Stephen Davison Bechtel (1900 - 1989)

Industrialist. Born in Indiana to Warren A. and Clara Alice West Bechtel. Stephen, known lovingly as Steve, was raised in construction camps, his teenage years were spent working with the construction crews. He shipped out to serve his country after his graduation from high school with 19 months in World War I. He was a […]

Carl Bechstein (1826 - 1900)

Entrepreneur. He founded the C. Bechstein Pianoforte Co., considered one of the world’s finest piano manufacturers, in Berlin in 1853. The sonorous yet creamy sound of this company’s instruments influenced composer Claude Debussy, who once enthused,  “All piano music should be written for Bechsteins”,  and over the years they have been favored by such virtuosos […]

Viscount Marcus Samuel Bearsted (1853 - 1927)

British Peer,  Industrialist. Founder of Shell Oil. Born the son of Abigail Moss and Marcus Samuel in London, England. He helped develop oil fields in Sarawak and Egypt and was a founder and Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. and started handling consignments of kerosene. In 1892 he began operating tankers sailing to […]

L.L. Bean (1872 - 1967)

Businessman, Mail Order Magnate, Author. He is remembered as the founder of the successful mail order company L.L. Bean. Born Leon Leonwood Bean, one of six boys, he showed an early interest in business by selling steel traps. When he was 12 years old, his parents died only four days apart and he moved to […]

Col James Beauregard “Jim” Beam (1864 - 1947)

Business Magnate, Folk Hero. James Beam turned the family bourbon business into an american industry. Under Jim, the business thrived despite prohibition. Jim left the distilling business to grow citrus in Florida, among other things. When prohibition ended in 1934 Jim was ready to fire up the still. He built and moved to a new […]

John Clifford Baxter (1958 - 2002)

Businessman, Alledged Criminal. Former Vice Chairman of Enron Energy Company. Died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

John Jacob Bausch (1830 - 1926)

Businessman. He was a co-founder of Bausch And Lomb, Incorperated.

Sam Battistone (1913 - 1992)

Business Magnate. He founder the Sambo’s restaurant chain. The first Sambo’s is still in operation on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara.  Family links:  Spouse:  Ione Isabelle Jensen Battistone (1914 – 2003)* *Calculated relationship

Thomas John Bata (1914 - 2008)

Entrepreneur,  Philanthropist. He was widely called the “Shoemaker to the World”. He built Bata Shoe Organization into one of the world’s largest family-run businesses and a leading footwear manufacturer and retailer with operations in 50 countries. Born in Praha, Czechoslovakia he was a tenth generation cobbler and apprenticed under his father Tomas, who co-founded the […]

Burton Baskin (1913 - 1967)

Business Magnate. Together with his brother-in-law, Irving Robbins, he founded the Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors Ice Cream chain.  In 2004, Baskin-Robbins served over 10 million customers per week around the world. (bio by: Joe Walker)

William Barret (1786 - 1871)

Businessman. A Tobacco manufacturer, he opened one of the first large tobacco factories in Richmond and quickly amassed a large fortune. One of his slaves, a tobacco worker namded Henry “Box” Brown, gained notoriety in 1849, when he escaped in a box shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, where he became an abolitionist author and speaker. […]

Paul Julius Baron de Reuter (1816 - 1899)

Journalist. Born in a family of rabbis, he was named Israel Beer Josaphat. He changed his name and became a founder of Reuters, one of the major financial news agencies of the world, which first established a telegraph link between Britain and the European continent through the English Channel. When this link was extended to […]

Barney Isaacs Barnato (1851 - 1970)

Financier and rogue. Born Barnett Isaacs in 1852, he made his first fortune in diamonds in South Africa and returned to England to become king of the market in gold shares (‘kaffirs’). His visiting card bore the inscription ‘I’ll stand you a drink but I won’t lend you a fiver’. Took to drink and commited […]

Francis Jones Barnard (1829 - 1889)

Founder of British Columbia-Barnard Express (BX) stagecoach company serving the Cariboo gold fields; father of Sir Frank S. Barnard MP for Yale, B.C. (1879-1886).  Family links:  Spouse:  Ellen Stillman Barnard (1825 – 1889)*  Children:  Francis Stillman Barnard (1856 – 1936)*  George Henry Barnard (1868 – 1954)* *Calculated relationship

David Barclay (1970 - 1970)

Quaker merchant, son of Robert Barclay the ‘apologist’ (as mentioned on his headstone) who wrote an early defence fo the Quaker movement. Began life as a draper and started trading with the West indies and New England. Entered a banking partnership with the Quaker family of Freame, and thus became the founder of Barclays Bank, […]

Ohio Columbus Barber (1841 - 1920)

Businessman. First worked in his father’s Akron, Ohio Match Company. He was such a successful salesman that he later founded Barberton, Ohio and moved the family business there, where he built a lavish mansion. The house is gone today but the gothic-style horse stables still stand. O.C. would become known as “the Match King of […]

Phineas Banning (1830 - 1885)

Financier. He was a major developer of the Los Angeles Harbor.  Family links:  Parents:  John Alford Banning (1790 – 1854)  Elizabeth Lowber Banning (1794 – 1861)  Spouses:  Rebecca Sanford Banning (1837 – 1868)  Mary Hollister Banning (1846 – 1919)  Children:  Bessie Banning (____ – 1866)*  Francenia Allibone Banning (1855 – 1857)*  John Griffin Banning (1856 […]

Peter Hood Ballantine (1831 - 1882)

Businessman. He founded the Ballantine Beer Breweries.  Family links:  Parents:  Peter Ballentine (1791 – 1883)  Julia Wilson Ballantine (1796 – 1868)  Spouse:  Isabella Linen Ballantine (1834 – 1911)*  Children:  Isabel Abbert Ballantine (1864 – 1946)*  George Alexander Ballantine (1866 – 1910)*  George Alexander Ballantine (1866 – 1910)*  Bessie S. Ballantine (1875 – 1876)*  Sarah Linen […]

Matthias William Baldwin (1795 - 1866)

Business Magnate, Inventor, Abolitionist. The son of a carriage maker, he was interested in mechanical things. At 16 he worked for a series of jewelers in Philadelphia. During that time he invented a process for gold plating jewelry. Later, he opened his own business. When the jewelry trade went into recession, he started a bookbinding […]

Loammi Baldwin (1745 - 1807)

Canal Engineer, Apple Magnate, Revolutionary War Figure. Born to James Baldwin and Ruth Richardson, Hon. Loammi Baldwin was successively Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Colonel of Gerrish’s regment. He was present with the regiment on December 26, 1776, at Trenton, New Jersey with General Washington. He resigned his command about 1777 for ill health and returned to […]

Dwight Hamilton Baldwin (1821 - 1899)

Entrepreneur.  Founder of the Baldwin Piano Company. Born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, he moved to Ohio to attend the Oberlin College in Lorain County. Baldwin left before graduating to become a traveling music teacher. He married Emerine Summers Baldwin and relocated to the Cincinnati area in the 1850’s when she accepted a teaching job at […]

James Anthony Bailey (1847 - 1906)

Circus Showman. Along with Phineas T. Barnum, he helped found Barnum and Bailey Circus, which became known as “The Greatest Show On Earth”. In 1872, he partner with Philadelphian James E, Cooper to form “Cooper and Bailey’s Circus”, and toured the United States, Java, New Zealand and South America. In 1873 Cooper died and James […]

Jules Semon “J.S.” Bache (1861 - 1944)

Businessman. He began his career as a cashier in Leopold Cahn and Company in 1880. He later he headed the firm and changed the banking firm name to J.S. Bache and Company.  Family links:  Parents:  Elizabeth Van Praag Bache (1833 – 1913)  Siblings:  Henrietta Bache Kayser (1850 – 1943)*  Sarah Bache Thurnauer (1853 – 1884)* […]

Elisha Spurr Babcock, Jr (1848 - 1922)

Real Estate Mogul. An important figure in the history of San Diego, California, he is best remembered for building the famous Hotel del Coronado (1888) to attract residential buyers to the area. Ten US Presidents and countless celebrities have stayed at this Victorian-style beachfront hotel, which remains the second-largest wooden structure in the country; in […]

Lyman S. Ayres (1824 - 1896)

Businessman. Founded L.S. Ayres.  Family links:  Spouse:  Maria Helen Murray Ayres (1837 – 1911)*  Children:  Frederic Murray Ayres (1872 – 1940)*  Katherine Ayres Smitheram (1880 – 1949)* *Calculated relationship

Decatur Axtell (1848 - 1922)

Businessman. Trained as a civil engineer, he worked on the construction of the first Union Pacific lines as a young man. In 1880, he became general manager of the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad, and, upon acquiring the James River and Kanawha Company, began constructing a rail line on the towpath of the old James River […]

Warren Edward Avis (1915 - 2007)

Business Magnate. In 1946 he opened the world’s first airport car rental location at Willow Run Airport, Detroit, with a grand total of three cars. He founded Avis Rent-a-Car with $10,000 of his own money and $75,000 borrowed against his name. He also introduced many innovative business practices, including national franchise licensing, corporate credit cars […]

Ray Stanton Avery (1907 - 1997)

Inventor, Business Magnate. In 1935 he invented a producted he called “Kum Kleen Pricer Stickers,” the first commercially self-adhesive labels. His invention led to the formation of Avery Dennison Corperation. The company now has 16,000 employees in 37 countries and sales in the billions each year.  Family links:  Parents:  Oliver Perry Avery (1871 – 1959) […]

Laurence William Austin (1922 - 1997)

Folk Figure. Born the son of Ethel Austin, Cecil B. DeMille’s tailor, and William Austin, a silent film actor. He apparently cultivated a mysterious mien, declining even to discuss his age in interviews. He acquired a theater specializing in silent films about 1990. He apparently delighted in his role as proprietor of Silent Movie, which […]

Addie Detroit Wood Atkinson (1841 - 1916)

Businesswoman. She owned and operated the Lexington Hotel in Richmond, which she purchased in 1889, and within ten years had saved enough money to build her own hotel. She built the Hotel Richmond, which became one of the most elegant and popular hotels in Richmond, on the western edge of Capitol Square in 1904, and […]