John Pitcairn, Jr.

John Pitcairn Jr. (January 10, 1841 – July 22, 1916) was a Scottish-born American industrialist. 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), 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, and was a major activist in the American anti-vaccination movement. Early life Pitcairn was born on January 10, 1841, in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, 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, and then in Paterson, New Jersey, where Pitcairn' sister, Janet, was born. Meeting with a lack of financial success, they returned to Scotland a few years later. In 1846, however, the family emigrated again to America, this time with four new children, and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where Pitcairn's uncle, Alexander Pitcairn, had started a woolens business. There, Pitcairn attended public school until dropping out at age 14 to pursue a career in the railroad.