![]() |
Henry FrickAmerican industrialist, financier and philanthropist
Date of Birth: 19.12.1849
Country: ![]() |
Content:
- Biography of Henry Frick
- Early Life and Career
- Conflict at the Homestead Steel Plant
- Assassination Attempt and Later Life
- Legacy and Criticism
Biography of Henry Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the coke company 'H. C. Frick & Company' and the chairman of the steel company 'Carnegie Steel Company'. He played a significant role in the formation of the American steel conglomerate 'U.S. Steel' and financed the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Early Life and Career
Henry Clay Frick was born on December 19, 1849, in West Overton, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He was the grandson of Abraham Overholt, the owner of the Overholt Whiskey distillery. Frick's father, John W. Frick, faced business failures. Frick attended Otterbein College for only a year.

In 1871, at the age of 21, Frick, along with two relatives and a friend, founded the small company 'Frick Coke Company', which had one furnace for converting coal into coke. He vowed to become a millionaire by the age of 30 and, by 1880, was able to acquire the company with a loan from Andrew W. Mellon, a longtime family friend.
Renamed as 'H. C. Frick & Company', the company employed around a thousand workers and controlled about 80% of the coal production in Pennsylvania. Shortly after marrying Adelaide Howard Childs in 1881, Frick met Andrew Carnegie during their honeymoon. This meeting led to a collaboration between 'H. C. Frick & Company' and 'Carnegie Steel Company'.
Conflict at the Homestead Steel Plant
During the strike at the Homestead steel plant in 1892, some workers took up arms. Frick decided to take a hard stance to suppress the rebellion. In the hand-to-hand combat between the striking workers and hired Pinkerton agents, several people, including nine workers, were killed. The conflict was only resolved with the intervention of 8,000 members of the state militia. Frick's tactics were condemned by the working class, and he became even more hated by union activists.
Assassination Attempt and Later Life
Inspired by his lover and lifelong friend Emma Goldman, anarchist Alexander Berkman devised a "plan of revenge" to assassinate nine steelworkers. On July 23, 1892, armed with a revolver and a sharpened file, Berkman burst into Frick's office in downtown Pittsburgh. Frick was shot twice in the neck. A third shot, which likely would have been fatal, was prevented by John George Alexander Leishman, who was in the office and managed to grab Berkman's hand. The three men then fell to the floor, and Berkman struck Frick four times with the file before help arrived. Frick returned to work within a week. Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison but, due to pressure from labor movements and actions by 'The Berkman Defense Association', he was granted amnesty in 1906.
Frick narrowly escaped death for the second time thanks to his wife, Adelaide. The couple was supposed to board the Titanic on their return from Italy but missed the ill-fated voyage because Adelaide sprained her ankle. However, fate found a more prosaic way to claim Frick, and he died of a heart attack on December 2, 1919. His collection of artworks, which he accumulated during his lifetime, was bequeathed to a museum that opened in 1935 after Adelaide's death.
Legacy and Criticism
Frick was heavily criticized by the public and historians for his cruelty and lack of morality in business. He has often been referred to as the "most hated man in America" and the "worst American executive of all time".