Follow
A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present (thru 1996)
- John D. Rockefeller, Oil
- Cornelius Vanderbilt, Shipping
- John Jacob Astor, Fur/Land
- Stephen Girard, Banking
- Andrew Carnegie, Steel
- Alexander Turney Stewart, Retailing
- Friedrich Weyerhaeuser, Lumber
- Jay Gould, Finance
- Stephen Van Rensselaer, Land (inherit)
- Marshall Field, Retailing/Land
- Henry Ford, Automobiles
- Andrew W. Mellon, Banking
- Richard Beatty Mellon, Banking
- Sam Moore Walton, Retailing
- James G. Fair, Mining
- William Weightman, Chemicals
- Moses Taylor, Banking
- Russell Sage, Finance
- John Insley Blair, Railroads
- Cyrus H. K. Curtis, Publishing
- Edward Henry Harriman, Railroads
- Henry Huttleston Rogers, Oil
- John Pierpont Morgan, Finance
- Oliver H. Payne, Oil/Finance
- Henry C. Frick, Steel
- Collis Potter Huntington, Railroads
- Peter A. Widener, City Transit
- James Clair Flood, Mining
- Nicholas Longworth, Sr, Land
- Philip Danforth Armour Sr., Meatpacking
- Bill Gates, Software
- Mark Hopkins, Jr., Railroads
- Singer Sewing Machine Company Edward Cabot Clark, Sewing machines
- Leland Stanford, Railroads
- William Avery Rockefeller, Jr., Oil
- Hetty Green, Finance
- James Jerome Hill, Railroads
- Elias Hasket Derby, Sr., Merchant/Shipping
- Warren Buffett, Finance
- Claus Spreckels, Sugar
- George Peabody, Finance
- Charles Crocker, Railroads
- William Andrews Clark, Mining
- George Eastman, Photography
- Charles Lewis Tiffany, Jewelry
- Thomas Fortune Ryan, City Transit
- Edward Stephen Harkness, Oil (inheritance)
- Henry Flagler, Oil/Resorts
- James Buchanan Duke, Tobacco
- Israel Thorndike, Merchant/Shipping
- William Shoney O'Brien, Mining
- Isaac Merritt Singer, Sewing machines
- George Hearst, Mining
- John Hancock, Merchant/Shipping Congregationalist
- John W. Garrett, Railroads
- John W. Mackay, Mining
- Julius Rosenwald, Catalog retailing
- George Fisher Baker, Banking
- George Washington, Land
- Anthony Nicholas Brady, Transit/Utilities
- Adolphus Busch, Beer
- John Thompson Dorrance aka John Dorrance III, Canned goods
- George Mortimer Pullman, Railroad cars
- Robert Wood Johnson, II, Medical supplies
- John Francis Dodge, Co-Founder of Dodge, Automobiles
- Horace Elgin Dodge, Sr., Automobiles
- J. Paul Getty, Oil
- William Henry Aspinwall, Shipping
- Johns Hopkins, Merchant/Railroads
- John Kluge, Communications
- Samuel Colt, Guns
- James Stillman, Banking
- William Collins Whitney, Transit
- William Kendall Thaw, Sr., Canals/Railroads
- Paul Allen, Software
- Cyrus Hall McCormick, Farm equipment
- Arthur Vining Davis, Aluminum
- Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Sr., Merchant/Shipping
- Joseph Pulitzer, Publishing
- Daniel Willis James, Merchant
- Howard Hughes, Oil/Aviation
- Frank Winfield Woolworth, Retailing
- John McDonogh, Land
- Samuel Slater, Sr., Textiles
- August Belmont, Finance
- Benjamin Franklin, Land/Printing
- Sumner Redstone, Communications
- Robert Dollar, Shipping
- Richard Warren Sears, Catalog retailing
- H. L. Hunt, Oil
- Jay Van Andel, Direct merchandising
- Richard Marvin (Rich) DeVos, Direct merchandising
- Henry Phipps, Jr., Steel
- Larry Ellison, Software
- Ronald Owen Perelman, Finance
- Peter Chardon Brooks, Merchant/Shipping
- Charles William Post, Cereals
- Samuel I. Newhouse, Publishing
- William Wrigley, Jr.,. Chewing gum
- David Packard, Computers