Famous Merchants

Muhammad (Arabic: مُحمّد‎, pronounced [muħammad]; c. 570 CE – 8 June 632 CE) led as an Arab religious, social, and political figure, founding Islam. Islamic doctrine holds him as a prophet sent to confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. Main branches of Islam see him as the final prophet of God, though some modern groups disagree. Muhammad unified Arabia into one Muslim state; the Quran and his teachings form the basis of Islam.

Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant traveler, recorded his journeys in the Livres des merveilles du monde, a book introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned trade from his father, Niccolò, and uncle, Maffeo, who traveled Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice; Marco met Marco for the first time. The three began an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice fighting Genoa. Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, and married.

William Jackson (March 9, 1759 – December 17, 1828) was a figure in the American Revolution. He served as the secretary to the United States Constitutional Convention. Jackson also served with distinction in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. After the war, he acted as one of President George Washington's personal secretaries.

John Woolman (October 19, 1720 (O.S.)/October 30, 1720 (N.S.)– October 7, 1772) was a North American merchant, tailor, journalist, and Quaker preacher. He was an early abolitionist in the colonial era. Based in Mount Holly, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he traveled frontier areas of British North America preaching Quaker beliefs. He advocated against slavery, the slave trade, animal cruelty, economic unfairness, and conscription. Starting in 1755 with the French and Indian War, he pushed for tax resistance to deny support to the m

John Fox (June 30, 1835 – January 17, 1914) was an American mechanic, merchant, and politician from New York.

Henry Laurens (March 6, 1724 [O.S. February 24, 1723] – December 8, 1792) was an American merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina. He became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. Laurens delegated to the Second Continental Congress and succeeded John Hancock as President of the Congress. He signed the Articles of Confederation and served as President of the Continental Congress when the Articles passed on November 15, 1777. Laurens gained great wealth as a partner in the largest slave-trading house in North America, Austin and Laurens. In the 1750s alon

William Andrews Clark Sr. lived from January 8, 1839, to March 2, 1925. He served as an American politician and entrepreneur. Clark worked in mining, banking, and railroads.

Lawrence Brainerd (March 16, 1794 – May 9, 1870) was a businessman, abolitionist, and United States Senator from Vermont. He fathered Ann Eliza Brainerd Smith and was the father-in-law of Vermont Governor J. Gregory Smith and Lieutenant Governor F. Stewart Stranahan.

John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German–American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. He made most of his money from the fur trade and by investing in real estate near New York City. Astor was born in Germany. He moved to England as a teenager and worked making musical instruments. After the American Revolutionary War, Astor moved to the United States. He joined the fur trade and built a monopoly. He managed a business empire covering the Great Lakes region and Canada. Later, he expanded that empire into the American West.

Giosafat Barbaro (also Giosaphat or Josaphat) (1413–1494) belonged to the Venetian Barbaro family. Barbaro acted as a diplomat, merchant, explorer, and travel writer. He traveled much more than people of his era did.

Samuel Smith (July 27, 1752 – April 22, 1839) served as a United States Senator and Representative from Maryland. Smith also served as the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, and a general in the Maryland militia. Smith was the brother of cabinet secretary Robert Smith.

Amerigo Vespucci (Italian: [ameˈriːɡo veˈsputtʃi]; March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator, and cartographer. Born in the Republic of Florence, Vespucci sailed for Portugal around 1501–1502. Vespucci showed that Brazil and the West Indies were not the eastern edges of Asia, as Columbus first suggested. People called the new, unexplored landmass the New World. In 1507, the continent was named America after the Latin version of Vespucci's first name. Vespucci became a citizen of the Crown of Castile and died in

William Cooley (1783–1863) was one of the first American settlers and a regional leader in what is now Broward County, Florida. Seminoles killed his family in 1836 during the Second Seminole War. The attack, called the "New River Massacre," caused whites to leave the area immediately. Cooley was born in Maryland. Little is known about his life before 1813, when he arrived in East Florida, a Spanish Florida province, as part of a military expedition. He became a farmer in the northern part of the province before moving south.

Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744 – January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He held various roles during and after the American Revolution, qualifying him as a Founding Father. Mifflin became the first Governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1790 to 1799. Mifflin became a merchant after graduating from the College of Philadelphia. He joined the Continental Army after serving in the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and the Continental Congress. During the American Revolutionary W

The Báb, born Siyyid `Alí Muhammad Shírází (Persian: سيد علی ‌محمد شیرازی‎; October 20, 1819 – July 9, 1850), founded Bábism and was a central figure in the Bahá'í Faith. The Báb was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran. In 1844, at age twenty-four, he claimed to be a messenger of God. He took the title of the Báb (Arabic: باب‎), meaning "Gate" or "Door," a reference linked to the promised Twelver Mahdi or al-Qá'im. The Persian government opposed him, eventually executing the Báb and thousands of his followers, known as Bábís.

John Bell Hood (June 1 or June 29, 1831 – August 30, 1879) served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War. Hood earned a reputation for bravery and aggression, sometimes bordering on recklessness. Hood became less effective as he led larger, independent commands late in the war after promotions; his career and reputation suffered from major losses in the Atlanta Campaign and the Franklin–Nashville Campaign. Hood studied at the United States Military Academy.

John Lynch (February 18, 1825 – July 21, 1892) was a nineteenth-century politician, merchant, manufacturer, and newspaper publisher from Maine. Lynch was born in Portland, Maine. He attended public schools and graduated from Portland High School in 1842. Lynch engaged in trade, managed the Portland Daily Press in 1862, and served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1862 to 1864. He won election to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican in 1864, serving from 1865 to 1873. There, Lynch chaired the Committee on Expenditures in the Dep

Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was one of the Big Four of western railroading, alongside Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. Huntington invested in Theodore Judah's plan to build the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he helped complete. The C&O finished in 1873, fulfilling a long-held dream of Virginians for a rail link from the James River at

David Rowland Francis (October 1, 1850 – January 15, 1927) was an American politician and diplomat. He held roles like Mayor of St. Louis, the 27th Governor of Missouri, and United States Secretary of the Interior. Francis served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 1916 to 1917, during the 1917 Russian Revolution. He was a Wilsonian Democrat.

Richard Waldron (1694-1753) strongly opposed the Wentworth oligarchy in colonial New Hampshire. He backed keeping New Hampshire politically subordinate to Massachusetts and fought against separating from that senior partner. Through his friendship with Massachusetts governor and kinsman Jonathan Belcher, and his roles as Secretary, Councillor, and New Hampshire assembly speaker, he acted as "the central authority" in colonial New Hampshire politics for a time.

John Brown I (January 27, 1736 – September 20, 1803) was an American merchant, slave trader, and statesman from Providence, Rhode Island. John, along with his brothers Nicholas, Joseph, and Moses, helped found Brown University (then the College of Rhode Island) and moved it to their family land in Providence. John Brown laid the cornerstone of the university's oldest building in 1770. He served as its treasurer for 21 years (1775 – 1796). Brown founded Providence Bank and became its first president in 1791. Brown was active in America.

Philip Livingston (January 15, 1716 - June 12, 1778) was an American merchant and statesman from New York City. Livingston represented New York at the October 1774 First Continental Congress. There, he favored imposing economic sanctions on Great Britain to pressure the British Parliament to repeal the Intolerable Acts. He also served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778 and signed the Declaration of Independence.

Andrew Williams (August 27, 1828 – October 6, 1907) was an American politician, manufacturer, merchant, and miner from New York State. Williams was born in Ormstown, Quebec, Canada. He got limited schooling as a child, then pursued trade. He moved to the United States in 1852, settling in Plattsburgh, New York. From 1863 to 1865, Williams made nails. Afterward, he mined iron ore, traded lumber, and made horseshoe nails and wagons. Williams won election as a Republican for the 44th and 45th United States Congresses.

Dorence Atwater (February 3, 1845 – November 26, 1910) served as a Union Army soldier, merchant, entrepreneur, and United States Consul to Tahiti. He grew up in Terryville, Connecticut, the third child of Henry Atwater and Catherine Fenn Atwater. He received a good education. At sixteen, he joined the Union Army for the Civil War. In July 1863, Atwater was captured and became one of the first prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia. There, he kept a list of the dead and copied it secretly. This let him mark graves with Clara Barton.

David Hazzard (May 18, 1781 – July 8, 1864) was an American merchant and politician from Milton, Sussex County, Delaware. Hazzard joined the Democratic-Republican Party, then the National Republican Party, and finally the Whig Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, acted as Governor of Delaware, and served as an Associate Justice of the Delaware Superior Court.

William Lassell (June 18, 1799 – October 5, 1880) was an English merchant and astronomer. People remember him for improving the reflecting telescope and discovering four planetary satellites.

William Johnson Stone (June 26, 1841 – March 12, 1923) served as a US Representative from Kentucky.

Sir William Dunn, 1st Baronet (September 22, 1833 – March 31, 1912), worked as a London banker, merchant, and philanthropist. He served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Paisley from 1891 to 1906. Before 1896, he acted as consul general for the Orange Free State in the United Kingdom until the Second Boer War began in 1899.

Sava Tekelija (Serbian Cyrillic: Сава Текелија; Hungarian: Száva Thököly, 1761–1842) was among the first Serbs to defend a doctoral thesis in jurisprudence (law) in 1786 at the University of Pest, focusing on legal theory and philosophy. Tekelija was president of the Matica srpska, a philanthropist, a noble, and a merchant. In 1838, Tekelija founded the Tekelijanum (Collegium Tökölyanum) in Budapest for Serb students studying there. Tekelija supported the Matica Srpska and opened a Matica library in the Tekelijanum. He is related to Peter Tekeli and Jovan Tekelija (Thö

James Lloyd (December 1769 – April 5, 1831) was a merchant, businessman, and Federalist party politician in Massachusetts during the early United States. Lloyd served twice as a United States Senator, succeeding John Quincy Adams after Adams lost the party vote because of his support for the Embargo Act of 1807.

John Slidell (1793 – July 9, 1871) was an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. A native of New York, Slidell moved to Louisiana as a young man. He became a strong supporter of slavery as a Representative and Senator. He was the older brother of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a US naval officer.

Donald Buchanan Blue (May 6, 1901 – December 4, 1974) was a Canadian politician, auctioneer, farmer, and merchant. He was born in Huron Township, Ontario, Canada. He won a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1949 election as a Liberal Party member for the Bruce riding. He lost the elections of 1953 and 1957.

Benjamin Goodhue, who lived September 20, 1748, to July 28, 1814, served as a Representative and a Senator from Massachusetts. He backed the Patriots during the American Revolution. Goodhue remained a strong Federalist Party member. Contemporaries called him a top member of the Essex Junto, a group of Massachusetts Federalists, mostly from Essex County.

Gustav Christian Schwabe (May 10, 1813 – January 10, 1897) was a German-born merchant and financier. Schwabe funded companies like John Bibby & Sons, Harland and Wolff, and the White Star Line. He was born in Hamburg, Germany. Schwabe moved to Liverpool in 1838 and worked there. Schwabe spent more time at his London house later and retired in 1893.

George Cabot (December 3, 1752 – April 18, 1823) was an American merchant, seaman, and politician from Boston. George Cabot represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and chaired the Hartford Convention. In 1789, President George Washington ate breakfast at Cabot's Beverly, Massachusetts, home while inspecting the country's first cotton mill and the new Essex Bridge, which linked Beverly with Salem.

James Frank Allee (December 2, 1857 – October 12, 1938) was an American merchant and politician from Dover, Kent County, Delaware. James Frank Allee joined the Republican Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly and as U.S. Senator from Delaware. People knew him by his middle name.

Benning Wentworth Jenness, born July 14, 1806, and dying November 16, 1879, served as a United States Senator from New Hampshire. Jenness grew up in Deerfield, attended Bradford Academy in Massachusetts, and worked in trade in Strafford, New Hampshire from 1826 to 1856. He held various local offices and joined the New Hampshire House of Representatives. From 1841 to 1845, Jenness judged probate for Strafford County. He took the U.S. Senate seat after Levi Woodbury resigned. Jenness served from December 1, 1845, to June 13, 1846, and lost an election for the Democratic party.

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, born September 7, 1836, died April 22, 1908. He was a British statesman and Liberal politician. Campbell-Bannerman served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and led the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served twice as Secretary of State for War in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery. He became the first First Lord of the Treasury officially called "Prime Minister"; this title began use five days after he took office. He remains the only person to hold the roles of Prime Minister and Father of the House simultaneously.

Benjamin Stoddert, born 1744 and died December 18, 1813, was the first United States Secretary of the Navy. He held this post from May 1, 1798, to March 31, 1801.

Isaac Lee "Ike" Patterson, born September 17, 1859, and died December 21, 1929, served as the 18th Governor of Oregon from 1927 to 1929. An Oregon native, he worked in the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1918 to 1922, and farmed in the Willamette Valley.

Thomas Whitehead, born December 27, 1825, and died July 1, 1901, was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer, editor, and merchant from Virginia.

Tomé José de Barros Queirós (known as Thomé José de Barros Queiroz in Portuguese in the early 20th century; born February 2, 1872, in Ílhavo – May 5, 1925, in Lisbon) was a Portuguese trader, capitalist, and politician during the Portuguese First Republic. He served in parliament, became Minister of Finances, and eventually became President of the Ministry (Prime Minister). He also belonged to the Masonry. A street in Lisbon's Baixa district bears his name because of his achievements.

Edmund Power Flynn, born August 19, 1828, in Arichat, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and died January 26, 1900, was a Canadian politician, Richmond County's first coroner, and a merchant. He was the son of John Flynn (born 1789, died 1839) and Mary Power (born 1794, died 1849), both from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Ireland. Flynn won election to the House of Commons of Canada in 1874 as a Liberal Party member for Richmond. He won re-election in 1878 and 1887 but lost in the elections of 1882 and 1891. Flynn received his education in Cape Breton and became a merchant in Arichat. Flynn married Mary Ann Barry in 1852; she died in 1862.

William Appleton, born November 16, 1786, and died February 15, 1862, was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. Appleton acted as a trader, shipowner, and banker. He served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1855, and again from 1861 to 1862.

John Wanamaker, born July 11, 1838, and died December 12, 1922, was an American merchant, religious, civic, and political figure. Some people see him as a supporter of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing." Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served as U.S. Postmaster General.

James Ferrier, born October 22, 1800, and died May 30, 1888, was a Scottish-Canadian politician.

James Ponder (October 31, 1819 – November 5, 1897) was an American merchant and politician from Milton in Sussex County, Delaware. He joined the Democratic Party. Ponder served in the Delaware General Assembly and as Governor of Delaware.

Joseph Parkinson Newsham (May 24, 1837 – October 22, 1919) was a 19th-century politician, lawyer, merchant, and planter from Louisiana.

Orville Hungerford (October 29, 1790 – April 6, 1851) served two terms as a United States Representative for the 19th District in New York. Hungerford also acted as a prominent merchant, banker, industrialist, Mason, and railroad president in Watertown, New York.

Edward Colston (2 November 1636 – 11 October 1721) was a Bristol-born English merchant, philanthropist, slave trader, and Member of Parliament. Colston supported and endowed schools, almshouses, hospitals, and churches in Bristol, London, and other places. Many Bristol landmarks, streets, three schools, and the Colston bun remember his name. Much of his wealth came from trading and using slaves.