Daniel Bushnell (1808–1891) was an American industrialist and one of the original shareholders of the

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

Early life

Daniel Bushnell was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1808 to Alexander Bushnell (1771–1838) and Sarah Wells (1772–1849). In 1813, Bushnell's father Alexander, a ship carpenter, moved his family from New York to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Career

In 1839, Daniel Bushnell entered the coal business in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, shipping coal from remote areas up the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

to population centers downstream. Previously, traders had thought that the cost in coal of using a steamboat to bring coal to ports down the Ohio river would exceed the amount of coal that a steamboat could deliver. In June 1845, however, Bushnell showed that towing coal down the Ohio was actually quite profitable, delivering 2,000 bushels of coal to Cincinnati on his tugboat, the "Walter Forward." In 1851 Bushnell built another towboat, the "Black Diamond," which was used to ship even more coal from the Pennsylvania mines to ports along the region's rivers. Bushnell hired the Captain J.J Vandergrift to captain his steamboats, and soon the two men were shipping coal as far as

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. Bushnell's innovation brought about a boom in the Pennsylvania coal business, spurring growth in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and the surrounding towns. Bushnell also owned and operated a number of coal mines of his own, including the Hodgson Mine (opened 1843) and the Bushnell mine (opened 1840), both outside of Pittsburgh. In 1861 Bushnell left the coal business and began trading oil along the Allegheny River. Working with his sons Joseph, Thomas, John and Robert, as well as his old colleague Captain Vandergrift, Bushnell and his partners made a fortune by buying oil at the Venango oil wells and shipping it down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh. The Bushnell family's oil operations were soon bought out by

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

's growing oil company in exchange for shares in Rockefeller's firm. As a result, Bushnell became one of the 37 original

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

shareholders, owning 97 shares in 1878 (compared to Rockefeller's nearly 9,000). Daniel Bushnell died in Pittsburgh on July 12, 1891, leaving his large fortune to his seven surviving children.

Personal life

Daniel Bushnell first married Eleanor Gray (1811–1854), with whom he had 14 children. His second wife was Elizabeth Hill, with whom Bushnell had three more children. One of Bushnell's daughters, Sarah Wells Bushnell, married another

shareholder, William Gray Warden. Sarah and William Warden's daughter Mary Warden Harkness (1864–1916) was a philanthropist and the wife of

heir Charles W. Harkness. Another one of Bushnell's granddaughters, Eleanor Bushnell Davis, married the engineer

Morris Llewellyn Cooke Morris Llewellyn Cooke (May 11, 1872 – March 5, 1960) was an American engineer, best known for his work on Scientific Management and Rural Electrification. Biography Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as one of eight children of William Harvey Co ...

. American intelligence officer

Peter Ashmun Ames Peter Ashmun Ames (June 10, 1888 − November 21, 1920) was an American British Army intelligence officer and member of the Cairo Gang who was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army. Early life Peter Ashmun Ames was born on June 10, 1888, in T ...

and novelist Joseph Bushnell Ames were Daniel's great-grandsons through his son Joseph. Daniel Bushnell's brother was the Reverend Wells Bushnell (1799–1863), a prominent Presbyterian minister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bushnell, Daniel 1808 births 1891 deaths American businesspeople in the oil industry Businesspeople from Pittsburgh 19th-century American businesspeople