Daniel G. Reid

Daniel Gray Reid (August 1, 1858 – January 17, 1925) was an American industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. Early in his career he manufactured tin plate with The American Tin Plate Company, and later U.S. Steel. He was known as the "Tinplate King". Early life and education Reid was born August 1858 in Richmond, Indiana, and is a son of Daniel and Anna (née Dougan) Reid. He was a descendant of a Scottish-Irish family. Reid was educated in the public schools of Richmond. His father died when he was 15 years old and he was reared by his mother. Career At the age of seventeen, he entered the Second National Bank as messenger boy, obtained his business training there and gradually won promotion until he was made teller, which position he resigned in 1895. In 1892, he became interested in The American Tin Plate Company, owners of an extensive plant at Elwood, Indiana. He and his partner, William B. Leeds, another Richmond native, bought the tin plate mill, with which he eventually combined every tin plate company in the country to form The American Tin Plate Company, with Reid as president. In 1901, J. P. Morgan included the tinplate trust in the giant steel trust, United States Steel Corporation, and reportedly paid $18 million for the company, and Reid became the director. He bought control of the American Can Company and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. In 1912, he organized the Tobacco Products Corporation with Henry Clay Frick, John D. Ryan and others. After the formation of U.S. Steel, he moved to New York City and had a mansion on 5th Avenue complete with three-story stable for his horses. Private stables were normally two stories tall with the ground floor housing the horses and vehicles while upstairs were rooms for servants. Reid's was to be bigger and grander. He commissioned mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert, who was responsible for Isaac Fletcher and F. W. Woolworth mansions, to design his palace for horses.