Big Money

The richest Americans in history

8. Alexander Turney Stewart

richest americans
  • Adjusted wealth*: $100 billion
  • Lived: 1803-1876

An Irish-born textile merchant, Stewart went on to run one of the biggest wholesale and retail dry goods businesses in the United States and was a major uniform supplier to the Union Army during the civil war.

His big innovation was to eliminate haggling over retail goods, instead opting for fixed pricing.

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.

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