The Brunch Table

The New York Times put out a list of the 30 all-time richest Americans, with capsule biographies and inflation-adjusted fortune stats. Their cute Flash presentation was giving me a headache, though, so I copied out the info by hand:

1. John Rockefeller – $192 billion – oil
2. Cornelius Vanderbilt – $143 billion – steamboats -> railroads
3. John Astor – $116 billion – fur -> real estate
4. Stephen Girard – $83 billion – smuggling -> banking
5. Bill Gates – $82 billion – software
6. Andrew Carnegie – $74 billion – steel
7. A. T. Stewart – $70 billion – retail
8. Frederick Weyerhauser – $68 billion – lumber
9. Jay Gould – $67 billion – stocks
10. Stephen van Rensselaer – $64 billion – real estate
11. Marshall Field – $61 billion – retail -> real estate
12. Henry Ford – $54 billion – cars
13. Sam Walton – $53 billion – retail -> outsourcing
14. Andrew Mellon – $48 billion – banking -> aluminum, oil
15. Richard Mellon – $48 billion – banking -> aluminum, oil
16. Warren Buffett – $46 billion – stocks
17. James Fair – $45 billion – mining -> real estate
18. William Weightman – $44 billion – pharmaceuticals
19. Moses Taylor – $44 billion – banking
20. Russell Sage – $43 billion – organized crime -> stocks
21. John Blair – $43 billion – mining -> railroads
22. Edward Harriman – $39 billion – stocks -> railroads
23. Henry Rogers – $39 billion – oil
24. J. P. Morgan – $38 billion – banking -> politics
25. Oliver Payne – $37 billion – oil
26. Henry Frick – $36 billion – steel
27. George Pullman – $34 billion – traincars
28. Collis Huntington – $33 billion – retail -> railroads
29. Peter Widener – $32 billion – railroads
30. James Flood – $31 billion – mining

By the way, Huntington, WV is named for Collis Huntington. And Oliver Hazard Payne easily takes the prize for best name.