The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875
A Gilded Age industrialist becomes Michigan’s wealthiest resident and helps shape the nation.

"He was Andrew Carnegie before there was Andrew Carnegie." - Mike Nagle, on Eber Brock Ward.

Awarded a Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards!

Eber Brock Ward (1811–1875) began his career as a cabin boy on his uncle’s sailing vessels, but when he died in 1875, he was the wealthiest man in Michigan. His business activities were vast and innovative. Ward was engaged in the steamboat, railroad, lumber, mining, and iron and steel industries. In 1864, his facility near Detroit became the first in the nation to produce steel using the more efficient Bessemer method. Michael W. Nagle demonstrates how much of Ward’s success was due to his ability to vertically integrate his business operations, which were undertaken decades before other more famous moguls, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. And yet, despite his countless successes, Ward’s life was filled with ruthless competition, labor conflict, familial dispute, and scandal. Nagle makes extensive use of Ward’s correspondence, business records, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other archival material to craft a balanced profile of this fascinating figure whose actions influenced the history and culture of the Great Lakes and beyond.

"1141401977"
The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875
A Gilded Age industrialist becomes Michigan’s wealthiest resident and helps shape the nation.

"He was Andrew Carnegie before there was Andrew Carnegie." - Mike Nagle, on Eber Brock Ward.

Awarded a Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards!

Eber Brock Ward (1811–1875) began his career as a cabin boy on his uncle’s sailing vessels, but when he died in 1875, he was the wealthiest man in Michigan. His business activities were vast and innovative. Ward was engaged in the steamboat, railroad, lumber, mining, and iron and steel industries. In 1864, his facility near Detroit became the first in the nation to produce steel using the more efficient Bessemer method. Michael W. Nagle demonstrates how much of Ward’s success was due to his ability to vertically integrate his business operations, which were undertaken decades before other more famous moguls, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. And yet, despite his countless successes, Ward’s life was filled with ruthless competition, labor conflict, familial dispute, and scandal. Nagle makes extensive use of Ward’s correspondence, business records, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other archival material to craft a balanced profile of this fascinating figure whose actions influenced the history and culture of the Great Lakes and beyond.

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The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875

The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875

by Michael W. Nagle
The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875

The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875

by Michael W. Nagle

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Overview

A Gilded Age industrialist becomes Michigan’s wealthiest resident and helps shape the nation.

"He was Andrew Carnegie before there was Andrew Carnegie." - Mike Nagle, on Eber Brock Ward.

Awarded a Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards!

Eber Brock Ward (1811–1875) began his career as a cabin boy on his uncle’s sailing vessels, but when he died in 1875, he was the wealthiest man in Michigan. His business activities were vast and innovative. Ward was engaged in the steamboat, railroad, lumber, mining, and iron and steel industries. In 1864, his facility near Detroit became the first in the nation to produce steel using the more efficient Bessemer method. Michael W. Nagle demonstrates how much of Ward’s success was due to his ability to vertically integrate his business operations, which were undertaken decades before other more famous moguls, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. And yet, despite his countless successes, Ward’s life was filled with ruthless competition, labor conflict, familial dispute, and scandal. Nagle makes extensive use of Ward’s correspondence, business records, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other archival material to craft a balanced profile of this fascinating figure whose actions influenced the history and culture of the Great Lakes and beyond.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814349922
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Publication date: 10/08/2024
Series: Great Lakes Books
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Michael W. Nagle is a professor of history and political science at West Shore Community College in Scottville, Michigan. He is the author of Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845–1933 (Wayne State University Press, 2015), which won the Kentucky History Award. He lives in Ludington, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xv

Prologue: January 2, 1875 1

1 Modest Beginnings 5

2 From Protégé to Partner 35

3 Steamboat Kings 69

4 A Man of Iron and Steel 99

5 Anti-Slavery Politics and Civil War 129

6 A New Vision for the Midwest 155

7 Expanding an Empire 187

8 A Will and a Princess 223

Epilogue: A Legacy Forgotten 253

Notes 261

Bibliography 319

Index 331

What People are Saying About This

Professor of History, Loyola University Chicago, and Author of Mastering the Inland Seas: How Lighthouses, Navigatio - Theodore J. Karamanski

This is a book that Great Lakes history has long needed. Eber Brock Ward was a major figure in the development of the Midwest region and a pioneer in the fields of transportation and industry. Michael Nagle's finely researched and written book plugs a large gap in the history of the inland seas.

Joe Grimm of the Faygo Book (Wayne State University Press

One would think that these outlandish tales would make Eber Brock Ward and his role in pushing Michigan from an extractive economy into the Industrial Age unforgettable. But that's not how it went. Author Michael W. Nagle shows how Ward fell into oblivion despite scandals and exploits that would make him Twitter-famous today. One bizarre tale follows another as he hops from shipping to mining to manufacturing to becoming Michigan's richest man. As this bad-boy Horatio Alger raised his personal fortune, he also raised eyebrows and hackles. Ward may not have been remembered, but people who read Nagle's book will never forget him.

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