Henry Chisholm
| Henry Chisholm | |
|---|---|
Henry Chisholm
|
|
| Born |
April 22, 1822 Lochgelly, Fife, Scotland |
| Died | May 9, 1881 (aged 59) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Nationality | Scottish American |
| Occupation | Iron and steel industry executive |
| Spouse(s) | Jean Allen Chisholm |
| Children | 8 |
Henry Chisholm (April 22, 1822 - May 9, 1881) was a Scottish American businessman and steel industry executive during the Gilded Age in the United States. A resident of Cleveland, Ohio, he purchased a small, struggling iron foundry which became the Cleveland Rolling Mill, one of the largest steel firms in the nation. He is known as the "father of the Cleveland steel trade", and has been called one of the most important Scottish immigrants in American history.
Henry Chisholm was born in Lochgelly, Fife, Scotland, on April 22, 1822. His father, Stewart Chisholm, was a mining engineer. The Chisholms were a respectable, lower middle class family, and Henry was educated in the local public schools. His father died when he was ten years old, and he left school at the age of 12 to take a position as an apprentice carpenter. He was elevated to journeyman carpenter at the age of 17, and moved to Glasgow.
When he was 20 years old, Chisholm emigrated to Montréal, Québec, Canada. He arrived in the city practically penniless. He worked in Montréal as a carpenter and construction contractor until 1849, constructing various buildings and other works up and down the St. Lawrence River. He established his own construction business, which in time became one of the largest in the city.
In 1850, Chisholm won a contract to build a breakwater for docks of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, which was in the process of completing its line into Cleveland and through the city to its rail yard on the shores of Lake Erie. The breakwater was completed in 1853, and Chisholm won several more contracts to build docks and piers in the city. By 1857, he had amassed a fortune worth $25,000 ($600,000 in 2016 dollars).
What would, in time, become the Cleveland Rolling Mill was established by brothers and Welsh immigrants David and John Jones in 1856 to manufacture flat bottomed railway rails. The brothers ran out of money that same year, and shut down. Henry Chisholm and his brother, William, made a major investment in the Jones plant in 1857, and the company was renamed Chisholm, Jones and Co. The plant was expanded and began rerolling iron flanged railway rails into flat bottomed rails. In 1860, Amasa Stone and his brother, Andros, made a further investment in the company, which took the name Stone, Chisholm & Jones. The new capital enabled to firm to add a blast furnace and puddling plant, which opened in 1859. A second blast furnace was added in 1860. It was the first blast furnace to operate in the Cleveland region.
...
Wikipedia