Jay Gould

popular name: Hamilton McKown Twombly

date_of_death: 01/11/1910

age: 60

cause_of_death: Tuberculosis of the larynx

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Hamilton McKown Twombly was a successful American businessman husband to Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly. In 1892, Twombly and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families led by Mrs. Astor, as published in The New York Times. His wife survived him by 42 years and his legacy is the 10th largest residential home in America - Florham Estate (which is now Fairleigh Dickinson University).

popular name: J. P. Morgan

date_of_death: March 31, 1913 (aged 75)

age: 75

cause_of_death: Acute attack of gastro enteritis

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: J.P. Morgan was a titan of American business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries his position and connections put him squarely in the middle of the development of American industry. Of his generation John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was the most powerful banker, industrialist and art collector in America. Born in Connecticut, he was the third generation of a banking dynasty that he would go on to dwarf with his financial acumen and bullish instinct. His father Junius Spencer Morgan was a partner in a London-based merchant bank. Another ancestor, James Pierpont, founded Yale University. At the height of his powers in the 1890s, Morgan was said to control one sixth of America’s railway lines. In 1895 he and a consortium of bankers rescued America’s Gold Standard loaning the federal government more than $60 million. In addition to the bank that bore his name, Morgan invested in and subsequently bought the Carnegie Steel Company, Edison General Electric and the United States Steel Corporation. He also acquired the New York Times newspaper and founded the Metropolitan Club in New York when the Union Club blackballed his friend John King. Deeply offended, he instructed the architects ‘build me a club fit for gentlemen. Forget the expense’. However, Morgan was not content just in the banking world – he had many interests elsewhere. Adolph Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, secured a loan with J.P. Morgan’s help and managed to save the New York Times. His personal and business interests extended to steel and railroads. He purchased U.S. Steel from Andrew Carnegie and merged it with a few other firms to create United States Steel in 1901. Over 100 years later that firm is still going strong.

popular name: Irv Robbins

date_of_death: May 5, 2008

age: 90

cause_of_death: Complications due to old age

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Irvine Robbins was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin. Robbins grew up scooping ice cream at his family’s dairy. In 1945, he opened his first cone shop, Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale, Calif., offering 21 flavors (when other cone shops only served vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). The following year, his brother-in-law Burton Baskin also opened a shop, Burton’s Ice Cream, in Pasadena. Within three years, Robbins had five Snowbird locations and Baskin had three Burton’s branches. Robbins’ father reportedly advised the two against running a business together because their individual creativity might be stifled. But the in-laws decided to combine their operations. In 1949, they purchased a dairy in Burbank, Calif., which gave them control over production. The two went on to franchise new stores, which helped them grow rapidly. In 1953, they renamed the company Baskin-Robbins, focusing on 31 flavors — one for each day of the month. By 1967, when the chain consisted of about 500 units, the partners sold the company for an estimated $12 million. Six months later, Burt Baskin died of a heart attack at age 54.