SCHWAB, Charles Michael

The sitter was born in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, on February 18, 1862, the son of Pauline (née Farabaugh) and John Anthony Schwab. He was educated locally. He began his career as a stake-driver in a Carnegie Co. steel works, working his way up the steel industry to become President of the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 (until 1903). In 1903 he left to run Bethlehem Steel. In 1908, Bethlehem Steel began making the H beam, which revolutionized building construction and contributed to the age of the skyscraper. Its success helped make Bethlehem Steel the second-largest steel company in the world. From April to December 1918 he was Director General of shipbuilding for the Emergency Fleet Corporation. He married Emma Eurana Dinkey in 1883, but his only child was with a mistress. He died on September 18, 1939.

Bibliography:

Robert Hessen, Steel Titan: The Life of Charles M. Schwab, 1975

—

In the article in Town & Country, August 22, 1903, it is said that ‘…Mr. Charles M. Schwab…will sit for Mr. Ury in the fall.’ In a letter from Shipbuilder Lewis Nixon, in the artist’s papers, undated – but evidently in 1903, he says ‘…I am sorry I have not been able to get Mr. Schwab to come up but so far he has been so very busy I could not arrange it…’ The fact that the artist executed a head for keeping – today in the American National Portrait Gallery – suggests that Schwab did eventually sit to the artist and presumably a larger portrait exists.