The Wealthy 100: Ranking the Richest Americans in History
The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther attempts to compare the fortunes of various Americans across time. But how can you compare one of Bill Gates dollars with one from John Jacob Astor? There are various formulas you could play with, but the authors of this book chose to compare the individual’s wealth to the nation’s Gross National Product.
So, for example, the richest man ever in America was John D. Rockefeller, whose wealth was 1/65th of the U.S. GNP when he died. Bill Gates, on the other hand, only had wealth amounting to 1/425th of the U.S. GNP when this book was published several years ago. Here is Klepper and Gunther’s list:
| Rank | Name | Born | Died | Wealth in 1000s |
Ratio (Wealth: GNP) |
| 1. | John D. Rockefeller | 1839 | 1937 | $1,400,000 | 65 |
| 2. | Cornelius Vanderbilt | 1794 | 1877 | $105,000 | 87 |
| 3. | John Jacob Astor | 1763 | 1848 | $20,000 | 107 |
| 4. | Stephen Girard | 1750 | 1831 | $7,500 | 150 |
| 5. | Andrew Carnegie | 1835 | 1919 | $475,000 | 166 |
| 6. | A.T. Stewart | 1803 | 1876 | $50,000 | 178 |
| 7. | Frederick Weyerhaeuser | 1834 | 1914 | $200,000 | 182 |
| 8. | Jay Gould | 1836 | 1892 | $77,000 | 185 |
| 9. | Stephen Van Rensselaer | 1764 | 1839 | $10,000 | 194 |
| 10. | Marshall Field | 1834 | 1906 | $140,000 | 205 |
| 11. | Henry Ford | 1863 | 1947 | $1,000,000 | 231 |
| 12. | Andrew W. Mellon | 1855 | 1937 | $350,000 | 258 |
| 13. | Richard B. Mellon | 1858 | 1933 | $350,000 | 258 |
| 14. | Sam M. Walton | 1918 | 1992 | $22,000,000 | 275 |
| 15. | James G. Fair | 1831 | 1894 | $45,000 | 280 |
| 16. | William Weightman | 1813 | 1904 | $80,000 | 286 |
| 17. | Moses Taylor | 1806 | 1882 | $40,000 | 286 |
| 18. | Russell Sage | 1816 | 1906 | $100,000 | 287 |
| 19. | John I. Blair | 1802 | 1899 | $60,000 | 289 |
| 20. | Cyrus Curtis | 1850 | 1933 | $174,000 | 320 |
| 21. | Edward Henry Harriman | 1848 | 1909 | $100,000 | 322 |
| 22. | Henry H. Rogers | 1840 | 1909 | $100,000 | 322 |
| 23. | J.P. Morgan | 1837 | 1913 | $119,000 | 328 |
| 24. | Col. Oliver Payne | 1839 | 1917 | $178,000 | 337 |
| 25. | Henry C. Frick | 1849 | 1919 | $225,000 | 351 |
| 26. | Collis Potter Huntington | 1821 | 1900 | $50,000 | 374 |
| 27. | Peter A. Widener | 1834 | 1915 | $100,000 | 387 |
| 28. | James Cair Flood | 1826 | 1888 | $30,000 | 405 |
| 29. | Nicholas Longworth | 1782 | 1863 | $15,000 | 411 |
| 30. | Philip Danforth Armour | 1832 | 1901 | $50,000 | 413 |
| 31. | Bill Gates | 1955 | $15,000,000 | 425 | |
| 32. | Mark Hopkins | 1813 | 1878 | $20,000 | 446 |
| 33. | Edward Clark | 1810 | 1882 | $25,000 | 458 |
| 34. | Leland Stanford | 1824 | 1893 | $30,000 | 462 |
| 35. | William Rockefeller | 1841 | 1922 | $150,000 | 493 |
| 36. | Hetty Green | 1834 | 1916 | $100,000 | 498 |
| 37. | James J. Hill | 1838 | 1916 | $100,000 | 498 |
| 38. | Elias Hasket Derby | 1739 | 1799 | $800 | 515 |
| 39. | Warren Buffett | 1930 | $12,000,000 | 532 | |
| 40. | Claus Spreckels | 1828 | 1908 | $50,000 | 554 |
| 41. | George Peabody | 1795 | 1869 | $16,000 | 556 |
| 42. | Charles Crocker | 1822 | 1888 | $20,000 | 608 |
| 43. | William Andrews Clark | 1839 | 1925 | $150,000 | 609 |
| 44. | George Eastman | 1854 | 1932 | $95,000 | 611 |
| 45. | Charles Tiffany | 1812 | 1902 | $35,000 | 616 |
| 46. | Thomas Fortune Ryan | 1851 | 1928 | $155,000 | 633 |
| 47. | Edward Stephen Harkness | 1874 | 1940 | $155,000 | 643 |
| 48. | Henry M. Flagler | 1830 | 1913 | $60,000 | 651 |
| 49. | James Buchanan Duke | 1856 | 1925 | $140,000 | 652 |
| 50. | Israel Thorndike | 1755 | 1832 | $1,800 | 674 |
| 51. | William S. O’Brien | 1825 | 1878 | $12,000 | 696 |
| 52. | Isaac Merritt Singer | 1811 | 1875 | $13,000 | 709 |
| 53. | George Hearst | 1820 | 1891 | $19,000 | 712 |
| 54. | John Hancock | 1736 | 1793 | $350 | 714 |
| 55. | John W. Garrett | 1820 | 1884 | $15,000 | 715 |
| 56. | John W. Mackay | 1831 | 1902 | $30,000 | 718 |
| 57. | Julius Rosenwald | 1862 | 1932 | $80,000 | 726 |
| 58. | George F. Baker | 1840 | 1931 | $100,000 | 758 |
| 59. | George Washington | 1732 | 1799 | $530 | 777 |
| 60. | Anthony N. Brady | 1834 | 1913 | $50,000 | 781 |
| 61. | Adolphus Busch | 1839 | 1919 | $50,000 | 781 |
| 62. | John T. Dorrance | 1873 | 1930 | $115,000 | 786 |
| 63. | George Pullman | 1831 | 1897 | $17,500 | 835 |
| 64. | Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. | 1893 | 1968 | $1,000,000 | 864 |
| 65. | Horace E. Dodge | 1868 | 1920 | $100,000 | 889 |
| 66. | John F. Dodge | 1864 | 1920 | $100,000 | 889 |
| 67. | J. Paul Getty | 1892 | 1976 | $2,000,000 | 893 |
| 68. | William Aspinwall | 1807 | 1875 | $4,000 | 913 |
| 69. | Johns Hopkins | 1795 | 1873 | $10,000 | 944 |
| 70. | John Werner Kluge | 1914 | $6,700,000 | 952 | |
| 71. | Samuel Colt | 1814 | 1862 | $5,000 | 966 |
| 72. | James Stillman | 1850 | 1918 | $77,000 | 989 |
| 73. | William Collins Whitney | 1841 | 1904 | $23,000 | 993 |
| 74. | William Thaw | 1818 | 1889 | $12,000 | 1040 |
| 75. | Paul G. Allen | 1953 | $6,100,000 | 1046 | |
| 76. | Cyrus McCormick | 1809 | 1884 | $10,000 | 1072 |
| 77. | Arthur Vining Davis | 1867 | 1962 | $400,000 | 1103 |
| 78. | Thomas H. Perkins | 1764 | 1854 | $3,000 | 1116 |
| 79. | Joseph Pulitzer | 1847 | 1911 | $30,000 | 1142 |
| 80. | Daniel Willis James | 1832 | 1907 | $26,000 | 1169 |
| 81. | Howard Hughes | 1905 | 1976 | $1,500,000 | 1190 |
| 82. | Frank W. Woolworth | 1852 | 1919 | $6,500 | 1214 |
| 83. | John McDonogh | 1779 | 1850 | $2,000 | 1278 |
| 84. | Samuel Slater | 1768 | 1835 | $1,200 | 1312 |
| 85. | August Belmont | 1816 | 1890 | $10,000 | 1313 |
| 86. | Benjamin Franklin | 1706 | 1790 | $150 | 1320 |
| 87. | Sumner Murray Redstone | 1923 | $4,800,000 | 1329 | |
| 88. | Capt. Robert Dollar | 1844 | 1932 | $40,000 | 1451 |
| 89. | Richard Warren Sears | 1863 | 1914 | $25,000 | 1457 |
| 90. | H.L. Hunt | 1889 | 1974 | $1,000,000 | 1474 |
| 91. | Jay Van Andel | 1924 | $4,300,000 | 1483 | |
| 92. | Richard M. DeVos | 1926 | $4,300,000 | 1483 | |
| 93. | Henry Phipps | 1839 | 1930 | $60,000 | 1506 |
| 94. | Lawrence J. Ellison | 1944 | $4,300,000 | 1519 | |
| 95. | Ronald Owen Perelman | 1943 | $4,300,000 | 1519 | |
| 96. | Peter Chardon Brooks | 1767 | 1849 | $1,300 | 1646 |
| 97. | Charles W. Post | 1854 | 1914 | $22,000 | 1656 |
| 98. | Samuel I. Newhouse | 1895 | 1979 | $1,500,000 | 1681 |
| 99. | William Wrigley, Jr. | 1861 | 1932 | $34,000 | 1707 |
| 100. | David Packard | 1912 | 1996 | $3,700,000 | 1724 |
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There are 6 comments to "The Wealthy 100: Ranking the Richest Americans in History".
And where is the Rothchild family in all this? It was also one of the richest families in the planet that time and still is today.
Well holy nibblets that just gibbled my gobstoppers
Not American… but very rich and powerful
What about Henry Pratt? He died (in Philadelphia) in 1838 with an estimated $1.2 million in assets.
Ratio to GDP is a false measure. It should at least be scaled by population; i.e. GDP per capita is one unit and you can calculate how many units each individual had, by dividing population at death by the divisor in the above table.
Logic? Rockefeller had wealth equal to GDP/65 or the average GDP efforts of 1/65th of population in 1937 which was (about 130 million/65 =) 2 million people. He still tops the list. But Sam Walton had 1/275th of GDP in 1992 when population was about 250 million, or about 0.9 million units. And having the wealth of 0.9 million other people should not be diminished just because population increases over time.
This beats most of the other folks supposedly above him on the list. Vanderbilt had about 50 million pop/87 = 0.57 million units. Astor had 23 million/107 = 0.22 million. Sam Walton, appears to be #2 on such a modified list.
You’ve missed out the Lauder family, Cox, Johnson ( Fidelity Investments), GAP, Och-Ziff Brothers, Koch Brothers, Sam Walton ( Walmart) and a whole host of others