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 an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

. 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, ''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 ...

), 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 Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mysticism, mystic. He became best known for his book on the ...

, and was a major activist in the American

anti-vaccination movement Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...

Early life

Pitcairn was born on January 10, 1841, in

Johnstone Johnstone (,
) is a town in the

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Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, 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 Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, 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 Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. It was located north across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, with its southwest border formed by ...

, 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 as 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. At its ...

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 pi ...

, 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 History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. Pitcairn rapidly worked his way up through the railroad industry; first as assistant to the superintendent of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, 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 the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

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 ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgi ...

, Pitcairn and his brother Robert Pitcairn were dispatched by Colonel Thomas A. Scott, 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 Ma ...

, 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. Finally, in 1869, he was appointed general manager of the Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway Company.

Energy

Upon forming a partnership with J. J. Vandergrift of Pittsburgh and George V. Forman 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 the largest city in Venango County, Pennsylvania, United States. 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 Cre ...

, and was heavily involved with the production, refining, and pipeline transportation of oil. With Vandergrift, he built and controlled the first

natural gas pipeline A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries around the world. The Un ...

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 Captain John Baptiste Ford (November 17, 1811 – May 1, 1903) was an American industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, now known as PPG Industries, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Early life Born in a l ...

and several others to establish the

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company 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 ...

(PPG). Based in Creighton, Pennsylvania (about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh along the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...

), 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 fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

, 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), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

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

coatings A coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, or substrate. The purpose of applying the coating may be decorative, functional, or both. Coatings may be applied as liquids, gases or solids e.g. powder coatings. Paints and ...

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

, and

chemicals A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

. 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 Robert Pitcairn and consul-general Hugh 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 ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, until the completion of the new family estate, Cairnwood, 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 (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. He was also the national chairman and a major financial supporter of the Sentinels of the Republic, 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 wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

. * Theodore Pitcairn (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 Harold Frederick Pitcairn (June 20, 1897 – April 23, 1960) was an Americans, American aviation inventor and pioneer. He played a key role in the development of the autogyro and founded the Autogiro Company of America. He patented a number of i ...

(1897–1960). Harold, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, started

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

, an air mail service that ultimately grew into

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

. He founded the

Pitcairn Aircraft Company The Pitcairn Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of light utility aircraft. An early proponent of the autogyro, the company, later known as the Autogiro Company of America among other names, remained in business until 1948. ...

, which designed and built under license pioneering airmail aircraft and

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...

s. 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 (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

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

. Pitcairn's financial largess enabled the founding of the Swedenborgian settlement at

Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania Bryn Athyn is a home-rule borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was formerly a borough, and its official name remains "Borough of Bryn Athyn". The population was 1,375 at the 2010 census. It was formed for religious re ...

, the construction of the town's library, and the New Church's Bryn Athyn Cathedral. 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, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

, and a theological school. 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 or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

, 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 Pennsylvani ...

criticizing vaccination. He later sponsored the National Anti-Vaccination Conference, which, held in Philadelphia in October 1908, led to the creation of the Anti-Vaccination League of America. 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 that ran until 2016 and was 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 ...

'', a periodical with a readership of several million. On December 1, 1911, he was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor John K. Tener 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, Cairnwood, 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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 Businesspeople from Pennsylvania Scottish emigrants to the United States American railroad executives Pitcairn family People from Johnstone American anti-vaccination activists PPG Industries people