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The Valley’s venture investors were typically Boston merchant princes, men such as Israel Thorndike, S. A. Eliot, Samuel Cabot, Francis Stanton, and Harrison Gray Otis. Edmund Dwight, a Morgan cousin on his mother’s side, wasn’t in the same financial stratum as a Cabot, but gained access through his work at the law firm of Fisher Ames, the old Mass
... See moreCharles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
Perhaps the most significant of the remaining tasks had been given not to William Krome or Clarence Coe, but to Joseph Parrott, manager of all Flagler’s Florida interests and president of the FEC. Owing to the earlier difficulties with the Navy, there was still no terminal facility built to receive trains or handle the significant shipping traffic
... See moreLes Standiford • Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
Stephens was the president of the railroad, which was a wholly American-owned stock company with its main office in the old Tontine Building on Wall Street. The capitalization was a million dollars.
David McCullough • Brave Companions
At his urging, Hyatt was soon producing new antifriction bearings for automobiles. At age 24, he became the president of Hyatt, where he supervised all aspects of the company’s business. Hyatt bearings became a standard in the automobile industry, and the company grew rapidly under his leadership.
Alfred P Sloan Jr. • My Years With General Motors
In his letter to The Harvard Crimson, Albizu expressed the hope that Puerto Rico might gain independence and become like Cuba. Albizu’s hope hinged, above all, on one figure, Woodrow Wilson, elected president in 1912. A Southern Democrat, Wilson was a far cry from the three Republican imperialists who had preceded him: William McKinley, Teddy Roose
... See moreDaniel Immerwahr • How to Hide an Empire
Among the various guests on board with Flagler on the morning of January 22 was Assistant Secretary of War Robert Shaw Oliver, the personal representative of President Taft, sharing a ride that was so sought after that it took a last-minute call from William Krome to Flagler direct to get himself on board.
Les Standiford • Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
Company Towns: 1880s to 1935
That Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner, would seek to roll back empires made sense. His sympathy for the colonized was no doubt fueled by his anger at how the North had treated what Wilson called its “conquered possessions”—the former Confederate states—after the Civil War. But there was another, darker side to Wilson’s Southern identity. He was not jus
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