Peter Arrell Brown Widener

A merchant who supplied meat to the Union Army during the United States Civil War, Widener grew to prominence in the city and by 1873 had become Philadelphia City Treasurer. In 1883, he became very successful as a result of his investing in trolley cars and public transit systems as a founding partner of Philadelphia Traction Company, which expanded to other major cities in the United States. He and his Philadelphia business partner William L. Elkins invested in public transit systems in other major cities with businessmen such as Charles Tyson Yerkes, the streetcar czar of Chicago. Widener used the great wealth accumulated from that business to become a founding organizer of U.S. Steel and the American Tobacco Company as well as a having substantial holdings in Standard Oil. He is considered to have been one of the 100 wealthiest Am

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