Schwab, Charles M.

Not the discount brokerage firm founder, but a powerful figure in the steel industry around the end of the 19th century. He started out at 17 as a laborer earning $1 a day, but by 35 he was the president of Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills. Those companies would later be combined with J.P. Morgan’s steel mills, which included most of the steel producers in the United States, creating U.S. Steel. After three years as president of the company, he left and began focusing on building up one of his small steel companies, Bethlehem Steel Corp. Although he created enormous wealth, he also was a big spender and his fortune shrunk. He died penniless in New York in 1939.