FIVE VICTORIAN SCOTS WHO STRUCK GOLD ACROSS THE BIG POND
Born in December 1844 in New York, Cargill was the third of Scottish sea captain William Dick Cargill’s seven children. In 1856 Cargill’s parents moved to escape the city and settled in Janesville, Wisconsin to pursue an agricultural life. In 1865, William W. Cargill founded Cargill Inc. as a small grain storage company in Conover, Iowa. By the late 20th century, the now Minneapolis-based Cargill, Inc., had become a multi-billion dollar business, developing into America’s largest privately-owned corporation with 600 plants and offices in 40 countries and more than 25,000 employees. ROBERT DOLLAR Born in Falkirk in 1844, Dollar emigrated with his parents to Canada aged 13. He immediately started work in a lumber camp but in 1882, aged 38, moved to the new, bustling city of San Francisco, where he bought lumber yards and made his name in the logging business. In 1895, the Scotsman acquired his first vessel and immediately began to ship lumber, commodities, mail and passengers to Southern California, eventually amassing a fortune that today would amount to over $700m. Born in Dunblane in 1791, Burden was the son of a sheep farmer who studied engineering at Edinburgh before returning to the farm to make machines and tools. After emigrating to Albany in 1819, Burden’s innovations made him a wealthy man. He invented a machine that produced 60 horseshoes a minute (they were previously made by hand), and won the Union Army’s contract, and made a fortune in supplying iron for railroads. He also invented the cruise liner, the largest water wheel in the world and the first iron-clad warship.