found in Dunfermline: a feeling of self-dependence, individual freedom and a strong work ethic to delight the heart of any Scots Presbyterian. One other emotion was familiar to the Carnegies. Just as workers had gone on strike in Dunfermline, soon after the arrival of the Carnegies in Pittsburgh came the Cotton Mill Riots and Allegheny was rife with industrial discontent which would give the place a history of worker violence.
William Carnegie rented a handloom from Andrew Hogan and set to work immediately, but now he was to produce no fine damasks as he had for the homes of the Scottish middle class, only cheaper napery and ticking. Again, once his products were made, William had to peddle them where he could. Margaret also went to work in their new home binding shoes for neighbourhood cobbler Henry Phipps at $4 a week. She was helped by her son Tom who sat at her side on a stool waxing thread and threading needles. As it turned out, Margaret earned more than her husband. 4 William Carnegie was a skilled craftsman, but for him America was not to be the golden promised land and slowly he became more demoralised.
Andrew Carnegie soon acclimatised to his new surroundings. His first friends were John and Henry Phipps, the sons of his mother’s employer. Small for his age and with flaxen hair shading to white, Andrew stood out among the other boys of the neighbourhood. The native Allegheny boys were nicknamed ‘Bottom Hoosiers’, after the Allegheny river bottom. Andrew’s thick Dunfermline accent was incomprehensible to the Hoosiers, who would taunt him with cries of ‘Scotchie’. Andrew countered with, ‘Aye, I am Scotchie, and I’m prood o’ the name.’ After a while Andrew was accepted and became a ‘Hoosier’ himself. 5
As the summer of 1848 drew on to autumn 13-year-old Andrew Carnegie looked about him for paid employment, his mother ever at his shoulder to advise on work that she considered would be too demeaning. This provoked an incident Andrew Carnegie never forgot. Undoubtedly with good intentions, Thomas Hogan suggested that young Andrew be given a basket full of knick-knacks to sell along the Allegheny quays. His mother was incandescent with rage: ‘What? My son a pedlar and go among rough men upon the wharves! I would rather throw him into the Allegheny River. Leave me!’ 6 Hogan hastily retreated.
The Scots immigrants of this part of America operated a sort of news network regarding possible employment. The cotton-mill strikes had ended and William Carnegie obtained work at Blackstock’s Cotton Mill in Robinson Street, run by a fellow Scot, and brought home word that there was work for Andrew. There the boy could have a job as a bobbin boy at $1.20 a week.
Father and son seized their opportunities, often beginning work before daybreak and returning home in the dark. From the windows of their home in Moodie Street Andrew had often watched the children at Dunfermline set off early in the morning for the mine and mill, and he too now set off for his first job. The millions of dollars he later made, he remarked in his autobiography, never gave him more pleasure than his first week’s wages. Soon though, Andrew was to move to John Hay’s bobbin factory on Lacock Street for a better wage of $2 a week. His work now included supervising a steam engine and its hungry boiler. He recalled:
It was too much for me. I found myself night after night sitting up in bed trying the steam gauges, fearing at one time that the steam was too low and that the workers above would complain that they had not power enough, and at another time that the steam was too high and that the boiler might burst. 7
It was a lonely job and involved too much responsibility for a boy of Andrew’s age. But he persisted: ‘My hopes were high, and I looked every day for some change to take place. What it was to be I knew not, but that it would come I felt certain if I kept on.’ 8 He was right.
EIGHT
E UROPEAN I NTERLUDE
No
William Carnegie rented a handloom from Andrew Hogan and set to work immediately, but now he was to produce no fine damasks as he had for the homes of the Scottish middle class, only cheaper napery and ticking. Again, once his products were made, William had to peddle them where he could. Margaret also went to work in their new home binding shoes for neighbourhood cobbler Henry Phipps at $4 a week. She was helped by her son Tom who sat at her side on a stool waxing thread and threading needles. As it turned out, Margaret earned more than her husband. 4 William Carnegie was a skilled craftsman, but for him America was not to be the golden promised land and slowly he became more demoralised.
Andrew Carnegie soon acclimatised to his new surroundings. His first friends were John and Henry Phipps, the sons of his mother’s employer. Small for his age and with flaxen hair shading to white, Andrew stood out among the other boys of the neighbourhood. The native Allegheny boys were nicknamed ‘Bottom Hoosiers’, after the Allegheny river bottom. Andrew’s thick Dunfermline accent was incomprehensible to the Hoosiers, who would taunt him with cries of ‘Scotchie’. Andrew countered with, ‘Aye, I am Scotchie, and I’m prood o’ the name.’ After a while Andrew was accepted and became a ‘Hoosier’ himself. 5
As the summer of 1848 drew on to autumn 13-year-old Andrew Carnegie looked about him for paid employment, his mother ever at his shoulder to advise on work that she considered would be too demeaning. This provoked an incident Andrew Carnegie never forgot. Undoubtedly with good intentions, Thomas Hogan suggested that young Andrew be given a basket full of knick-knacks to sell along the Allegheny quays. His mother was incandescent with rage: ‘What? My son a pedlar and go among rough men upon the wharves! I would rather throw him into the Allegheny River. Leave me!’ 6 Hogan hastily retreated.
The Scots immigrants of this part of America operated a sort of news network regarding possible employment. The cotton-mill strikes had ended and William Carnegie obtained work at Blackstock’s Cotton Mill in Robinson Street, run by a fellow Scot, and brought home word that there was work for Andrew. There the boy could have a job as a bobbin boy at $1.20 a week.
Father and son seized their opportunities, often beginning work before daybreak and returning home in the dark. From the windows of their home in Moodie Street Andrew had often watched the children at Dunfermline set off early in the morning for the mine and mill, and he too now set off for his first job. The millions of dollars he later made, he remarked in his autobiography, never gave him more pleasure than his first week’s wages. Soon though, Andrew was to move to John Hay’s bobbin factory on Lacock Street for a better wage of $2 a week. His work now included supervising a steam engine and its hungry boiler. He recalled:
It was too much for me. I found myself night after night sitting up in bed trying the steam gauges, fearing at one time that the steam was too low and that the workers above would complain that they had not power enough, and at another time that the steam was too high and that the boiler might burst. 7
It was a lonely job and involved too much responsibility for a boy of Andrew’s age. But he persisted: ‘My hopes were high, and I looked every day for some change to take place. What it was to be I knew not, but that it would come I felt certain if I kept on.’ 8 He was right.
EIGHT
E UROPEAN I NTERLUDE
No
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