we see that he had by that time recognized the value of credit in
borrowing money at commercial rates in order to venture for large
profit on a sound business proposition. He was fortunate in this
investment in the Sleeping Car Company, his proiTt on the \tnture
is said to have l>een large and laid the foundation for his success in
several subsequent enterprises.
In i860 he induced Mr. Scott, then President of the Pennsyl-
vania road, and several others to join him in buying the Storey farm
on Oil Creek, Pa., where oil had been found the year before. They
purchased the property for $40,000; and, although Carnegie was
forced later to sell out one-third interest in this property, the shares
of the Company sold at a market value of $5,000,000 and he closed
out his interest therein for a quarter of a million.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Colonel Scott, who had been
appointed Assistant Secretary of War. summoned Mr. Carnegie to
Washington and put him in charge of the military railroads and
government telegraph lines in the East. One of his first duties w.ns
to open rail communications between .^nnapolis and the Capitol.
4 Andrew Carnegie. [Jan.
At the Battle of Bull Run, he was in charge of the rail communica-
tions and was the last official to leave for Alexandria.
Soon after this the Pennsylvania road made experiments in the
construction of bridges of cast iron. From the results of these
initial efforts Mr. Carnegie became convinced that the use of this
material for bridge building purposes would become general. He,
accordingly in 1863, organized the Keystone Bridge Building Com-
pany, borrowing money to secure his share of the capital stock of the
Company, and started the Keystone Bridge Works. The first great
bridge over the Ohio River at Steubenville, with a 300 feet span, was
built by this Company.
During this time he had become interested in iron works and
had organized the Cyclops iron mill for the production of structural
iron for railroad bridges. Colonel Scott joined him in this enterprise,
which at the outset, owing to Andrew Carnegie's engrossment in
other business ventures, was not entirely successful. To consolidate
his interests and better organize the field of this industry, he took in
with him his brother Thomas Carnegie and his partner Henry Phipps,
and the union of these interests with the Cyclops mill, resulted in the
organization of the Union Iron Mills in 1865, under the control
of Andrew and Thomas Carnegie and Henry Phipps. The time was
ripe for the enterprise ; the Civil War had just ended and there was a
period of great business expansion. In 1867 Mr. Carnegie severed
his connection with the Pennsylvania road ; this year marks the time
when he ceased to work for others ; he began to work for himself ;
he had gained his ambition to become his own master and to carve
out his future along lines of his own selection. It was an era of
great railroad building; steel rails having become worth $80 to $100
a ton ; Mr. Carnegie was recognized as the foremost iron-master of
the country, and the Union Iron Mills made large profits.
In 1868 he visited Europe, and while there investigated the merits
of the Bessemer process of steel manufacture; and, on his return to
this country, he introduced the process into his own mills.
Later he became the owner of the Homestead Steel Works at
Pittsburgh, and by the year 1888 had control of seven great plants,
all within a radius of five miles of Pittsburgh ; these plants were the
Homestead, the Edgar Thomson and the Duquesne Steel Works and
furnaces, the Lucy furnaces, the Keystone Bridge Works, the Upper
Union Rolling Mills and the Lower Union Rolling Mills, including
the Frick Company.
About the year 1890, Mr. Carnegie introduced into his mills the
system of paying for labor on a sliding scale, based upon the prices
obtained for the finished product ; thus making the workmen partners
in the plant and participators in the prosperity, and likewise the
absence of prosperity, in the business ; which system is apparently
a most equitable adjustment of the wage problem. Employes who
rendered exceptional services were rewarded by promotion and
given a personal interest in the business.
During Mr. Carnegie's personal control of this immense business
there was only one serious strike amongst his employes. This was the
Iq20.] Andrew Carnegie, 5
Homestead strike which occurred in 1892, while Mr. Carne^'e was
absent in Europe on his holiday. He did not hear of the lamentable
riot that there occurred until days after it had taken place; and, on
hearing of it, at once telegraphed his willingness to return and
personally attempt to adjust the trouble. His partners urt;ed iiini
not to return, and he did not. He was the subject of some criticism
at this time, but, viewing the matter through the perspective of nearly
30 years, it appears to have been one of the seemingly inevitable
struggles between capital and labor, which, after the unfortunate
incidents attendant upon such disturbances, are finally adjusted and
matters proceed upon a new basis of understanding.
He thus continued the controlling influence in the iron world un-
til 1901. At this time, which was a period of great business mergers,
the financial world, in emphatic recognition of the time honored
axiom that the prosperity of the world is measured directly by the
prosperity of the iron industry thereof, felt the time was ripe for the
endeavor to render stable the iron industry of the country in order
that its periodical fluctuations between prosperity and stagnation
should no longer be an influence in disturbing the general business
of the country. A syndicate was formed and the United States Steel
Corporation was organized, which merged large iron and steel
organizations under its corporate existence, and took over from Mr.
Carnegie all of his interests in the iron and steel industries that he
controlled, paying him for his personal holdings $315,000,000 in
5% first mortgage bonds on the entire property of the Corporation.
It has been thought by many and so stated in public print, that,
outside of his interests in the iron industry, Mr. Carnegie in 1901
was possessed of large capital in addition to his interests sold to the
Steel Corporation. Such belief and statements are not in accordance
with the existing facts. Mr. Carnegie had enunciated the dictum
that it was better to "put all of one's eggs into one basket and then
watch that basket." He had strictly adhered to that pronounced
belief ; and had put all of his capital into his iron and steel holdings,
and the sum total of his fortune in igoi was represented in the
$315,000,000, he received in bonds from the Steel Corporation.
Had he allowed his capital to accumulate from 1901 until his
death, by gradual increase due to interest on his holdings (which have
â– never defaulted in their interest) he would at the time of his death
(allowing $58,000,000, for current expenses during the 18 years
since 1901) have left the vast fortune of $700,000,000.
In 1901 Mr. Carnegie retired from active business. All during
his early and late business career, he had devoted as much time as
was available from his active business pursuits to the cultivation of
his natural, literary and artistic tastes. He had travelled extensively
and as early in life as the age of twenty-six, was a member of a
Literary Society, and towards middle life had developed into a
speaker of recognized ability and a prolific writer on jwlitical and
economic topics. After his retirement from active business, until
the close of his life, he devoted himself to the scientific distribution
6 Andrew Carnegie. [Jan-
of his surplus wealth in bettering the condition of mankind in this
and other countries, and also in the further pursuit of those avoca-
tions, and the development of his natural literary and other tastes
to which his active participation in business had not enabled him to
entirely devote himself.
Such is in brief an outline of the career of a man who, starting
as a boy of thirteen without a penny, on arriving at the age of
sixty-six years had accumulated the colossal wealth of $315,000,000.
Mr. Carnegie, cognizant of the hardships which his parents
endured owing to their impoverished condition, started life with the
determination to acquire wealth in order to make life easier for them
and to likewise place himself in a position independent of the sordid
cares of every day existence. With the development of his mind,
as a result of experience and success, his views broadened as regards
the value and proper use of money. He became absorbingly in-
terested in the development of his business ventures, and strained
every effort in order that success should crown the work of his life.
The accumulation of wealth, at this time of his career, was incidental ;
the undisputed success of his business ventures was the goal of his
ambition. His ambition bore fruit ; he succeeded in his ventures and
incidentally gained great wealth. During the process of this develop-
ment there germinated in his mind the often expressed conviction that
the surplus wealth of an individual should be expended by him in
the betterment of the community in which it was acquired.
This review of his career also, at the same time, demonstrates
that in every situation he held, in every occupation or enterprise in
which he was engaged, he gave to it the best and all that there was
in him, in the hope and belief that this supreme individual effort
would swing the balance towards success. He was always mindful
of the interests of his associates in business, and of that of his sub-
ordinates and employes in general ; and he is said to have been
instrumental, by the recognition of merit, in making many million-
aires from among his associates and subordinates. He conducted
his large and small business ventures on the fixed principle of the
recognition of merit and the rewarding of such merit by advance-
ment and opportunity for betterment.
Mr. Carnegie inherited a love of books and an inclination
towards authorship from his father. He pays a glowing tribute to
his mother in the following words : "I owe a great deal to my
mother, she was companion, nurse, seamstress, cook and washer-
woman, and never until late in life had a servant in the house. Yet
she was a cultivated lady who taught me most of what I know."
In 1879, after his trip around the world, he gave to the public
his first book "Round the World," and in 1880, "Our Coaching
Trip"; both of these works were originally printed for private dis-
tribution, but they excited so much interest that they were later
re-published for sale. His foremost important work was "Trium-
phant Democracy" or "Fifty Years March of the Republic," 1886-
1893. In T891 he contributed to the New York Tribune an article
entitled "How to Get Rich," and in 1886 "Wealth and Its Uses"
1920.] Andrew Carnegie. 7
appeared; in this work his principal contention was that "surplus
wealth is a sacred trust, which its possessor is bound to administer
in his lifetime for the good of the community from which it is
derived" ; in it he also gave utterance to one of his best known say-
ings, viz. : "the man who dies possessed of millions of available
wealth, which was free and his to administer during his lifetime dies
disgraced." Upon this principle he shaped the plan of his many
philanthropic benefactions. In 1902 he wrote "The Empire of
Business," and in 1906 "The Life of James Watts," and in 1909,
"Problems of To-day."
Within the limits of this brief and inadequate sketch of his
life, it is not possible to enumerate in detail Mr. Carnegie's many
public benefactions. Such detailed setting forth is the province of
his official biographer. Suffice it to say that at the time of his death
the leading journals of the day stated that his known gifts to mankind
along the lines laid down in "Wealth and Its Uses" amounted to
the vast sum of $350,000,000. A contemplation of these figures
assures one that he made a great effort to live up to his published
utterances.
Mr. Carnegie's home after retirement was his residence at 91 ^^t
Street and Fifth Avenue, New York City; a home that embodies all
that great wealth can secure and at the same time is one that stands
out prominently as the most homelike and modest (if such a struc-
ture can be regarded as moilest) among the many palatial residences
of this city. His summer home was "Shadowbrook" estate at Lenox,
Massachusetts, and his home abroad was "Skibo Castle" in the
Highlands of Scotland, where he loved to sf)end much of his time.
On April 22, 1887, Mr. Carnegie was married to Louise Whit-
field (daughter of John and Frances (Davis) Whitfield of New
York City) by whom he had one child, a daughter, Margaret Car-
negie, who married .April 22, 1919, Ensign Roswell Miller, U. S.
Navy, a son of the former President of the Chicago, Milwaukee and
St. Paul Railroad Company.
.\ndrew Carnegie died at his summer home in Lenox, on August
1 1. 1919. He is survived by his widow and daughter.
Me became an Annual Member of the New York Genealogical
and Biographical Society in 1893, and a Life Member in 1914; he
was a generous donor to the Society, and was interested in its better-
ment ; his interest lying more in the biographical field than in the
genealogical interests thereof. He, as he said himself "was more
interested in what a man had done than in what he genealogically
was."
This brief sketch is here given, not in any way pretending to be
an adequate review of the life of this great philanthropist, but as
an earnest tribute to the man. and to show that in Andrew Carnegie's
life and career the young American of to-day has a concrete example
of what is possible to be accomplished in the United States, within
the short period of fifty-three years, by one provided with natural
capacity supplemented by unity of purpose, energy and imdeviating
determination to put into working every bit of the best that is in him.
Christophers Family. [Jan.
CHRISTOPHERS FAMILY.
Contributed by John R. Totten,
Member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the New England
Historic-Geaealogical Society, and the New London County Historical Society.
(Continued from Vol. L, p. 334, of The Record.)
Hon. Richard- Christophers m. (2) Sept. 3, i6gi, at New Lon-
don, Conn., to Grace Turner (his first wife's first cousin), b. June
5, 1663 (or 1667, according to E. C. B. Jones' Breivster Genealogy,
Vol. I, p. 16) ; d. June i, 1734, "at half an hour past 4 of the clock
in the afternoon," at New London, Conn., and was buried in New
London, Conn, (probably in Old Burying Ground), no gravestone.
Hempstead's Diary says : "six bearers at the funeral who were pre-
sented with scarfs and gloves." She was a daughter of John Turner
of Scituate, Mass., by his wife Mary^ Brewster (Jonathan,- Elder
William^) of Scituate, Mass.
Children: 11 (Christophers), 4 sons and 7 daughters, all b.
at New London, Conn., viz:
16 V. Joseph,^ b. July 14, 1692; bapt. New London, by
Gurdon Saltonstall, July 17, 1692; d. , lost at
sea, body not recovered, subsequent to Dec. 19,
1716, or Jan. 9, 1716-17 (see New London Town
Records, Book No. i). No record of his marriage
exists and he is supposed to have died single; not
mentioned in his father's will.
-\-^^J vi. Mary,^ b. Sept. 18, 1694; d. ; m. (i) John
Gray of Boston; m. (2) Jonathan Prentis of New
London.
18 vii. Jonathan,^ b. Sept. 19, 1696; bapt. Sept. 27, 1696,
at New London, b}' Gurdon Saltonstall ; d. Oct. 12,
1696, at New London, and was buried there, prob-
ably in Old Burying Ground, no gravestone.
-{-19 viii. Grace,^ b. Oct. 14, 1698; d. Nov. 9, 1745; m. John
Coit.
20 ix. Son,' "Grace the wife of Richard Christophers, being
six months gone with child, miscarried of a son
about the middle of September 1699."
-\-2\ X. Lydia,' b. Aug. 10, 1701 ; d. Jan. 22, 1740-1 ; m.
Daniel Coit.
22 xi. Berrie' (or Benie), b. Nov. (probably) 12, 1703;
bapt. Nov. 14, 1703; d. March 4, 1704, at New
London and was probably buried there in Old
Burying Ground, no gravestone.
-I-23 xii. Ruth,' b. Sept. 26, 1704; d. Jan. 6, 1775; m. Daniel
Deshon.
IQ20.] Christophers Family. Q
+24 xiii. Joanna,' b. March 19, 1706; d. , 1785; m. (i)
Benjah Leftingwell ; m. (2) Col. John Dyar.
4-25 xiv. Lucretia,^ b. March 3, 1709; d. March 21, 1747-8;
m. John Braddick.
+26 XV. Lucy,' b. Aug. 25, 171 1; died ; m. (i) Jona-
than Douglass; m. (2) Guy Palmes.
Hon. Richard- Christophers was a merchant trading between
New I>ondon and Barbadoes and other West Indian ports; he was
a practical mariner also, making frequent voyages in command
of his own ships in the prosecution of his commercial ventures. He
was associated in business with John= Picket (John') of New
London, Coim. The passage from Barbadoes to New London us-
ually took place from 18 to 30 days. Thomas Prentis and Richard'
Christophers were veterans in this trade. One of the vessels of
Captain Richard- Christophers bore the happy name of his two
daughters, Grace and Ruth. Two brigantines, also styled ships, the
Adventure and the Society of 65 and 68 tons burden respectively,
and both built in Great Britain were owned in 1698 by John Picket
and Richard Christophers. The value of such vessels when new
was about £500. Some of the plate in the Communion Service
of the First Congregational Church of New London bears the
inscription: "Presented by the owners of the Sloop Adventure in
1699."
Richard^ Christophers was appointed Town Clerk of New Lon-
don in 1701 and served as such until 1706, inclusive. His name was
fourth on the list of patentees, in the patent granted the town of
New London by his Majesty Charles H of England, through the
Gdvernor and his Company at Hartford, Oct. 14, 1704 — his name
being preceded by those of John Winthrop, Waite W'inthrop, and
Daniely Wetherell.
In July, 1694, Richard^ Christophers was appointed one of a
committee by the town of New London "to agree with workmen
for building the new meeting-house, and managing the whole con-
cern about it." In 1726 he was appointed first (senior) townsman
of New London ; and at his death in that same year, he left a large
estate to his wife, his two sons and seven daughters who survived
him. Hempstead in his diary (a very ancient manuscript, now in
the possession of the New London County Historical Society, all
parts of which have been recovered and the complete manuscript
published in full by the Society) says that on the occasion of Mr.
Richard' Christophers' funeral (Saturday. June 11, 1726), "The
Great Ship fired 26 great guns at one half minute distance, there
were six bearers." A description of the "Great Ship" will be found
in Caulkin's History of New London, p. 242.
The Superior Court was held for the first time in New London
in 171 1. No Court House having then been erected, the session
was held in the meeting-house. Before this year the Superior Court
had only sat at New Haven and at Hartford. In 171 1, it was made
lO Christophers Family. [Jan.
a Circuit Court, each County having two sessions annually. Richard
Christophers was one of the Assistant Judges of this Court.
In addition to his private business and town offices, Richard*
Christophers was a man much employed in the affairs of New Lon-
don County and in those of the Colony of Connecticut; he was in
fact one of the most prominent and important men of his time in
the Colony, as will be seen from the following summary of his
Colonial activities, as taken from the published Records of the
Colony, viz. :
Assistant to the Governor 1699 and 1703 to 1722, inclusive. In
1723 owing to failing health he withdrew from public life. Com-
missioner for the County of New London to the General Assembly
1690-1697, inclusive. Commissary (military office) of the County
of New London, 1690 and 1693. Justice of the Peace, 1701-1702.
Deputy to the General Assembly to represent New London, 169 1,
1693. Judge of the County Court of New London, 1709-1716,
inclusive and in 1720, 1721, Judge of Probate for the District of
New London, 1710-1721. Judge of Superior Court of Connecticut
Colony, 1711-1721, inclusive. On Committee to audit accounts of
the Colonial Treaurer, 1703-1721, inclusive. And in addition to
these specific duties he sat as a member of the Court of the Gov-
ernor and Council at frequent sessions during the various years of
his public life and served as a member of all of the most important
committees appointed by the Colonial legislation of Connecticut.
His will is to be found recorded in the 5th Book of Wills at
New London, folio 155-157. Will was dated July 13, 1720, with
codicil dated Feb. 7, 1721-22, and was proved Aug. 8, 1726. In it
he mentions his wife Grace, sons Christopher and Richard, and
daughters Mary Gray (widow of John Gray, deceased), Grace,
Lydia, Ruth, Joanna, Lucretia and Lucy. In the codicil dated Feb.
7, 1721-2 he makes modified provision for his daughter Lydia "who
married last May" {i. e., May 9, 1721). Wife Grace was made sole
Executrix.
Authorities :
Caulkins History of New London, pp. 199, 238, 240, 259, 277-8, 317.
Connecticut Colonial Records, published by J. H. Trumbull.
Hempstead's Diary.
Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of N. E., Vol. I, pp. 234, 383.
Family manuscript in hands of the author of these notes.
New London, Conn., First Church Records, list of baptisms.
5-6. The two children^ (Hon. Christopher^), b. between April 3,
1662, and the year 1673, to the "widow Bradley," the father
being Christopher^ Christophers.
By reference to Caulkin's History of Nezv London, p. 251, it
appears from the Records of the County Court of New London
for the year 1673 that the "Widow Bradley" [Elizabeth (Brewster)
Bradley, widow of Peter^ Bradley of New London] had two chil-
dren by Christopher' Christophers, born out of wedlock, the last one
born in 1673 ^"^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ born previous to that date. We find
IQJO.J Christophers Family. II
no further mention of these children in the New London records
and it would therefore seem probable that they both died young.
Moreover, the sex of these two children is not mentioned. The
hypothesis of their death in childhood is not however established by
any direct evidence. If they lived it is to be presumed that these
children were known by definite surnames ; and, in as much as they
were born of the "Widow Bradley," it is probable that they bore
the surname Bradley. Peter' Bradley d. April 3, 1662, and it was
between that date and the year 1673 that these two children were
bom. Peter* Bradley, the only son of Peter' Bradley d. Aug. i,
1687, leaving only one child Christopher' Bradley, b. July 11, 1679.
These two illegitimate children of the "Widow Bradley" were then
of about the same age as Christopher' Bradley (the grandson of
Peter' Bradley). By reference to record No. 16 of the Descend-
ants of Jeffery-' Christophers, it will be seen that a William Bradley
(whose parentage has not as yet been determined) m. previous
to May 19, 1702, to Mary' (Corey) ? (as her second husband).
Assuming this William Bradley was at least 21 years old (and
probably older) at marriage, he must have been born prior to May
19, 1681 (and probably some years prior to that year). Who was
this William Bradley whose parentage and origin we know nothing
of?
Could he have been one of these two children bom to the
"Widow Bradley" whose father was Christopher^ Christophers?
THIRD GENERATION.
Elizabeth* Christophers (Lieut. John,* Hon. Christopher'),
b. Feb. 15, 1698; bap. Dec. 22, 1700 (same day as her father
was baptized), at New London; d. May 12. 1730, "aged 30," at
Montville, Conn., probably, and was probably buried there ; m.
Sept. 8, 1719; intention published Aug. 31, 1719. at New Lon-
don, to Joshua Raymond, as his first wife, b. Jan. 20, 1697-8,
at Block Island, R. I. (birth recorded at Shoreham. Block
Island, R. I.) ; he lived successively at Block Island, R. I., and
New London, North Precinct (i. e., Montville), Conn.; he was
a representative to the General Assembly, a Justice of the
Peace, 1738- 1743. Lieutenant in the 3rd Company in New
I^ndon, and Deacon in the First Church at Montville; he d.
Nov. 12, 1763, at Montville, Conn., "the 66th year of his age."
and was buried in the Old Burying Ground on Raymond Hill.
Montville, Conn. He was a son of Joshua Raymond (b. Sept.
18, 1660; d. , 1704; m. April 29, 1683) and his wife Mercy
Sands (b. . 1663; d. Lyme, Conn., May 3, 1741, aged 78
years, daughter of James Sands of Block Island) who resided