Where was the richest town in America?

           A common phrase used to describe Clinton during the lumber boom was that Clinton was the richest town in America. The statement is quantifiably qualified by saying it had more millionaires per capita than any other town in America, sometimes an additional qualifier is added of a town west of the Mississippi. I naturally needed to find out if this was true. I knew that this phrase, the richest town, could be more figurative than literal, but what I discovered in researching the richest town in America showed the true meaning of the phrase.

        The first qualifier should be time. I chose to look at the time period of 1870 to 1900 to see where the richest town in America was. For example, Lynchburg, Virginia likes to say it was the richest town in America along with New Bedford, MA in the 1850's. By 1910, Valdosta, Georgia references a Forbes article that said they were the richest town per capita in America.

         Another qualifier needs to be millionaires and not richest. Clinton might have had as many as 17 millionaires, but that doesn't mean it was the richest town. The economic studies are startling in how much more money the north had per capita than the South, but representative of America at a whole, this doesn't mean that there wasn't a small group of uber wealthy families.

         So the quest began, and what an amazing insight into the American economy and remembrance manifested itself. Right away I was introduced to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. During our time period, the town  was home to perhaps 13 millionaires. The town's history though credits "that over a dozen towns and cities claim they had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the United States." The wonderful article lists thirteen towns that make the claim, and doesn't even include Clinton. A Forbes article (E) claims that more than 20 towns made the same claim for the same time period.




          While not all the towns were west of the Mississippi, one of the biggest threats to Clinton's claim is Duluth, Minnesota. From 1880 to 1920, they lay a claim to the richest town. A well developed claim might be that Connellsville, PA had more millionaires than anywhere else maybe in the world in the 1890's because of steel. Maybe by 1900 it was Houlton, Maine (E).

While Clinton was the Lumber King of the world, Muskegon boasted itself as the Lumber Queen of the World, and it too said by the late 1880s, it boasted more millionaires than anywhere else in America.

Out of Muskegon's claim came the most important line, "There are no official statistics to support the millions claim, but it's definitely true that such lumber barons.... played a major part in West Michigan's history (C, 352).

   In the end, all sources seem to point to Helena, Montana as the place that by 1894 had more millionaires than anywhere else in America (D, 35). Yet, Forbes in a review of what they claim to be 20 towns that make the claim, point out that the only town able to make the claim and back it up with stats is Cheyenne, Wyoming, which in 1880 featured 8 millionaires out of 3,000 people. Eventually a Clinton connected wood company, Disbrow, would have an office in Cheyenne. Still though, the Forbes article doesn't give enough credit to the gold boom in Helena, but the reality is Clinton, while super wealthy, might not have had the most millionaires per capita.

   The Forbes article debunks the Clinton myth by stating that 14,698 people lived in Clinton in the 1880s, and they only give credit to 4 millionaires. Let's add the Joyces and a few other and grant the 13 to 17 millionaires that is often cited.  At 17, this means one out of 882 were millionaires. A far cry from Cheyenne.

     The real thing to do is adjust the millionaire number. Today there are 5 million millionaires in America and only 4,000 in 1892. This is because we don't adjust for inflation. I would be curious to see what town had to most people equivalent to today's notion of millionaires.

The larger point is that wealth was very concentrated in the late 1800s, and these wealthy men, like today's billionaires, often left a mark on the towns they called home. The phrase developed to show that a town was abnormally wealthy and was home to industrial powers. Each region had their own reason for wealth (coal, gold, steel, lumber, and eventually oil).

     Do yourself a favor and search for the richest town in America. You will discover an amazing snapshot of America, and you will find out the role of natural resources in America's wealth.
 






Sources
A. http://www.tnonline.com/2013/jan/19/was-jim-thorpe-wealthiest-town-america
B. http://web.archive.org/web/20071021071002/http://www.georgiaretire.com/main1/staticpages/index.php?page=20040406113914704
C. http://books.google.com/books?id=psV1uAiVqmcC&pg=PA352&dq=most+millionaires+per+capita+1880&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-WuuUbr5G-KYyAHQh4D4AQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=most%20millionaires%20per%20capita%201880&f=false
D. http://books.google.com/books?id=UQhiKKcn6cYC&pg=PA35&dq=most+millionaires+per+capita+1880&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-WuuUbr5G-KYyAHQh4D4AQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=most%20millionaires%20per%20capita%201880&f=false
E. http://books.google.com/books?id=VAsEzj8yrlYC&pg=PA76&dq=most+millionaires+per+capita+1880&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-WuuUbr5G-KYyAHQh4D4AQ&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=most%20millionaires%20per%20capita%201880&f=false
F. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/1009/6610068a_print.html