Business magnate. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by Abraham Lincoln, and worked as a naval aide in the Grant administration. He organized the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company with his brother Charles F. and Judge Allison White. Acquiring coal mines, he worked with J.P. Morgan in the consolidation and expansion of coal operations. Berwind joined fellow Philadelphian Peter A.B. Widener in establishing the New York subway system. With Widener, Berwind was also a director of International Mercantile Marine Company which owned the White Star Line and, subsequently, the Titanic. He controlled the steamship business in New York and Philadelphia and supplied much of the coal used by the ships of the US Navy. After Charles's death, Edward became sole manager of the company. He acquired coal companies in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Colorado. Company towns like Windber (the transposition of the syllables in "Berwind"), Pennsylvania, and Berwind, West Virginia, were built to mine the coal. Subsidiaries of Berwind-White also often bore the "Berwind" stamp. The Berwind operation in Kentucky was the Kyber Coal Company. He was the world's largest individual owner of coal mining properties. The firm built brick houses for its management and frame houses for the miners and their families. Berwind was a inflexible businessman, refusing to bargain with employees and maintaining a closed shop in the coal fields. This contributed to the view of Berwind as a "robber baron." In the 1922 coal strike, Berwind Coal made wage reductions of from 32 to 54 percent. Workers who went on strike were given five days to vacate company houses, and tent towns sprang up around the mining towns. The Berwind Company is still a family owned business which manages the vast real estate holdings of its former mining operations. Though no longer actively engaged in mining, the company still retains extensive surface and mineral rights. His summer home in Newport, Rhode Island, "The Elms," designed by Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer is an elegant survivor of America's Gilded Age.
Business magnate. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by Abraham Lincoln, and worked as a naval aide in the Grant administration. He organized the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company with his brother Charles F. and Judge Allison White. Acquiring coal mines, he worked with J.P. Morgan in the consolidation and expansion of coal operations. Berwind joined fellow Philadelphian Peter A.B. Widener in establishing the New York subway system. With Widener, Berwind was also a director of International Mercantile Marine Company which owned the White Star Line and, subsequently, the Titanic. He controlled the steamship business in New York and Philadelphia and supplied much of the coal used by the ships of the US Navy. After Charles's death, Edward became sole manager of the company. He acquired coal companies in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Colorado. Company towns like Windber (the transposition of the syllables in "Berwind"), Pennsylvania, and Berwind, West Virginia, were built to mine the coal. Subsidiaries of Berwind-White also often bore the "Berwind" stamp. The Berwind operation in Kentucky was the Kyber Coal Company. He was the world's largest individual owner of coal mining properties. The firm built brick houses for its management and frame houses for the miners and their families. Berwind was a inflexible businessman, refusing to bargain with employees and maintaining a closed shop in the coal fields. This contributed to the view of Berwind as a "robber baron." In the 1922 coal strike, Berwind Coal made wage reductions of from 32 to 54 percent. Workers who went on strike were given five days to vacate company houses, and tent towns sprang up around the mining towns. The Berwind Company is still a family owned business which manages the vast real estate holdings of its former mining operations. Though no longer actively engaged in mining, the company still retains extensive surface and mineral rights. His summer home in Newport, Rhode Island, "The Elms," designed by Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer is an elegant survivor of America's Gilded Age.
Gravesite Details
Berwind's mausoleum, modeled after the Tower of the Winds in Athens, was designed by gilded age architect Horace Trumbauer
