20 Nov 2012

The entry on the James family is interesting. The information on the PDF pages you reproduce of the book relating to the Family is not in all matters factually correct and I suspect others have used this book as a reference in the past. Daniel James, born in 1801 in Connecticut, was the eldest of 13 children and he walked barefoot from the farm to New York to save wear and tear on his only pair of shoes. He became a wholesale grocer and met and married Elizabeth Woodbridge Phelps. Anton G Phelps (dad) asked him to run the Liverpool side of the business. The companies became Phelps, Dodge   Co in USA and Phelps, James and Co in UK. Daniel James was a Liverpool merchant exporting manufactured metal to USA and importing cotton. Daniel continued to live in UK and run the UK business until his death in 1876. He was a merchant and did not believe the company should be involved in manufacture. He had nothing to do with railroads, lumber, property, etc. He had 5 children by his first wife, 2 boys sadly died and one daughter has a spinal disorder. The other daughter married Robert Hoe of printing press fame and fortune. The surviving son Daniel Willis James was to run and manage the company in the USA after Daniel died with his cousin William E Dodge Jr. They were to develop the huge copper mines in Arizona and as a bye product also ended up with 1000 miles of railroad in the America.

The 3 sons in England - Frank, Arthur and Willie were with his second wife Sophia Hall Hitchcock.

Daniel married one more time when he was about 70 to Ruth Lancaster Dickinson.

Although Daniel did not believe in manufacturing he did reap the benefits of investments made by his American partners. He died worth $6,000,000 and was in the top 100 list of richest men in America at the time. His American son made I think $23 million and grandson - Arthur Curtiss James - about 3 times that.

(reference www.raken.com/american_wealth/index.asp)

The references for Daniel James can be found in:-

• Cleland, Robert Glass (1952). A History of Phelps Dodge. New York: Alfred A Knopf. ASIN B0007DMY86.
• Dodge, Phyllis B (June 1987). Tales of the Phelps Dodge Family. New York: New York Historical Society. ISBN 978-9998263864.
• Lowitt, Richard (1954). A Merchant Prince of the Nineteenth Century. Columbia University Press. ASIN B001DJ0E5S.

The George Melly documentary about Edward is on UTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oosdgHLTGY

23 Nov 2012

I forgot to mention the reference to Santa Fe railway information in the PDF. It is so off mark and I have seen it quoted in other places which shows how dangerous the web can be! The Phelps Dodge railway was El Paso and Southwestern. This was started after Daniel James had died. William Dodge who was Daniel's American partner did invest in various railroads during his life but I do not recall seeing Santa Fe. Reference for this is Celand, Robert Glass; A History of Phelps Dodge.