"DREW CARNEGIE has aptly been described as 
“the steel king,” and it must be acknowledged that 
if a citizen of a republic ever deserves a monarchical 
appellation, Mr. Carnegie did, judging by his achievements 
of industrial conquest, and the vast interests over which he 
ruled. His life will also be an incentive to action on the part 
of young men, for he fought his way up through innumerable 
obstacles, met with brilliant success, accumulated one of the 
largest fortunes of any age of the world, and set an excellent 
example for other opulent men, in his varied philanthropies 
and altruistic enterprises. Mr. Carnegie was born in 
Scotland, November 25, 1835, and died at his summer 
home in Lenox, Mass., August 11, 1919. He was 13 
years of age when he came to Pittsburgh, with his parents. 
His first work was as a weaver’s assistant in a cotton 
factory in Allegheny, and his second job, undertaken when 
he was between 15 and 16 years of age, was that of tele- 
graph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh office of the Ohio 
Telegraph Co. Then he learned telegraphy, became an 
operator, and was among the first who learned to read 
“Morse” by sound. He received several promotions until 
he became superintendent of the Pittsburgh division. 
His first important step in manufacturing was forming a 
connection with Mr. Woodruff, the inventor of the sleep- 
ing car, in organizing the Woodruff Sleeping Car Co., 
gaining through this connection the nucleus of his fortune, 
which was increased by careful investments in oil lands. 
During the Civil War, Mr. Carnegie served as superin- 
tendent of military railways and Government telegraph 
lines in the East. After the war he went into the iron 
business, establishing the Keystone Bridge Works and 
Union Iron Works at Pittsburgh. A few years later he 
was the principal owner of the Homestead and Edgar 
Thomson Steel Works, and was the ‘head of the firms of 
Carnegie, Phipps & Co., and Carnegie Brothers & Co. 
These interests were consolidated in 1899 in the Carnegie 
Steel Co., which became merged with the United States 
Steel Corporation in 1901. On this date Mr. Carnegie 
retired from business. He sold his interest in the Carnegie 
Steel Co. for $303,450,000 in bonds of the United States