Daniel Willis James

Daniel Willis James
Born April 15, 1832(1832-04-15)
Liverpool
Died September 13, 1907(1907-09-13) (aged 75)
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Resting place Green-Wood Cemetery
Nationality American
Alma mater Amherst College
Net worth USD $26 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/1169th of US GNP)[1]
Spouse Ellen S. Curtiss
Children Arthur Curtiss James

Daniel Willis James (April 15, 1832 – September 13, 1907)[2] was born in Liverpool, England, the son of a merchant who moved from Liverpool to Baltimore, Maryland, and eventually settled in New York City.[2] His maternal grandfather was Anson Greene Phelps, of Phelps, Dodge, and Company.[2] James attended Amherst College and wed Ellen S. Curtiss, with whom he had a son, Arthur Curtiss James.[2]

James headed the Phelps, Dodge and Company, and served on the board of other large U.S. companies, including the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, the Arizona, El Paso and Southwestern Mining Company, and the Ansonia Clock Company.[2] He also served as vice president and director of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company in Bisbee, Arizona.[2]

Williston, North Dakota, was named for him by his friend, Northern Pacific Railway owner James J. Hill.

According to one historian, James was "a genuinely good man of impeccable character, a secret philanthropist, whom Charles Parkhurst said loved everything in the universe 'from God down to the newsboy.'"[3] He donated the Union Square drinking fountain in New York.[4]

James died in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in September 1907, one of the hundred wealthiest Americans, having left a large fortune estimated at $977,497 (more than $26 million in inflation-adjusted 2008 U.S. dollars).[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates—A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xi, ISBN 9780806518008, OCLC 33818143 
  2. ^ a b c d e f New Jersey Historical Society. Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society. Trenton, N.J.: New Jersey Historical Society, 1909.
  3. ^ John Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2001), 166.
  4. ^ "James Fountain. Union Square Park." New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. No date. Accessed August 17, 2008.
  5. ^ "D.W. James Pays Inheritance Taxes." New York Times. December 24, 1908.

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