biography
| name: |
Forbes, John Murray
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1813–98)
|
| biography:
| Capitalist, born in Bordeaux, France. At age 15 he entered his uncles' counting-house business in the USA, Perkins and Co, and worked in their China office for seven years. A wealthy and accomplished businessman, he returned to the USA (1846) and began investing in railroad building in the Midwest. During the Civil War he helped organize African-American regiments in Massachusetts and, along with his brother Robert Bennet Forbes, assisted the US Navy with his maritime expertise. After the war he continued to apply both financially sound and socially responsible methods to his railroad interests. He was active in the Republican Party. |
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