Marcus Daly: Shrewdness at Its Best

Marcus Daly was an American copper entrepreneur who was popularly known as one of the three “Copper Kings”. He was born in 1841 in Ireland and moved to New York City when he was just 15. Later on, he transferred to California where he got a job as a miner with J.W. Mackay and J.G. Fair, known as “Silver Kings”.

A large company sent Daly to scout dew silver mines located in Butte, Montana in 1876. During his investigation, Daly discovered rich copper deposits beneath the silver. Quietly, Daly purchased the silver mine in Anaconda because of the copper. With the help of investors like George Hearst, Daly acquired the surrounding mines and founded his own mining company, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACMC). He constructed a smelter in Anaconda and built a rail to connect it to Butte.

Daly was very successful in his pursuits that Anaconda almost became a household name in the US. At one time, ACMC was the largest employer in Montana. Daly has an exceptional business strategy that almost assured his unmatched success in mining. He fueled his furnaces by buying coal mines. He bought forests that provided him timber. He constructed his own power plant to supply electricity to the mines. He established a few banks to take care of the finances of his company. He also founded a newspaper, the Anaconda Standard, which became very influential in Montana. Daly was a millionaire by 1895.

William Clark was Daly’s number one competitor. The bitter competition led into an industry turmoil that lasted for many years. The feud even reached the political arena. Although Daly did not seek public office, he had such strong political machinery that affected Clark’s political ambitions for a long time. Clark was kept off public office because Daly supported his political opponents.

Daly’s active involvement in politics led him to found the town of Anaconda where his smelter was found. He tried to use political machinations to make Anaconda the state capital of Montana. However, his efforts were unsuccessful.

John Cushing: American Influence in China

John Cushing was a Boston-based sea merchant and philanthropist. He was just a boy when his mother contracted small pox and died. His uncle Thomas Perkins raised him. When he was 16, Cushing moved to China to work as a clerk in Perkin’s counting house. When he arrived in China, the head of the firm had just died so he became the sole agent for Perkins & Company. He remained in China for 30 years where he was called Ku-Shing.

Cushing was taken in as a partner of Perkins & Company because of his skills. He was responsible for the founding of the Canton office of the partnership in 1806. When the War of 1812 broke out, the firm loaned money to Canton merchants at 18% interest. Cushing became one of the most influential foreigners in Canton in the 1820s. He had established a close relationship with Houqua, a hong merchant who was known as the richest man in the world at his death in 1843.

After the death of his cousin Thomas Forbes, who was Cushing’s personal choice to assume control of his business, Cushing decided to dissolve Perkins & Company and consolidated it with Russell & Co. in 1827. Cushing retired from his business.

Paul Cuffe: Advocate of Afro-American Independence

Paul Cuffe was popularly known for advocacy to support free blacks who wanted to move to Sierra Leone. Cuffe’s exact date of birth was unknown, although it was known that he was born in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts in 1759.

Cuffe showed political inclinations in his 20s. He, along with a group of free blacks, petitioned the state government of Massachusetts to stop taxing the Native Americans and the Afro-Americans or grant them right to vote. The Massachusetts General Court did not give in to the petition, but the petition was instrumental in the creation of the 1783 Constitution, granting equality to all citizens of Massachusetts.

As a devout member of the evangelical Quaker, Cuffe earned the character as a philanthropist. He helped raise the funds to build a school in Westport, Massachusetts. He supported many other endeavors to uplift the status of education in Massachusetts. Cuffe also opposed slavery and slave trade. In collaboration with the Afro-Americans in the Northern states, Cuffe led abolitionist campaigns with the help of his Quaker connections.

Using his experience as a whaling captain, Cuffe a ship owner and sailed between the ports along the Massachusetts coast. He operated several vessels to become the wealthiest Afro-American in the US and the largest employer of free Afro-Americans. In spite of his successes as a businessman, Cuffe became disillusioned with the status of the Afro-American race to the point of thinking of an independent African state for the returnees from the US.

The British abolitionists that created Sierra Leone gave Cuffe the greatest inspiration for a free black state. He started recruiting fellow blacks to immigrate to Sierra Leone. Cuffe’s first expedition to Sierra Leone took place on January 2, 1811. Along with an all-African crew, Cuffe sailed to Freetown. He used his exposure in business to help create the Afro-American trading organization “The Friendly Society of Sierra Leone.” Cuffe’s greater dreams were to evangelize the Africans, create businesses, and abolish slavery.

Cuffe led a new batch of 38 Afro-Americans in 1815. The group built new homes and integrated them to a small community of refuges and dormer residents of Nova Scotia. However, a larger group and a better funded organization “American Colonization Society also promoted a similar advocacy in 1816 and established Liberia. Cuffe’s efforts were eclipsed by ACS’s larger program.

Cyrus Hermann Curtis: Icon in the Newspaper and Magazine Publication Industry

Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis was a publisher of newspapers and magazines. Some of the publications that can be attributed to him include Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal.

Curtis was born on June 18, 1850 in Portland, Maine. Before establishing his own weekly publication called People’s Ledger, Curtis worked with several newspaper publishers and advertising companies in Portland and Boston.

Curtis’ first wife Louisa Knapp was a regular supplement contributor to his publication Tribune and Farmer. Later, this supplement became an independent publication and was later known as Ladies Home Journal.

In 1891, Curtis established the Curtis Publishing Company, which published Curtis’ other publication Saturday Evening Post, and Ladies Home Journal. Another company named Curtis-Martin Newspapers Inc. was established by Curtis, which controlled several newspapers, including Public Ledger, Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York evening Post.

Throughout Curtis’ lifetime, his businesses were very successful. Ladies Home Journal became one of the most widely circulated magazines in the US while the Post was the most widely circulated weekly magazine in the world.

Jay Cooke: Financier of the Civil War

Jay Cooke was an American banker who became prominent as the primary financier for causes of the Union military during the US Civil War. Born in Sandusky, Ohio on August 10, 1821, Cooke was named after the first US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay.

Cooke attended the local schools in Sandusky. When he was 14, he worked as a clerk in a local store. At 15, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri to work in a wholesale business. He moved to Bloomingville, Ohio when he lost his job due to the Panic of 1837.

After one year, he worked in a packet company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But the packet company failed and Cooke worked for a local hotel as bookkeeper. After many tries as an employee, Cooke’s break came in 1839 when he was hired by the brokerage and banking company E.W. Clark & Company.

Cooke worked his way to the top of E.W. Clark & Company to become a partner just four years through his employment. During that time, E.W. Clark & Company was fortunate to make several significant investments. Among its successful endeavors included financing railroads and lending money to the federal government during the Mexican War. When the company collapsed at the height of the Panic of 1857, Cooke was a wealthy man.

Cooke used his money to start his own banking company on January 1, 1861. Initially, Jay Cooke & Company borrowed $3 million from the Pennsylvania government. The company was successful in its efforts to acquire money for the federal government. The money was used to finance the Northern efforts during the US Civil War. Cooke helped set up a sound fiscal policies to ensure that the government had enough resources to win the war. He was the negotiator for government loans and handled the selling of government bonds.

While the War was going on, Cooke also acted as Ohio’s financial advisor. He also contributed in the development of sound fiscal policies to help the wartime governors, especially those issuing state bonds.

When the Civil War ended, Cooke was able to secure over $3 billion worth of loans for the federal government. He earned the reputation as the “financier of the Civil War”. US was deep in debt after the War but the US currency was stable. US bonds were viewed as responsible investments.

The personal wealth Cooke acquired during the War was used to set up other businesses such iron and coal mining, railroads and life insurance. He was a major figure in the building of the North Pacific Company.