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List of richest Americans in history

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Fortune's Wealthiest Americans (1957)
Company typeList
IndustryWealth ranking
Founded1957
Headquarters
United States
Area served
United States

Assessing individual wealth over different historical periods presents challenges due to fluctuations in currency value and the overall size of the economy. Approaches to comparison often involve adjusting for inflation or expressing wealth as a percentage of the prevailing GDP, which results in no universally accepted ranking of the wealthiest Americans throughout history.

Often regarded as the wealthiest American in history is John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), not because of inflation-adjusted figures but because of the relative scale of his fortune within the economy of his time. At his death in 1937, his net worth was approximately $1.4 billion, equivalent to nearly $24 billion when converted to 2018 dollars. In contrast, Bill Gates reached a peak net worth close to $150 billion (adjusted to 2018 dollars) in 1999, illustrating the significantly smaller economic environment during Rockefeller’s era.

The title of second richest individual relative to GDP remains a subject of debate, with candidates including Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Cornelius Vanderbilt I, John Jacob Astor IV, and Henry Ford. For example, Vanderbilt’s fortune of $100 million in 1877 translates to roughly $2.4 billion today. By the end of the 19th century, many of America’s wealthiest individuals were also among the richest globally.

Fortune's Wealthiest Americans (1957)

In 1957, Fortune released a list featuring seventy-six of the wealthiest Americans, which gained widespread attention in U.S. newspapers. Upon being declared the richest American, Jean Paul Getty famously stated, "If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars," adding that a billion dollars had diminished purchasing power compared to earlier times.

Those ranked from second through eighth on the list included members related to Andrew Mellon. The compilation also highlighted seven individuals from the Rockefeller family, five from the Ford family, four belonging to the Du Pont family along with one non-family executive, and four executives associated with General Motors.

$700,000,000 to $1,000,000,000

$400,000,000 to $700,000,000

$200,000,000 to $400,000,000

$100,000,000 to $200,000,000

$75,000,000 to $100,000,000

Klepper and Gunther (1996)

In their 1996 publication The Wealthy 100, Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther identified John D. Rockefeller as the wealthiest American in history, with Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor following closely behind. Among living individuals at that time, Bill Gates was ranked fifth overall.

American Heritage (1998)

In 1998, American Heritage magazine released a list featuring the 40 wealthiest Americans throughout history, noting that only three were alive when the list was published. This ranking measured each person's accumulated wealth at death combined with their lifetime philanthropic contributions, calculated as a proportion of the country's GDP.

  1. John D. Rockefeller
  2. Andrew Carnegie
  3. Cornelius Vanderbilt
  4. John Jacob Astor
  5. Bill Gates
  6. Stephen Girard
  7. Alexander Turney Stewart
  8. Frederick Weyerhauser
  9. Jay Gould
  10. Marshall Field
  11. Sam Walton
  12. Henry Ford
  13. Warren Buffett
  14. Andrew W. Mellon
  15. Richard B. Mellon
  16. James Graham Fair
  17. William Weightman
  18. Moses Taylor
  19. Russell Sage
  20. John Insley Blair
  21. Cyrus H. K. Curtis
  22. Paul Allen
  23. J. P. Morgan
  24. E. H. Harriman
  25. Henry Huddleston Rogers
  26. Oliver Hazard Payne
  27. Henry Clay Frick
  28. Collis Potter Huntington
  29. Peter Arrell Browne Widener
  30. Nicholas Longworth
  31. Philip Danforth Armour
  32. James Clair Flood
  33. Mark Hopkins Jr.
  34. Edward Cabot Clark
  35. Leland Stanford
  36. Hetty Green
  37. James J. Hill
  38. William Rockefeller
  39. Elias Hasket Derby
  40. Claus Spreckels

Bernstein and Swan (2008)

In the 2008 book All the Money in the World, Bernstein and Swan presented a list of the 15 wealthiest Americans in history, emphasizing prominent industrial leaders and financiers.

  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

Business Insider (2011)

According to a 2011 ranking by Business Insider, Rockefeller held the top position, followed by Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Bill Gates among America's richest individuals historically.

  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

CNN Money (2014)

The list below was compiled by CNN Money in 2014.

  1. John D. Rockefeller
  2. Cornelius Vanderbilt
  3. John Jacob Astor
  4. Stephen Girard
  5. Richard Mellon
  6. Andrew Carnegie
  7. (Stephen Van Rensselaer)
  8. (A. T. Stewart)

- (Frederick Weyerhäuser) - (Jay Gould) - (Marshall Field) - (Bill Gates) - (Henry Ford) - (Warren Buffett) - (Andrew Mellon) - (Sam Walton) - (Moses Taylor) - (Russell Sage) - (James G. Fair) - (William Weightman)

By Half Decade

The table below presents the wealthiest individual in America for each half-decade period beginning in 1770.

Year Name Picture
1770 Peter Manigault
1775 Robert Morris
1780 William Bingham
1785 Benjamin Franklin
1790 John Hancock
1795 Elias Hasket Derby
1800 Thomas Willing
1805 Stephen Girard
1810
1815
1820
1825
1830
1835 Stephen Van Rensselaer
1840 John Jacob Astor
1845
1850 Cornelius Vanderbilt
1855
1860
1865
1870
1875
1880 William Henry Vanderbilt
1885
1890 John D. Rockefeller
1895
1900 Andrew Carnegie
1905
1910 John D. Rockefeller
1915
1920 Henry Ford
1925
1930 Andrew Mellon {

- |1935

- |1940 || rowspan="2"|Henry Ford || rowspan="2"| |- |1945 |- |1950 || H. L. Hunt|| |- |1955||J. Paul Getty|| |- |1960||rowspan=4 |Howard Hughes||rowspan=4 | |- |1965 |- |1970 |- |1975 |- |1980||Daniel Ludwig|| |- |1985||Sam Walton|| |- |1990||John Kluge|| |- |1995||rowspan=5 |Bill Gates||rowspan=5 | |- |2000 |- |2005 |- |2010 |- |2015 |- |2020||Jeff Bezos|| |- |2025||Elon Musk|| |}

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