Charles Gulden

popular name: Oliver Winchester

date_of_death: December 10, 1880

age: 70

cause_of_death: Long term illness

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Oliver Fisher Winchester was an American businessman and politician, best known as the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut. Interesting to note that repeating rifles were used to some extent in the American Civil War. However, the United States Army at that time did not use many repeating rifles as they were expensive and too advanced for the outdated tactics used in the war. Repeating rifles were not widely used until after the war when they became increasingly popular with civilians. Military authorities concentrated primarily on perfecting breech-loading single shot rifles for many more years. With thousands of rifles in the hands of the average pioneer, the Winchester repeating rifles gained a reputation as "The Gun that Won the West". Oliver Winchester was also active in politics, serving as a New Haven City Commissioner, Republican Presidential elector in 1864, and as Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1866 to 1867.

popular name: Cornelius Vanderbilt

date_of_death: January 4, 1877

age: 82

cause_of_death: Exhaustion and chronic health issues

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: The Vanderbilt name is synonymous with America’s Gilded Age. Upon their deaths, “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt, who established the family’s fortune, and his son William H., who doubled it in just a few years, were the wealthiest men in the United States, if not the world. The steamboat and railroad companies they founded and led played a major role in the development of New York City and State. When he died in 1877 in his mansion at 10 Washington Place, Vanderbilt left a fortune of $105 million. He willed the bulk of it—$95 million, more than was possessed by the United States Treasury—to his oldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt.

popular name: Adam Smith

date_of_death: July 17, 1790

age: 67

cause_of_death: Decay

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Adam Smith, a graduate of the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Also known as "The Father of Economics" or "The Father of Capitalism" he wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh, Scotland.