| tmrand - 4/27/2017 14:26
No. The Cargill heirs made their money the old fashioned way! The older generation made that company what it is today. Who knows where the newbies take it.
It's a really interesting story. Kind of bucks the trend of of the old saying "the first generation buys the ranch, the second generation pays for it, and the third generation loses it." The company founder was a local guy here who ran a grain elevator and had the good sense to build a huge new elevator right on the Mississippi river where the Milwaukee Road (East/West line) and the Northern Railroad (North/South line) met (it's still here, it's called Grand Crossing but now it's where the BNSF and Canadian Pacific meet). The company was up to it's eyeballs in debt when William Cargill died but his son-in-law fought to take over the company instead of liquidating the estate and dividing it. The son-in-law expanded the company in a big way and moved the headquarters to the Twin Cities. Then the grandson, instead of losing the ranch, really took things to the next level and basically went to war with the Chicago Board of Trade and won and turned the business into the behemoth it is today. Only those three men were at the reigns of the company from 1865 through 1960 which is pretty incredible. |