warren Buffett
- J. P. Morgan
- Sam Walton
- Moses Taylor
- Russell Sage
- James G. Fair
- William Weightman
By half decade
This list names the richest American by half decade starting in 1770.[8]
Year | Name | Picture |
---|---|---|
1770 | Peter Manigault[9] | |
1775 | Robert Morris[10] | |
1780 | William Bingham[11] | |
1785 | Benjamin Franklin[12] | |
1790 | John Hancock[13] | |
1795 | Elias Hasket Derby[14] | |
1800 | Thomas Willing[15] | |
1805 | Stephen Girard[16] | |
1810 | ||
1815 | ||
1820 | ||
1825 | ||
1830 | ||
1835 | Stephen Van Rensselaer[17] | |
1840 | John Jacob Astor | |
1845 | ||
1850 | Cornelius Vanderbilt[18][19] | |
1855 | ||
1860 | ||
1865 | ||
1870 | ||
1875 | ||
1880 | William Henry Vanderbilt | |
1885 | ||
1890 | John D. Rockefeller[20][21] | |
1895 | ||
1900 | Andrew Carnegie | |
1905 | ||
1910 | John D. Rockefeller | |
1915 | ||
1920 | Henry Ford | |
1925 | ||
1930 | Andrew Mellon | |
1935 | ||
1940 | Henry Ford[22] | |
1945 | ||
1950 | H. L. Hunt[23] | |
1955 | J. Paul Getty | |
1960 | Howard Hughes | |
1965 | ||
1970 | ||
1975 | ||
1980 | Daniel Ludwig | |
1985 | Sam Walton | |
1990 | John Kluge[24] | |
1995 | Bill Gates[25] | |
2000 | ||
2005 | ||
2010 | ||
2015 | ||
2016 | ||
2017 | ||
2018 | Jeff Bezos[26] |
References
- ^ Sumner, Scott (February 24, 2018). "Virtually all sources are wrong". The Money Illusion. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
- ^ "J. Paul Getty Dead at 83; Amassed Billions From Oil". Nytimes.com. June 6, 1976. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. July 15, 2007.
- ^ Gibson, Christine (October 1998). "The American Heritage". American Heritage. Vol. 49, no. 6.
- ^ All the Money in the World (2008) by Bernstein and Swan, p. 17 "Introduction"
- ^ Gus Lubin (April 17, 2011). "The 13 Richest Americans of All Time". Business Insider.
- ^ Hargreaves, Steve (June 1, 2014). "The richest Americans in history". CNNMoney. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
- ^ Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates – A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xii, ISBN 978-0-8065-1800-8, OCLC 33818143
- ^ Heitzler, Michael James (2005). Goose Creek, South Carolina: A Definitive History 1670–2003. Vol. 1. Charleston, SC: The History Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-59629-055-6.
- ^ Kennedy, John (1894). Robert Morris and the Holland Purchase. Batavia, NY: J. F. Hall. p. 121.
- ^ Spingola, Deanna (2011). The Ruling Elite: a Study in Imperialism, Genocide and Emancipation. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-4269-5462-7.
- ^ Gross, Daniel (April 1, 2002). "Finance & Investment: Cash of the Titans". Robb Report. Malibu, CA.
- ^ "Finance & Investment: Cash of the Titans".
- ^ Kellogg, Day Otis (1898). New American Supplement to the Latest Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2. New York, NY: The Werner Company. p. 1031.
- ^ Burke, James (2007). American Connections: The Founding Fathers. Networked. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. pp. 157–58. ISBN 978-0-7432-8226-0.
- ^ Phillips, Kevin (June 18, 2002). Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of America's Rich. New York, NY: Broadway Books. p. Chapter 1. ISBN 9780767911511.
- ^ Jones, Abner Dumont (1854). The Illustrated American Biography. Vol. 2. New York, NY: J. Milton Emerson & Co. p. 463.
- ^ Buder, Stanley (2009). Capitalizing on Change: A Social History of American Business. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-8078-3231-8.
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877) succeeded Astor as the wealthiest American.
- ^ Kemp, Michael (2016). Uncommon Sense: Investment Wisdom Since the Stock Market's Dawn. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-7303-2424-9.
Consider also Cornelius Vanderbilt, the wealthiest American at the time of his death in 1877.
- ^ Li, Xiaobing; Molina, Michael (2014). Oil: A Cultural and Geographic Encyclopedia of Black Gold. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-61069-271-7.
- ^ "America's Richest Man: J. D. Rockefeller and his Enormous Fortune". The Star. Canterbury, NZ. Detroit Free Press. April 6, 1895.
- ^ National Republic: A Monthly Review of American History, Policy, Politics and Public Affairs. Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Co. 1940. p. 30.
The richest man in America is Henry Ford.
- ^ Knowles, Ruth Sheldon (1978). The Greatest Gamblers: The Epic of American Oil Exploration. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-8061-1513-9.
- ^ Miller, Stephen (September 9, 2010). "A One-Man Empire, From TV to Laundry". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "Forbes magazine profile on Bill Gates". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ "The World's Billionaires 2018". Forbes. Retrieved September 6, 2018.