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John G. A. Leishman
John George Alexander Leishman (March 28, 1857 – March 27, 1924) was an American businessman and diplomat. He worked in various executive positions at Carnegie Steel Company and later served as an ambassador for the United States. Early life John George Alexander Leishman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 28, 1857. He was the only son of Scots-Irish immigrants John B. Leishman (1827–1857) and Amelia Henderson (1832–1905). His father drowned in the Allegheny River the same year in which he was born. Leishman began a lifetime of work at age ten, as an assistant for a Pittsburgh physician. Over the next seventeen years, Leishman would rise to become a trusted confidant of both Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie. Career Prior to his entry into the Carnegie service, John Leishman had been in the service of Shoenberger Steel Company, as what was termed a "mud clerk". Mud clerks were the steel industry's representatives on the river wharf, responsible for tracking ...
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United States Ambassador To Switzerland
This is a list of United States ambassadors to the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein. History Since 1997, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland has also been accredited to the Principality of Liechtenstein. Appointed on February 10, 1997, Ambassador Madeleine M. Kunin served as the first United States Ambassador to Liechtenstein. She presented her credentials to Liechtenstein on March 14, 1997, which marked the beginning of the United States' diplomatic relations with the country. (Although the United States executed its first treaty with Liechtenstein in 1926, at the time Liechtenstein was represented by Switzerland.) Before 1997 it was understood that the rights of a U.S.–Swiss agreement also extended to citizens of Liechtenstein because it had yielded control of its foreign affairs to Switzerland. At the end of the 20th century, however, it "began pursuing independent membership in international organizations". Political appointees U.S. ambassadors ...
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Nancy Louise Leishman
Nancy Louise Leishman (October 2, 1894 – February 22, 1983) was an American heiress who married into the European aristocracy. Early life and relatives Nancy Louise Leishman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1894. She was the youngest of three children born to John George Alexander Leishman (1857–1924) and his wife, Julia Crawford (1864–1918). Her father, the son of Scots-Irish immigrants who eventually became the president of Carnegie Steel, served as the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, and Germany during the administrations of U.S. Presidents William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Her sister, Marthe Leishman, a favorite of King George V and a close friend of Cole Porter and Francis Poulenc, married twice, first to Count Louis de Gontaut-Biron and, after his death, to American heir James Hazen Hyde. Her brother, John Leishman Jr., married, and divorced, New York socialite Elizabeth Helene Demarest. Her paternal grand ...
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Reed Smith LLP
Reed Smith LLP is a global law firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with more than 1,500 lawyers in 30 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. History Reed Smith was founded in Pittsburgh in 1877 by Philander C. Knox and James H. Reed. The two partners created a relationship with American industrial tycoon, Andrew Carnegie, and the firm grew with Carnegie's business. Large businesses, such as Heinz (company), and personalities – many of whom, like Carnegie, Knox and Reed, were fellow members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club – joined the firm's client roster, including Andrew Mellon (now The Bank of New York Mellon) and Henry Clay Frick. During the 1880s, Edwin W. Smith and other partners joined the firm and, in 1922, the firm adopted the name Reed Smith Shaw & McClay. During the New Deal era, Reed Smith established a securities practice, and partner Ralph H. Demmler became chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission ...
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Philander Knox
Philander Chase Knox (May 6, 1853October 12, 1921) was an American lawyer, bank director and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Knox served in the Cabinet of three different presidents and represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate. Born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Knox became a prominent attorney in Pittsburgh, forming the law firm of Knox and Reed. With the industrialists Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon, Knox also served as a director of the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce. In early 1901, he accepted appointment as United States Attorney General. Knox served under President William McKinley until McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, and Knox continued to serve under President Theodore Roosevelt until 1904, when he resigned to accept appointment to the Senate. Knox won re-election to the Senate in 1905 and unsuccessfully sought the 1908 Republican presidential nomination. In 1909, President William Howard Taft appointed Knox to the posit ...
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Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. The dam ruptured after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River,Sid Perkins, "Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River"
''Science News'', Vol.176 #11, 21 November 2009, accessed 14 October 2012
the flood killed 2,209 people and accounted for $17 million of damage (about $534 ...
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Andrew Mellon
Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he established a vast business empire before moving into politics. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from March 9, 1921 to February 12, 1932, presiding over the boom years of the 1920s and the Wall Street crash of 1929. A conservative Republican, Mellon favored policies that reduced taxation and the national debt in the aftermath of World War I. Mellon's father, Thomas Mellon, rose to prominence in Pittsburgh as a banker and attorney. Andrew began working at his father's bank, T. Mellon & Sons, in the early 1870s, eventually becoming the leading figure in the institution. He later renamed T. Mellon & Sons as Mellon National Bank and established another financial institution, the Union Trust Company. By the end of 1 ...
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Lake Conemaugh
The South Fork Dam was an earthenwork dam forming Lake Conemaugh (formerly Western Reservoir, also known as the Old Reservoir and Three Mile Dam, a misnomer), an artificial body of water near South Fork, Pennsylvania, United States. On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed catastrophically and 20 million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh burst, through and raced 14 miles (23 km) downstream, causing the Johnstown Flood. The South Fork Dam was originally built between 1838–1853 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as part of the canal system to be used as a reservoir for the state's Main Line of Public Works canal basin in Johnstown. It was abandoned by the commonwealth, sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and sold again to private interests. The dam was 72 feet (22 m) high and 931 feet (284 m) long. Between 1881 when the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was opened, and 1889, the dam frequently sprung leaks. It was patched, mostly with mud and straw. Additionally, a pre ...
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Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Cambria County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 133,472. Its county seat is Ebensburg. The county was created on March 26, 1804, from parts of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Somerset Counties and later organized in 1807. It was named for the nation of Wales, which in Latin is known as "Cambria". Cambria County comprises the Johnstown, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Johnstown-Somerset, PA Combined Statistical Area. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.8%) is water. Cambria has a warm-summer humid continental climate (''Dfb'') and average monthly temperatures in downtown Johnstown range from 27.8 °F in January to 71.0 °F in July, while in Ebensburg they range from 23.9 °F in January to 67.7 °F in JulyPRISM Climate Group, Oregon State U Adjacent counties *Clearfield County (north) * Blair County (east) ...
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South Fork Fishing And Hunting Club
The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a Pennsylvania corporation which operated an exclusive and secretive retreat at a mountain lake near South Fork, Pennsylvania, for more than fifty extremely wealthy men and their families. The club was the owner of the South Fork Dam, which failed during an unprecedented period of heavy rains, resulting in the disastrous Johnstown Flood on May 31, 1889. The failure released an estimated 14.3 million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh, wreaking devastation along the valley of South Fork Creek and the Little Conemaugh River as it flowed about a dozen miles downstream to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek rivers form the Conemaugh River, a tributary of the Allegheny River. It was the worst disaster event in U.S. history at the time, and relief efforts were among the first major actions of Clara Barton and the newly organized American Red Cross, which she had founded and led. The death toll fr ...
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Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $350 million (roughly $ billion in ), almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His 1889 article proclaiming " The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated to Pittsburgh with his parents in 1848 at age 12. Carnegie started work as a telegrapher, and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. H ...
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Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel manufacturing concern. He also financed the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company, and had extensive real estate holdings in Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. He later built the historic neoclassical Frick Mansion (now a landmark building in Manhattan), and upon his death donated his extensive collection of old master paintings and fine furniture to create the celebrated Frick Collection and art museum. However, as a founding member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, he was also in large part responsible for the alterations to the South Fork Dam that caused its failure, leading to the catastrophic Johnstown Flood. His vehement oppositi ...
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Allegheny River
The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into New York then in a zigzag southwesterly across the border and through Western Pennsylvania to join the Monongahela River at the Forks of the Ohio on the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Allegheny River is, by volume, the main headstream of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Historically, the Allegheny was considered to be the upper Ohio River by both Native Americans and European settlers. The shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady, Pennsylvania, East Brady by a series of locks and dams constructed in the early 20th century. A 24-mile long portion of the upper river in Warren County, Pennsylvania, Warren and McKean County, Pennsylvania, McKean counties of Pennsy ...
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