Big Money

The richest Americans in history

17. Moses Taylor

richest americans
  • Adjusted wealth*: $54.5 billion
  • Lived: 1806-1882

The son of an aide to John Jacob Astor (No. 3), Taylor used his own and his family's money to invest in a wide range of industries: sugar, coffee, shipping, railroads, steel, coal and utilities, to name a few.

His basic strategy was to keep a lot of cash on hand during the good times so he could buy assets cheap during the bad. He used this same strategy to build wealth when he was president of the National City Bank of New York, which later became Citibank. (C)

First published June 2, 2014: 6:18 PM ET
Source: *Most nominal wealth estimates are from The Wealthy 100 by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, and include wealth at time of death, including bequests. Estimates were then calculated as a fraction of the overall economy at time of death by Sam Williamson of Measuring Worth, and then presented in 2013 dollars based on the size of the current U.S. economy. Estimates for Gates and Buffett provided by Wealth-X.

Biographical information from The Wealthy 100 by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, Encyclopedia Britannica, and The Prize by Daniel Yergin.

Latest Galleries

Partner Offers

LendingTree




Most Popular