List of richest Americans in history

A caricature of John D. Rockefeller Sr. published in Puck in 1901

Virtually all sources agree on John D. Rockefeller Sr. being the richest American in history.

The second place is disputed, held by Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Jacob Astor, Bill Gates or Henry Ford depending on the source; most sources agree on Carnegie. Further places are a matter of even bigger debate.

Given the steady economic rise of the United States since its founding, and it becoming the foremost economic power in the world in the late 19th century, the richest Americans were often the wealthiest people worldwide at the same time.

Klepper & Gunther 1996

In the 1996 book The Wealthy 100, authors Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther placed John D. Rockefeller atop the list of the richest Americans in history, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor.^[1] Bill Gates was the top living person, coming in fifth.

American Heritage 1998

American Heritage (magazine) published a list of 40 richest Americans ever in 1998. It is available here.

CNN Money

1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Cornelius Vanderbilt
3. John Jacob Astor
4. Stephen Girard
5. Richard Mellon
6. Andrew Carnegie
7. Stephen Van Ransselaer
8. A.T. Stewart
9. Frederick Weyerhäuser
10. Jay Gould
11. Marshall Field
12. Bill Gates
13. Henry Ford
14. Warren Buffett
15. Andrew Mellon
16. Sam Walton
17. Moses Taylor
18. Russell Sage
19. James G. Fair
20. William Weightman

Forbes (1998)

Forbes listed the richest Americans of all time in 1998.^[2]

1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Cornelius Vanderbilt
3. John Jacob Astor
4. Stephen Girard
5. Andrew Carnegie
6. Bill Gates
7. A.T. Stewart
8. Frederick Weyerhäuser

Business Insider

Business Insider agreed on Rockefeller in first, but placed Andrew Carnegie second, followed by Vanderbilt, and Gates.^[3]

1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Andrew Carnegie
3. Cornelius Vanderbilt
4. Bill Gates
5. John Jacob Astor
6. Stephen Girard
7. A.T. Stewart
8. Frederick Weyerhäuser
9. Jay Gould
10. Stephen Van Rensselaer
11. Marshall Field
12. Sam Walton
13. Warren Buffett

Bernstein & Swan 2008

Bernstein and Swan in All the Money in the World (2008) mention the 15 richest Americans of all time.^[4]

1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Andrew Carnegie
3. Cornelius Vanderbilt
4. John Jacob Astor
5. Stephen Girard
6 Richard B. Mellon
7. A.T. Stewart
8. Frederick Weyerhäuser
9. Marshall Field
10. Sam Walton
11. Jay Gould
12. Henry Ford
13. Bill Gates
14. Andrew W. Mellon
15. Warren Buffett

By half decade

This list names the richest American by half decade starting in 1770.^[5]

Year	Name	Picture
1770	Peter Manigault[6]
1775	Robert Morris[7]
1780	William Bingham[8]
1785	Benjamin Franklin
1790	John Hancock
1795	Elias Hasket Derby
1800	Thomas Willing[9]
1805	Stephen Girard[10]
1810
1815
1820
1825
1830
1835	Stephen Van Rensselaer
1840	John Jacob Astor
1845
1850	Cornelius Vanderbilt[11][12]
1855
1860
1865
1870
1875
1880	William Henry Vanderbilt
1885
1890	John D. Rockefeller[13][14]
1895
1900	Andrew Carnegie
1905
1910	John D. Rockefeller
1915
1920	Henry Ford
1925
1930	Andrew Mellon
1935
1940	Henry Ford[15]
1945
1950	H. L. Hunt[16]
1955	J. Paul Getty
1960	Howard Hughes
1965
1970
1975
1980	Daniel Ludwig
1985	Sam Walton
1990	John Werner Kluge[17]
1995	Bill Gates[18]
2000
2005
2010
2015

References

1. "The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. July 15, 2007.
2. "Richest Americans in History". Forbes. August 24, 1998. Retrieved April 11, 2009.
3. Gus Lubin (April 17, 2011). "The 13 Richest Americans Of All Time". Business Insider.
4. All the Money in the World (2008) by Bernstein and Swan, p. 17 "Introduction"
5. Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates – A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xii, ISBN 978-0-8065-1800-8, OCLC 33818143
6. Heitzler, Michael James (2005). Goose Creek, South Carolina: A Definitive History 1670–2003. 1. Charleston, SC: The History Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-59629-055-6.
7. Kennedy, John (1894). Robert Morris and the Holland Purchase. Batavia, NY: J. F. Hall. p. 121.
8. Spingola, Deanna (2011). The Ruling Elite: a Study in Imperialism, Genocide and Emancipation. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-4269-5462-7.
9. Burke, James (2007). American Connections: The Founding Fathers. Networked. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. pp. 157–58. ISBN 978-0-7432-8226-0.
10. Phillips, Kevin. Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of America's Rich. New York, NY: Broadway Books. p. Chapter 1.
11. Buder, Stanley (2009). Capitalizing on Change: A Social History of American Business. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-8078-3231-8. Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877) succeeded Astor as the wealthiest American.
12. Kemp, Michael (2016). Uncommon Sense: Investment Wisdom Since the Stock Market's Dawn. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-7303-2424-9. Consider also Cornelius Vanderbilt, the wealthiest American at the time of his death in 1877.
13. Li, Xiaobing; Molina, Michael (2014). Oil: A Cultural and Geographic Encyclopedia of Black Gold. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-61069-271-7.
14. "America's Richest Man: J. D. Rockefeller and his Enormous Fortune". The Star. Canterbury, NZ. Detroit Free Press. April 6, 1895.
15. National Republic: A Monthly Review of American History, Policy, Politics and Public Affairs. Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Co. 1940. p. 30. The richest man in America is Henry Ford.
16. Knowles, Ruth Sheldon (1978). The Greatest Gamblers: The Epic of American Oil Exploration. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-8061-1513-9.
17. Miller, Stephen (September 9, 2010). "A One-Man Empire, From TV to Laundry". The Wall Street Journal.
18. "Forbes magazine profile on Bill Gates". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.