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Andrew Carnegie
A Gilded Age Industrialist , the owner of the Carnegie Steel Company , and the major philanthropist. He epitomized the Gilded Age ideal of the self-made man , rising from poverty to become one of the wealthiest individuals in the history of the world. -
John D Rockefeller
A Gilded Age Industrialist and the founder of Standard Oil. Born in New York , he was trained as a bookkeeper but entered the oil business shortly after the discovery of oil in Titusville , Pennsylvania in 1859. In 1869 , he formed the Standard Oil Company , and within 15 years , Standard Oil had acquired near monopoly control over the American petroleum industry , refining 90% of the nations oil. -
George Washington Plunkitt
An influential leader in Tammany Hall , New Yorks Democratic political machine. He served as a state senator and a representative to the New York Assembly. He exercised greater political influence through his work as a ward boss in New Yorks Fifteenth Assembly District. -
Eugene Debs
The president of the American Railway Union and a founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America. Born in Indiana , he dropped out of high school and went to work for the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroads at the age of 14. Sooner he became active in the local Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. In 1893 , he helped organize the American Railway Union and became its first president.