Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1896-02-06
Merchant Millionaires.

number OF fortunes Whlch nave Deen
accumulated in the dry goods business
in all the large cities of the United
States, says a writer in the Pittsburg
Dispatch. Mr.. Jordan S case was typ
ical. He started in life with nothing
but energy and the determination to
succeed. He was first employed on a
farm and then he began clerking in
dry goods stores. When he was nine
teen years old he was started in the
dry goods trade by leading merchant
of Boston and he began business in
store for which he paid 5000 year.
He was twenty-nine years old when
he started the firm of Jordan, Marsh
& Co., with capital of $1,000. In
this concern Mr.. Jordan became a
millionaire.
George Peabody, of Baltimore, start
ed as clerk in a general store at
Danvers, Mass, the place Of his birth,
when he was eleven years old, in 1906.
He afterward clerked in other places
and went to Georgetown, D. c., finally
at time when Georgetown was
larger than the city Of Washington,
which has now absorbed ito take
charge of a store for his uncle. At
the age of nineteen he became part
ner of Elisha Riggs in a dry goods
store, which was afterward moved to
Baltimore, and there Mr.. Peabody laid
the foundation of the enormous fortune
which he devoted chiefly to philan-
thropic purposes. In 1885 he went
to London and negotiated the sale of
S8,OO0,000 worth of bonds for the
State of Maryland, and his commission
of 100000 he turned back in the
State treasury. Two years later he
went to London and established a
clearinghouse. He gave largely to
the Grinnell Arctic expedition. His
gifts for the establishment of lodging
houses for the poor of London amount
ed to $2,5OO,OOO. He gave $780,
900 to promote education in the South.
Libraries and art galleries in many
places stand as memorials to his phi
lanthropy. He could have had hon
ors at the hands of the Queen of Eng
land, but preferred to remain simple
citizen. Gladstone said Of him: He
taught the world how a man may be
the master of his fortune and not It's
slave" He was the most liberal phi
lanthropist in the worlds history.
A. r. Stewart stuck to the dry goods
business till his death. Unfortunate
ly, the law stood in his way. Mr..
Stewart was a school teacher in New
York before he was twenty years old.
He inherited $4,000 by the death of
his father in Ireland and he invested
his capital in laces and linens, which
he brought to New York in 1925. He
paid $3.50 a year for the rent of his
shop and slept in the back room.
Twenty-three years later he built the
big marble store which covers half
block on Broadway and fourteen years
after he put up retail store at the
cost of $2,75O,OOO. He was doing a
business of 65,OO0,O00 a year at the
time of his death in 1876. His estate
was valued at $4O,OOO,OOO.
L. z. Letter, who lives in Washing
ton, started in life as light porter IN
a dry goods store. He built up for
tune in partnership and retired some
years ago with about $5,0OO,OOO,
which he has increased to about double
the amount, if rumor be true. The
ground on which his magnificent Wash
;ngton residence stands cost 100000.
The most striking of dry goods mil
lionaires of today is John Wanamaker,
of Philadelphia. He began life carry
ing clay in his fathers brickyard and
later he accepted employment as
clerk in a store at bare living wages.
He is worth $l5,OOO,OOO today and
his income is said to be $1,000 day.
Levi P. Morton, ex-Vice President
of the United States, and now Gov
ernor of the State of New York, was
a clerk in dry goods stores in YER
mont and afterward in Boston, and he
laid the foundation for his wealth IN
the firm of Beebe, Morgan & Co.,
which he entered in Boston in 1850.
Four years later he came to New York
and established the dry goods house
of Morton & Grinnel, i'll which he be-
came rich. In 1858 he founded the
clearinghouse of Morton, Bliss & Co..
in New York, and the house Of Nor
ton, Rose & Co., in London. He Is
worth today something between
$5,OOO,OOO and $1O,OOO,O00 and he is
a presidential possibility.
. ~