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

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company was a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The ...

Early life

Daniel Bushnell was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, shipping coal from remote areas up the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , ), sometimes 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 nor ...

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 (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

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

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

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 businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

'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 was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

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 ...

. American intelligence officer Peter Ashmun Ames 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