and invest in many companies, most memorable, however, are his investments in the railroad industry. The man who once earned about $ 1 a week in a factory sold his company in 1901 for millions.
Here are 10 financial and career facts you may not have known about Andrew Carnegie!
1. Carnegie’ s second job in America paid him $ 2 per week operating a steam engine.
2. In 1849 Andrew Carnegie was offered a job as a messenger boy for a telegraph office and was paid $ 2.50 per week. If he had to travel beyond a particular distance when delivering a telegraph he was paid an extra dime for the trip.
3. Carnegie’ s third job was working as a telegraph operator for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It paid $ 35.00 per month.
4. While working for the telegraph office he took on a part time job that paid him an extra $ 1 per week. He would document shipping and European news that came through the telegraph office and sell it to a newspaper reporter.
5. While working for the railroad Carnegie was outraged when a private( and the only) library close to him wanted to charge him a $ 2 membership fee. His letter to the local newspaper resulted in the fee being waived.
6. When his boss offered him a chance to invest in a new company Andrew Carnegie had to get the money from his mother who got a mortgage for $ 500 on the family’ s $ 700 home.
7. Carnegie’ s first dividend check was for $ 10.00. He stated,“ I shall remember that check as long as I live … it gave me the first penny of revenue from capital – something that I had not worked for with the sweat of my brow.”
8. Quickly becoming a seasoned investor, Carnegie listed his assets and the total came to $ 47,860.67 in 1863. It was income from his oil and railroad investments.
9. In 1864, Carnegie invested $ 40,000 in Story Farm on Oil Creek in Venango County, Pennsylvania. One year later, the farm yielded over $ 1,000,000 in cash dividends, and petroleum from oil wells on the property sold profitably.( In his autobiography Carnegie noted that Indians used to collect oil from the ground with their blankets. They sold it to merchants in Pittsburgh who put it in vials and sold it as medicine for $ 1 per vial.)
10. Carnegie sold his company in 1901 for $ 480 million( about $ 13 billion today) to J. P. Morgan, who went on to create U. S. Steel. TQR The Quarter Roll Spring 2013 BONUS Edition 2