Which famous people have you outlived?

George Pullman

American businessman

Died when: 66 years 230 days (799 months)
Star Sign: Pisces

 

George Pullman

George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist.He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it.

This ultimately led to the Pullman Strike due to the high rent prices charged for company housing and low wages paid by the Pullman Company.

His Pullman Company also hired African-American men to staff the Pullman cars, known as Pullman porters, who provided elite service and were compensated only in tips.

Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he halved wages and required workers to spend long hours at the plant, but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town.

He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894.

A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town.In 1898, the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town, which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago.


Related People

Henry W. Sage
American businessman
William Chrisman
American businessman
John H. Inman
American businessman
This content was extracted from Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License