John Pitcairn Jr. (January 10, 1841 – July 22, 1916) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born American

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. With just an elementary school education, Pitcairn rose through the ranks of the Pennsylvania railroad industry, and played a significant role in the creation of the modern oil and natural gas industries. He went on to found the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now

PPG Industries PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By revenue it is ...

), an early industry innovator which quickly grew into the largest manufacturer of plate glass in the United States, and amassed one of the largest fortunes in the United States at the time. Pitcairn was also the primary financial benefactor of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a Christian church that follows the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and was a major activist in the American

anti-vaccination movement Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

Early life

Pitcairn was born on January 10, 1841, in

Johnstone Johnstone ( sco, Johnstoun,
gd, Baile Iain) is a town ...

, Renfrewshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, to John Pitcairn Sr. (1803–1884), a machinist, and Agnes McEwan (1803–1891), a housekeeper. He was one of six children resulting from the marriage, and also had one older half-sibling from his father's first marriage. Pitcairn's parents had initially emigrated to America around 1835, and lived first in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and then in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where Pitcairn's uncle, Alexander Pitcairn, had started a

woolens Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...

business. There, Pitcairn attended public school until dropping out at age 14 to pursue a career in the railroad. Around 1849 Pitcairn and the rest of his family were baptized by David Powell, a reverend of the New Church.

Career

Rail

Pitcairn began his professional life at the age of 14, working as an office boy for the general superintendent of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

in Altoona. He soon learned

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

, and through that became friends with

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 i ...

. Pitcairn rapidly worked his way up through the railroad industry; first as assistant to the superintendent of the

Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, extending the PRR west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, Illinois. It included the current Norfolk Southern Rai ...

, and next as assistant to the superintendent of the Philadelphia Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On February 22, 1861, during his tenure at the latter, Pitcairn was in charge of the train which carried President-elect

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, ''en route'' to the inauguration in Washington, D.C. Later, when the Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania before the

Battle of Antietam The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union G ...

, Pitcairn and his brother

Robert Pitcairn Robert Pitcairn (May 6, 1836 – July 25, 1909) was a Scottish-American railroad executive who headed the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the late 19th century. He was the brother of the PPG Industries, Pittsburgh Plate Glass ...

were dispatched by Colonel

Thomas A. Scott Thomas Alexander Scott (December 28, 1823 – May 21, 1881) was an American businessman, railroad executive, and industrialist. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to serve as U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, and during the American ...

, then Assistant Secretary of War, to

Chambersburg Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and north of Maryland and the Mas ...

, to head the train service for the government. Pitcairn next served as assistant superintendent of the Middle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and followed this with a stint as the superintendent of the Middle Division of the

Philadelphia and Erie Railroad The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). History The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company (also known a ...

. Finally, in 1869, he was appointed general manager of the

Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway Company The Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway was a railroad in western Pennsylvania. Initially incorporated under a special act of Pennsylvania on 17 April 1861 as the Warren and Tidioute Railway, it changed its name first to the Warren and Frank ...

Energy

Upon forming a partnership with J. J. Vandergrift of Pittsburgh and

George V. Forman George V. Forman (December 3, 1841 – October 22, 1922) was a founder of VanderGrift, Forman & Company, which became part of the Standard Oil Company. Forman was also a prominent Buffalo banker in the late 1800s and early 1900s, founding the F ...

of Buffalo, Pitcairn resigned from his position of general manager to focus exclusively on the oil business. During this period, Pitcairn built the Imperial Refinery at

Oil City, Pennsylvania Oil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania known for its prominence in the initial exploration and development of the petroleum industry. It is located at a bend in the Allegheny River at the mouth of Oil Creek. Initial settlement of Oi ...

, and was heavily involved with the production, refining, and pipeline transportation of oil. With Vandergrift, he built and controlled the first natural gas pipeline for manufacturing purposes, and had a controlling stake in the Natural Gas Company, Ltd., founded in the summer of 1875, and later to become the Natural Gas Company of West Virginia. Through these and other successful investments in energy, mining, and banking, Pitcairn substantially expanded his wealth.

Glass

In 1883, Pitcairn teamed up with Captain John Baptiste Ford and several others to establish the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG). Based in

Creighton, Pennsylvania Creighton is an unincorporated community in East Deer Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States; it is located in western Pennsylvania within the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, approximately northeast of Pittsburgh. Cre ...

(about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh along the

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 ...

), PPG soon became the United States' first commercially successful producer of high-quality, thick

flat glass Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is s ...

using the plate process. PPG was also the world's first plate glass plant to power its furnaces with locally produced

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

, an innovation which rapidly stimulated widespread industrial use of the cleaner-burning fuel. PPG expanded quickly. By 1900, known as the "Glass Trust", it included ten plants, had a 65 percent share of the U.S. plate glass market, and had become the nation's second largest producer of paint. Today, known as

, the company is a multibillion-dollar,

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

corporation with 150 manufacturing locations around the world. It now produces coatings,

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

, and chemicals. Pitcairn served as a director of PPG from its start, its president from 1897 to 1905, and chairman of the board from 1894 until his death.

Magnate

Pitcairn's interests and holdings were not limited to PPG; at the time of his death, he was also president of the C. H. Wheeler Manufacturing Company, the Pittsburgh Valve and Fittings Company, and the Loyal Hanna Coal and Coke Company, and a director of the Central National Bank of Philadelphia, the Columbia Chemical Company, the Michigan Chemical Company, the Natural Gas Company of West Virginia, and the Owosso Sugar Company.

Family

Pitcairn was the brother of Pennsylvania railroad magnate

and consul-general

Hugh Pitcairn Hugh Pitcairn (August 16, 1845 – July 19, 1911) served as the first United States consul general to Hamburg, German Empire, from 1903 to 1908. He was the brother of Pennsylvania railroad magnate Robert Pitcairn and industrialist John Pitcairn. ...

. In 1877, the already highly successful, 38-year-old Pitcairn met 21-year-old Gertrude Starkey (1855–1898). Two years later, he proposed marriage, but was gently turned down. Reputedly, Starkey's strong New Church beliefs about the ideal of marriage required her to conduct a close examination of the spiritual nature of her feelings for him. Undeterred by her rejection, Pitcairn continued to court Starkey for five more years. Finally she accepted, and they were married in 1884. Following their marriage, the couple lived on Spring Garden Street in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, until the completion of the new family estate,

Cairnwood Cairnwood is a historic home located adjacent to the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It was designed by the architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings and built in 1895. The surrounding grounds were designed by ...

, in 1895. Together they had six children, only four of whom survived infancy. These were: * Vera Pitcairn (1887–1910). Vera died suddenly of appendicitis at the age of 23. *

Raymond Pitcairn Raymond Pitcairn (1885 – July 12, 1966), son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn, was a lawyer, a businessman, a collector of ancient and medieval art, and an amateur architect. He supervised the building of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, his own c ...

(1885–1966). Raymond was a lawyer, a businessman, a collector of ancient and medieval art, and an amateur architect. He supervised the building of the

Bryn Athyn Cathedral Bryn Athyn Cathedral is the episcopal seat of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a denomination of Swedenborgianism. The main building is of the Early Gothic style, while the adjoining structures are of a transitional period reflective of ...

. He was also the national chairman and a major financial supporter of the

Sentinels of the Republic The Sentinels of the Republic was a national organization in the United States that opposed what it saw as federal encroachment on the rights of the States and of the individual. Politically right-wing, the group was highly active in the 1920s and ...

, a right-wing political group of the 1920s and 1930s which opposed child labor legislation and the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

. *

Theodore Pitcairn Theodore Pitcairn (November 5, 1893 – December 17, 1973) the son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn, was a clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and connoisseur of the arts and antiquities. Early life and education Born in Philadelphia ...

(1893–1973). Theodore was an arts collector and philanthropist, and a minister in the General Church of the New Jerusalem. In the late 1930s a doctrinal schism within the church led him and several other members to found another "New Church" branch known as The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma. He served as a leader of this new church until his death. * Harold Frederick Pitcairn (1897–1960). Harold, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, started

Pitcairn Aviation Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

, an air mail service that ultimately grew into Eastern Airlines. He founded the Pitcairn Aircraft Company, which designed and built under license pioneering airmail aircraft and autogyros. He played a key role in promoting rotary wing flight leading to development of the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

Religious philanthropy

Pitcairn was an active member and benefactor of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a branch of the New Church, which follows the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Pitcairn's financial largess enabled the founding of the Swedenborgian settlement at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, the construction of the town's library, and the New Church's

. He also financed the construction of a new campus for the Academy of the New Church, a Swedenborgian learning center comprising a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

, and a

theological school A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

. The campus was completed in 1911.

Anti-vaccination activism

BothSidesoftheVaccinationQuestion JohnPitcairn1911 titlepage

During the last ten years of his life, Pitcairn was highly active in the American

. According to public health historian James Colgrove, Pitcairn's opposition to vaccination stemmed from Swedenborgian teachings, a devotion to

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...

, an alternative medical practice embraced by many New Church members, and his son Raymond's adverse reaction to a vaccination. On March 5, 1907, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he delivered an address to the Committee on Public Health and Sanitation of the

Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...

criticizing vaccination. He later sponsored the National Anti-Vaccination Conference, which, held in Philadelphia on October, 1908, led to the creation of the

Anti-Vaccination League of America Charles Michael Higgins (October 4, 1854 – October 21, 1929) was an Irish-American ink manufacturer and anti-vaccinationist. Biography Higgins was born in County Leitrim, Ireland. He moved to Brooklyn at the age of six. Higgins was the invent ...

. When the league was organized later that month, Pitcairn was chosen to be its first president. In May, 1910, an article by Pitcairn entitled
The Fallacy of Vaccination
was published in the

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

, a periodical with a readership of several million. On December 1, 1911, he was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor

John K. Tener John Kinley Tener (July 25, 1863May 19, 1946) was a Northern Irish born American politician and Major League Baseball player and executive. He served as the 25th List of governors of Pennsylvania, Governor of Pennsylvania from 1911 until 1915. ...

to the Pennsylvania State Vaccination Commission, which in accordance with the law mandating it, was to include as members two anti-vaccinationists as well as two pro-vaccinationists. Pitcairn subsequently authored a detailed report strongly opposing the commission's pro-vaccination conclusions.

Later life and death

Construction of Pitcairn's family estate,

, was completed in 1895. His wife, Gertrude, died just a few years later, in 1898. Pitcairn never remarried. When asked why, he once responded, "I would no sooner remarry than if Gertrude were standing in the other room." Pitcairn remained quite active in his numerous business, philanthropy, and social activism capacities well into his seventies. Finally, in the fall of 1915, he suffered a bout of pneumonia, from which he never fully recovered. He died at Cairnwood on July 22, 1916. In 2002, Cairnwood was entered onto the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

References

External links

Photograph of John Pitcairn, Jr.
(at the Gyllenhaal Family Tree Project)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitcairn, John 1841 births 1916 deaths American philanthropists American Swedenborgians People from Pennsylvania Scottish emigrants to the United States American railroad executives Pitcairn family People from Johnstone American anti-vaccination activists PPG Industries people