George Pullman
George Pullman became one of America’s most successful businessmen by solving practical technical problems. At the height of an industrial revolution, solving the country’s social problems became his biggest challenge.
George Mortimer Pullman was born in Brocton, Chautauqua County, on March 3, 1831. He left school at age 14 to work in a Westfield store, and joined his brother’s cabinet-making business in Albion three years later. In 1855, he moved to Chicago to start his own contracting business.
In 1858, the Chicago & Alton railroad hired Pullman to convert three passenger coaches into sleeping compartments for overnight travelers. Pullman had to provide passengers an alternative to sleeping in their seats without putting rigid beds in their way during the day. His solution was to make each bed a hinged berth that could be lowered into position at night, then folded back against the wall in the morning.
Surprisingly, the Chicago & Alton lost interest in Pullman’s project. When no other railroads showed interest, he moved to Colorado in 1859 to open a general store.
In 1863, Pullman returned to Chicago. Working with Ben Field, a friend from Albion, he patented the folding berth in 1864. In 1865, he began building the first custom-made sleeping cars. He created more sleeping space beneath the folding berth by building seats that could be unfolded and joined together. Pullman’s “Pioneer” cars were too tall to pass beneath some railroad bridges, but with modifications, railroad companies acquired them to meet growing demand after the Civil War for comfortable accommodations during long train trips.
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded in 1867, became the largest manufacturing firm in the country by the 1890s. Starting in Palmyra, New York, Pullman built factories in Detroit, St. Louis, San Francisco, Wilmington, and Elmira, while adding dining cars, freight cars, and more passenger cars to his line.
While business boomed for Pullman, American industries were torn by conflict. Workers protested against unfair wages and labor conditions while employers tried to stop the rise of labor unions. As his fortune grew, Pullman sought a solution to the growing problem.
Convinced that overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions caused workers’ discontent, Pullman offered workers at his newest factory an alternative. The town of Pullman rose from marshland outside Chicago in 1881. His company carefully planned a clean, orderly environment with social and cultural services to keep workers content on and off the job. The town even turned a profit, as tenants paid more in rent than Pullman spent on services. He still owned all the town’s property after Chicago annexed it in 1889.
In 1894, after Pullman cut wages without reducing rents, his workers went on strike. The “Pullman Strike” became a boycott of Pullman cars by railroad workers, paralyzing trains nationwide. Pullman defeated the strikers, but his dream of industrial harmony was ruined.
Soon after George Pullman died on October 19, 1897, his company sold the town’s residential property. While his greatest project failed, Pullman still succeeded, in a sense, in making America’s passage into the modern era a little more comfortable.
For more information about George Pullman and his company go to http:// www.pullman-museum.org/theMan/