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John Jacob Astor Ⅳ (J.J. Astor) was born on July 13, 1964 in Rhinebeck New York. His education was reached from St. Paul's School, Concord, and up to Harvard. His métier was as a property developer and in real estate (1). Astor was wealthy as the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor who was a German immigrant of 1783 and made money in the fur trade, eventually becoming the most affluent man and first multi-millionare in the U.S as he bought land on Manhattan Island of New York and New York itself became a world capital (2). Though he was a scion and inherited money in the family fortune valued at $6 billion in modern currency (2), he himself is notable for writing a semi-scientific novel called A Journey in Other Worlds (1894), developing mechanical contraptions (i.e. bicycle brake, 1898), developmental assistance in the turbine engine, and the invention of a "pneumatic road-improver" (1). Astor also built the Astoria Hotel (in New York) in junction with the Waldorf Hotel in his rivalry with his cousin William Waldorf Astor, who had also inherited a portion of the family fortune. The hotel is also elaborate with Astor's apparent brilliance, with an example being the ventilation system he developed. Astor would die on April 10, 1912 after boarding the Titanic with his second wife Madeleine (he had a divorce with his previous wife); his wife survived (2).

Sources:
- (1) https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/john-jacob-astor.html
- (2) http://magazine.stregis.com/the-house-that-jack-built/

[Image: Astor and his wife Madeleine (Madeleine Talmage Force)]

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James Fisk was born on April 1, 1834 in Bennington, Vermont. He died in January 7, 1872 in New York City, New York.
Fisk had his niche as an American financier, called the "Barnum of Wall Street," working with Jay Gould in "securities manipulations and railroad raiding" (1). He had odd-jobs where he worked in a circus, one as a waiter, another as a peddler, a marketer of dry-goods, stockbroker, and as an official of the corporate.  In terms of his other successes, he established the Fisk and Belden in 1866, advocated by Daniel Drew, whom he later joined with Gould to defend their stronghold on the Erie Railroad. This would be in competition against Cornelius Vanderbilt, and to do so they issued counterfeited stock. Fisk also used bribery on public officials through his corporate funds in his occupation as a vice president and financial officer (specifically a comptroller). He also used these funds to present shows and support the beautiful ladies of Broadway, eventually becoming called "The Prince of the Erie" from his lavish involvement (1).
Source:
- (1) https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Fisk

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Charles T. Hinde was born in Urbana, Ohio, dated on July 12, 1832 as one out of six children. Hinde died in Coronado, California on March 10, 1915 at the age of 82. In short, Hinde was an American industrialist, magnate, skipper, entrepreneur, and businessman. He had dropped out of Indiana Asbury University (today DePauw University) after one year due to his parents' deaths. Due to that, he had to start work as a grocery clerk in Vincennes, Indiana and in Mount Camel as a clerk later on. As he had these low-salary jobs, he was able to make a living because of his inheritance of his deceased father's land holdings. Hinde would subsequently start off in river transportation as a clerk on a boat working in locations (and between) St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Of course, later on he would promoted to a captain in the transportation company he joined, which was the Galena, Dubuque and St. Paul Packet Company.
Source:
- (1)
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Charles%20T.%20Hinde

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Andrew William Mellon was born on March 24, 1855, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, U.S. He died on Audust 26, 1937,in Southampton, New York. He was an "American financier, philanthropist, and secretary of treasury (1921-32)" (1). Mellon, after finishing his education at Western University (today University of Pittsburgh), worked in his father's banking house in 1874, inheriting the ownership for it in 1882 when his father found that he was superbly adept. Within the following three decades he would go on to his excellent judgement of the new and potential for successes in his entrepreneurship, becoming able to, with the assistance of entrepreneurs, found the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and the Gulf Oil Corporation. With Henry Clay Frick, he participated in the establishment of the Union Steel Company (which later was incorporated with United States Steel Corporation). Mellon was later appointed to head the U.S. Treasury by President Warren G. Harding in 1921 (1).
Source:
- (1)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Mellon

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Lars Kovala, named Lauri Kovalainen originally, was born on May 25, 1818 in Oulu, Finland. Kovala would, after returning to Finland, die on November 12, 1894 in Suomussalmi. Kovala was a Finnish-American magnate, wholesaler, fur trader, and investor, descending from an influential family in Finland which sought Finnish Independence in the nineteenth century. He came to  Alaska during the Finnish Famine (1866-1868) aboard a Russian American Co. ship, entering the fur trade. Later on as it declined in the market and the annexation of Alaska into the U.S., he invested in the Hansen, Nybom and Co. to buy one of the Russian American Co.'s brigs for $4,000 , taking advantage of how Russian American Co.'s properties were  being sold away. He and other shareholders went to the Pribilof Islands in the Pacific Ocean's north, where they bought expensive seal skins and became rich seal-skin traders, going on to sell skins in San Francisco and residing in California (1).
Source:
- (1)
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Lauri%20Kovalainen