Chief Two Moon Meridas (1888 - 1933)

Business Figure. Born born Chico Colon Meridan, he became famous and wealthy in the early part of the 20th century by selling herbal medicines, some of which were claimed to be a “cure all”. He claimed to be of Sioux Native American birth, but that claim was never proven.

Alexander Mendelssohn (1798 - 1871)

Financier. As head of the Berlin-based Mendelssohn & Co. from 1848 until his death, he built it into Germany’s most important private bank of the late 19th Century. The son of the firm’s founder, Joseph Mendelssohn, he was born in Berlin into a distinguished family. His grandfather was German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn,  and his cousins […]

Algur Hurtle Meadows (1899 - 1978)

Businessman. He and J.W. Gilliland, a petroleum expert, formed the General American Oil Company in 1936. In 1941 he became the president and major stockholder, and by 1959 his company had 2,990 oil wells in fifteen states and Canada. He gave more than $34 million to Southern Methodist University, and by 1992 his foundation had […]

S. S. McClure (1970 - 1970)

American Publisher. Subject of the book “Success Story, The Life and Times of S.S. McClure” by Peter Lyon. Samuel McClure was a Scotch-Irish immigrant who entered the American publishing world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was described as a “genius” who had a revolutionary impact on the country’s newspapers and magazines […]

Robert Mazer (1923 - 2013)

Industrialist, philanthropist and longtime principal owner of the Chicago White Sox. He worked in the Chicago South Side stockyards and during World War II he served as an electronic technician in a Navy division headquartered at the Great Lakes Naval Center. Later he founded Mazer Chemicals, a manufacturer of chemical emulsifiers and surfactants and an […]

Oscar F. Mayer (1859 - 1955)

Business Magnate. He was the founder of the Oscar Mayer Company, which became one of the most successful and enduring meat and cold cut production companies in the United States. Born in Germany, in 1873, at the age of 14, the family grocery business failed, and he immigrated to the United States with his cousin. […]

August Wilhelm Maybach (1846 - 1929)

Automotive Pioneer, Industrialist. He was one of the first automobile manufacturers in Germany. With his lifelong partner Gottlieb Daimler, he invented the first fast-running petrol engine (1885). A smaller version of this engine was used later that year to create the first true motorcycle. In 1886, they built from a carriage the first four-wheel power […]

Tom May (1883 - 1968)

Founder of May Company Department stores.  Family links:  Parents:  Morton J. May (1881 – 1968)  Florence Goldman May (1884 – 1938)  Spouse:  Anita Kay Keiler May (1891 – 1976)*  Children:  Blanche Rose May Selden (1916 – 1943)*  Siblings:  Tom May (1883 – 1968)  Sarah Jane May Waldheim (1911 – 2004)*  Morton D May (1914 – […]

Robert Maxwell (1923 - 1991)

Jan Ludwig Hoch was born in Slatinske Doly, a village in the province of Ruthenia which was then in Czechoslovakia but which, after 1945, became part of the Ukraine. His parents, Mechel and Hannah, were Orthodox Jews. Mechel eked out a living as a cattle salesman, woodcutter and farm labourer. There were seven children in […]

Sid Maurer (1927 - 2000)

Popular founder and proprietor of the Atlas Supermarket, an icon Indianapolis neighborhood store that became renowned for stocking unusual foods that could not be found anywhere else, including a wide selection of kosher foods and other ethnic fare. David Letterman has acknowledged that working at Atlas for Mr. Maurer was one of his most important […]

Georges Matchabelli (1885 - 1935)

Businessman, Russian Nobility. A distinguished diplomat, before the Russian Revolution he had been an ambassador to Italy.  For generations his family had been the ruling family of the Province of Georgia, the Caucasus.  In 1916 he married Norina Gilli (born in Florence, Italy (1888) who became famous for her portrayal of “The Madonna” in Max […]

Paul Masson (1859 - 1940)

Vintner (wine maker).

Louis Marx (1896 - 1982)

Toy Magnate. At the age of sixteen and the oldest of three, Marx had to help support the family. On a friend’s recommendation, he was hired to work full-time at the Ferdinand J. Strauss Company, a toy manufacturer that produced items for Abraham & Strauss Department Stores and a pioneer in the tin toy industry. […]

Howard Carpenter Marmon (1876 - 1943)

Industrialist,  Automotive Innovator. Howard attend Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and then at the University of California where he was obtained a degree in engineering. The Marmon family prospered in the manufacturing of flour milling machinery with the Nordyke and Marmon Company which was established in 1851. Sons of the co-founder, Howard and Walter Marmon […]

Frederick F Neef (1846 - 1970)

Denver Brewing Magnate. Initially a clerk with Credit Lyonais in Lyons, France; emigrated to USA in 1871 and was a salesman working in wholesale paper firm in St. Louis; next to Omaha in wholesale sales. Came to Denver in 1873 and with brother, Max, opened saloon and dance hall; sold saloon in 1891 and bought […]

Charles Williams Nash (1864 - 1948)

Businessman, Automobile Magnate. He is remembered for founding Nash Motors Company in 1916 that continued to manufacture automobiles which appealed to America’s middle class until the mid-1950s. Born into a farming family, his parents divorced when he was six years old and he was sent to live and work as an indentured servant to a […]

Henri Nannen (1913 - 1996)

Publisher. Born in Emden, Germany, during World War II, he was a propaganda writer then became one of the most prominent journalists and magazine publishers in Germany. In the 1930s, he started working as a journalist for the propaganda unit in Italy and then was a speaker of the Olympic Oath for the 1936 games […]

Chikuhei Nakajima (1884 - 1949)

Nakajima was born as the eldest son of a farmer in Gunma Prefecture. He entered a naval academy at age 19 and became interested in in aviation after hearing about the exploits of the Wright Brothers. He assisted in the production of aircraft for the Japanese navy. After leaving the navy, he set up the […]

John Ripley Myers (1864 - 1899)

Businessman. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1887 and purchased Clinton Pharmaceutical Company in upstate New York with friend and fellow Hamilton alumnus William McLaren Bristol. He continued with the business, renamed Bristol, Myers and Company in 1898, until his death from pneumonia. Bristol, Myers was not immediately profitable, but proved successful after Myers’s death […]

Joseph L. Musso (1880 - 1946)

Restaurateur, co-founder of Musso & Frank Grill.  Opened in 1919 with partner Frank Toulet, it is steeped in Hollywood history, having been the hideout of a host of famous  celebrities from Hollywood’s elite, including movie stars, film directors and producers. In the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, the golden years in Hollywood, the waiters served Mary […]

Clint William Murchison, Jr (1923 - 1987)

Businessman, Professional Football Team Owner. He and his brother inherited the fortune their father had built in real estate, construction, railroads and oil in the 1920s and 1030s. He established the Dallas Cowboys football team in 1959 for $600,000, and sold them in 1984 to H.R. “Bum” Bright  for $80 million.  He once had a […]

George Huntington Mumford (1805 - 1871)

Business magnate. He was co-financier of the Western Union Telegraph Company with Don Alonzo Watson and Henry Sayre Potter. (bio by: Mount Hope NY)

Charles Stewart Mott (1875 - 1973)

Industrialist, Philanthropist. He was an automotive pioneer who founded the Weston-Mott company which built a factory in Flint, Michigan which supplied axles for Buick automobiles at the adjacent Buick assembly plant. His company was sold to General Motors and he served as a General Motors director for the rest of his life. He established the […]

Lemuel Oscar Motlow (1970 - 1947)

Businessman. He was the owner and operator of the famous Jack Daniel Distillery. Jasper “Jack” Daniel took over the distillery just after the Civil War. It’s ownership eventually passed to Daniel’s nephew Lemuel Motlow. Prohibition had begun in the 1920s and he moved his distillery to St. Louis, Missouri and in 1923 he made a […]

Thomas Richard Mosser (1927 - 2006)

Glassmaker. As a teenager, he learned the glassmaking trade by working at the Cambridge Glass Company. When Cambridge Glass closed in 1954, he began pursuing his dream of opening up his own glass factory by purchasing glass moulds, equipment and saving up the needed capital. Five years later he co-founded Variety Glass which specialized in […]

Enrique Carlos Mosconi (1877 - 1940)

Argentine Army General, Pioneer Aviator, Businessman. He was one of the pioneers of the Argentine Militar Aviation. As the president of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), the national Oil Company, he also oversaw the important role of petroleum in the development of the nation. (bio by: 380W)

Dwight Whitney Morrow (1873 - 1931)

US Senator, US Diplomat. Served as United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1927 to 1930. Elected as a Senator from New Jersey to the United States Senate, serving from 1930 to 1931. He was a partner in J.P. Morgan and Company. His daughter, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, married famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. His wife, Elizabeth Cutter […]

William Morris (1877 - 1963)

Businessman. He was the founder of the Morris Motor Company and a philanthropist. He started his career in a bicycle shop but his genius for business led him to found Morris Motors which made him a multi-millionaire. He retired from the company’s chairmanship in 1952. He was married to Elizabeth Ansley on the 9 April […]

Eric “Mr. World” Morley (1970 - 2000)

The millionaire entrepreneur became known as “Mr. World” after creating the Miss World beauty pageant. He had not intended the Miss World pageant to be an annual event when he organized a bating beauty contest for the 1951 Festival of Britain. But the following year, the United States inaugurated the rival Miss Universe pageant, and […]

Ralph Kuhner Morgan (1883 - 1956)

Actor. He was the brother of Frank Morgan of “Wizard of Oz” fame. He helped found the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and was its first president in 1933 and also from 1938 to 1940.  Family links:  Parents:  George Diogracia Wuppermann (1838 – 1915)  Josephine Wright Hancox Wuppermann (1851 – 1936)  Spouse:  Grace Arnold (1886 – […]