Andrew Carnegie, one of Dunfermline’s most admired historical figures, was born in Fife but later would go on to become one of America’s most successful millionaires. He is remembered greatly in his home town of Dunfermline for the tremendous charity and financial support to the county and is highly respected for his efforts in America for establishing their steel industry. Here is his story.

 

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25 1835 in Dunfermline, Fife. He was the son of Will Carnegie, a local hand loom weaver (a popular job in Dunfermline at the time) and Margaret Carnegie who worked for a local shoe maker. The family was financially stable, however in 1848, when Andrew was 13 years old, the family moved to America in search of better economic opportunities. They settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and Andrew started work at a factory earning $1.20 per week. The following year he found work as a telegraph messenger. This led him to a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad as an assistant to one of the railroads top officials.

 

In conjunction with his job at the railroad, Carnegie began investing money in areas such as coal, iron and oil, realising that the returns made him a lot of money and he left the railroad in 1865 to focus on his own business ventures. With the railroad industry thriving, he expanded his investments in industries related, such as the Keystone Bridge Company that specialised in iron. From these clever investments, Carnegie had become a very wealthy man by the time he was only in his 30s.

 

However, it was in the 1870s that Carnegie’s wealth really started to expand. He co-founded the Carnegie Steel Company in the early 1870s near Pittsburgh and over the next few decades he would create a steel empire.

 

Then came the trouble. He began to face issues raised by steel workers about wage cuts which led to the Homestead Strike in 1892, a violent strike that ended with 10 union members dead after a Carnegie Steel manager called for 300 armed guards to protect the plant after locking out the workers whilst Carnegie was on holiday in Scotland. After this, Carnegie though it was an appropriate time to sell the company and in 1901 the Carnegie Steel Company was bought over by banker John Pierpont Morgan for $480 million, making Andrew Carnegie one of the richest men in the world.

 

Prior to his work as a successful business man, Carnegie became a philanthropist. He wrote an essay titled “The Gospel of Wealth” in which he stated that the wealthy have “a moral obligation to distribute [their money] in ways that promote welfare and happiness of the common man.” Carnegie was dedicated to this idea and gave away $350 million of his wealth to public organisations. He donated over 2,500 libraries around the world and 7,600 organs to churches worldwide as well. He gave money for education and scientific research and also donated over $1 million for the land on which they would build the globally recognised Carnegie Hall in New York City.

 

Carnegie died on August 11, 1919 at his estate in Lenox, Massachusetts and was buried at Sleepy Hollow graveyard in New York.

 

After Carnegie’s death, his wife, Louise, funded the Memorial Treasure House (now known as the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum) that would be attached to the house Carnegie was born in which she bought back for him as a gift for his 60th birthday. This museum would be used to share the legacy of her departed husband. The Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum features archive materials and artefacts of the success and virtue of Andrew Carnegie and has become a popular attraction for tourists from all over the world, especially Americans, to learn more about one of histories wealthiest, but most generous men.

 

Check out the map for directions to the museum.