George M. Pullman
| George Pullman | |
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| Born |
George Pullman March 3, 1831 Brocton, New York |
| Died | October 19, 1897 (aged 66) Chicago, Illinois |
| Occupation | Engineer/Industrialist |
| Net worth | USD $17.5 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/835th of US GNP) |
| Spouse(s) | Hattie Amelia Sanger (1843–1922) |
| Children | Florence (1868–1937) Harriett (1869–1956) {twin} George (1876–1901) {twin} Walter Sanger (1876–1905) |
| Parent(s) | James Lewis Pullman (1800–1852) Emily Caroline Minton (1808–1892) |
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George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. His Pullman Company also hired African-American men to staff the Pullman cars, who became known and widely respected as Pullman porters, providing elite service.
Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he lowered wages and required workers to spend longer hours at the plant, but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898 the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago.
Pullman was born in Brocton, New York, the son of Emily Caroline (Minton) and James Lewis Pullman. He moved with his family to Albion, New York, along the Erie Canal. It was heavily traveled by packet boats that carried people on day excursions as well as travelers across the state. There he attended local schools and at work learned other skills that contributed to his later success.
At the age of fourteen, he dropped out of school, and he went to work as clerk for a country merchant. He worked with his father to move houses during the widening of the Erie Canal, and learned his technique of shifting them to newly built foundations.
He moved to Chicago as a young engineer, as it was a boom town that was expanding rapidly. He arrived in Chicago as that city prepared to build the nation's first comprehensive sewer system. He formed a partnership known as Ely, Smith & Pullman.
Chicago was built on a low-lying bog, and people described the mud in the streets as deep enough to drown a horse. Because the sewers could not be placed below ground in those conditions, Chicago planned its sewer project by installing the sewers on top of the street and covering them, effectively raising the street level 6–8 feet.
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