James C. Corrigan (May 1, 1846 – December 24, 1908) was a Canadian-American businessman active in the shipping, petroleum refining, iron ore mining and selling, and steel manufacturing industries. He made and lost fortunes in the shipping and refining industries, and was known as "one of the group of men who made Cleveland".
Emigrating to the United States from Canada as a boy, he became a sailor on the Great Lakes. After sailing a boat that shipped refined petroleum, he became involved in petroleum refining in Cleveland, Ohio, and became wealthy. His early years in sailing led him into the shipping industry as an adult, moving iron ore, grain, timber, and other goods. He sued John D. Rockefeller after Rockefeller seized his Standard Oil stock in repayment for mortgages on his vessels, co-founded the Lake Carriers Association, and won a lawsuit which successfully voided a common vessel insurance clause.
He was an early investor in iron mines on the Mesabi, Gogebic, Marquette, Menominee, and Vermilion iron ranges. A small investment in an iron ore dealing businesses, taken in exchange for freight charges, was turned into Corrigan, McKinney & Co., one of the largest independent dealers in iron ore in the United States. He began vertically integrating the company, investing in five different iron smelting businesses before founding the steel firm Corrigan, McKinney Steel shortly before his death.
An avid yachtsman, Corrigan lost nearly all his family when his luxury yacht, the Idler, sank in a storm off Cleveland in 1900. His Ohio country house became the Nagirroc farm, one of the historic country estates in Lake County, Ohio. His New York country house on Dry Island was a regional landmark. A multimillionaire at the time of his death, he left his wealth to family members.
Although he founded five Great Lakes shipping firms and owned the largest independent iron ore mining company in the Midwest, he is best known as the founder of the Corrigan, McKinney Steel company.
Early life James Corrigan was born May 1, 1846, in Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada,; to Johnson C. and Jane ( Anderson) Corrigan.
His father, a laborer, emigrated to Dundas County, Ontario, Canada, from County Mayo, Ireland, in the late 1830s. His mother also emigrated to Canada from Ireland about the same time. The couple married in 1838. James was the second of eight children. His siblings included John (born 1843), Johnson Jr. (born 1848), Murry (born 1850), Mary (born 1854), Robert (born 1856), Margaret (born 1858), Richard (born 1858), and William (born 1860). James's uncle, Robert Corrigan, was a somewhat prosperous farmer in Dundas County. James's father, on the other hand, was nearly destitute. In the 1850s, his father owned no land and no livestock, and worked as a hired hand and casual laborer. The family lived in a shanty, whereas most farmers in the area lived in houses. Johnson Corrigan Sr. managed to build his family a log cabin by 1861.
When James was still young, his father worked for a time filling an elevated water tank for the Grand Trunk Railway east of Morrisburg. The tank was filled with a hand pump, and it took hard work and several hours to fill it. Trains stopped to rewater at the tank several times a day. Johnson Corrigan often delegated this task to his sons, John and James, who would work the pump together.
The family was somewhat itinerant, living in several villages in Ontario and for eight years in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. The Corrigans later moved to Minnesota, where they had a farm in the Red River Valley (later inherited or purchased by James), before returning to Ontario.
James C. Corrigan's mother, Jane, died on January 31, 1861. His father later married Sarah Wood, and they had two children, Matilda and Henry.
Emigration to the United States Johnson Corrigan was a stern father, and James had an unhappy home life. By 1860, James and his older brother John were no longer living at home, but with another local farmer. Historian JoAnn King concludes that they were likely hired out as farm hands, living a life of forced labor. James and John ran off in 1861, emigrating to Ogdensburg, New York, in the United States. When James turned 17, he became a sailor on a schooner on the Great Lakes. He remained a sailor for six years.
In 1867 or 1868, James began sailing the sloop Trial for owner Martin Golden, transporting refined petroleum products during the summer months from Cleveland across Lake Erie to Port Stanley, Ontario. In April 1869, James purchased the Trial from Golden. Great Lakes historian John Brandt Mansfield says that the first year Corrigan owned the Trial, a sailor was washed overboard in a storm. Corrigan leapt into a lifeboat and rescued him. The two spent 14 hours on Lake Erie before being rescued by another vessel.
Petroleum refining
During the winter months, when the Great Lakes were ice-bound, James Corrigan began making experiments in petroleum refining on his own, aided by a German immigrant professor of chemistry who taught in Cleveland. His older brother, John Corrigan, established a small crude oil refinery in 1870 on Walworth Run in Cleveland.
James began oil refining on Walworth Run, a stream on Cleveland's west side, in 1871, doing business as Corrigan & Wells. His refinery was capable of processing of crude oil a day, making it one of the largest refineries in Cleveland. In 1872, the firm was known as Corrigan & Timmins. The company named became Corrigan & Co. in 1873, indicating James had become the majority partner in the firm.
Corrigan & Co.'s oil works were also located on Walworth Run. The original works were on the south side of the street at about what is now 2258 Train Avenue. Corrigan called his refinery the Excelsior Oil Works.; ; ;
James took his brother John into the business in 1874, and changed the company name to Corrigan Brothers. By at least 1875, Corrigan's Excelsior Oil Works had expanded into a second building east of the Pearl Street bridge over Walworth Run, more than doubling the refinery's capacity to a day.
James Corrigan invented a refining process that allowed him to crack specialty oils from crude petroleum. He was able to produce mineral seal oil, cylinder oil, and paraffin wax. Standard Oil of Ohio later leased the process from him.
Corrigan also invested in other refineries as early as 1872. At their peak, the Corrigans were earning $300,000 a year () from petroleum refining.
Corrigan leased his oil refinery to Standard Oil in 1879, having established in 1878 a new company, the Ohio Nut & Bolt Co.; The factory was located on Division Street.
Corrigan likely sold Ohio Nut & Bolt in April 1879 and moved to the region of Galicia, then part of Austria-Hungary, where he leased oil fields from Prince Alexandru B. Știrbei and built oil refineries near the cities of Grybów and Kolomyia. Standard Oil invested $32,000 in Corrigan's refinery (), which cost $40,000 to build (). The oil fields proved to be not very productive, generating less than 100,000 barrels by 1880, and of an inferior quality that was difficult to refine.
While in Galicia, Corrigan sold his Cleveland refinery in 1881 to Standard Oil in exchange for stock in Standard Oil. He sold his assets in Galicia and returned to the United States in 1882. By January 1883, he was operating a new oil refinery on Walworth Run between Pearl and Mill streets.
Corrigan continued to operate a refinery in 1884 and 1885, although no firm name was specified. In 1886, he was named president of the newly organized Dangler Naphtha Refining Company, a new specialty refinery organized by David A. Dangler, president of the Crystal Carbon Company (a firm that manufactured carbon points for arc lights). (Standard Oil was an investor in Dangler Naphtha Refining Co.)
James Corrigan exited the petroleum refining industry in 1887 in favor of shipping, although Dangler Naphtha continued in operation.
Shipping "Corrigan fleet" and Corrigan, Huntington and Co.
According to The Plain Dealer newspaper, Corrigan established five different shipping companies in his lifetime. Until the establishment of the first two firms in 1893, he personally owned these vessels, and they were generally known as the "Corrigan fleet" during this time. He obtained inexpensive boats, ran them hard, and insured them heavily. Corrigan steamers could be identified by their black hulls and stacks, and their reddish-brown cabins.
Corrigan became interested in shipping in the spring of 1872, but it wasn't until March 1877 that he began to form a shipping fleet. His first vessel was a schooner co-owned with his brother John, and named the Hippogriff. Likely purchased at auction in March 1877,; it sank on September 28, 1877, after a collision.
James Corrigan then purchased the schooners Niagara (for $31,000 []); and Richards (for $8,000 []) in 1883.
Corrigan rapidly built his shipping fleet. In December 1885, he purchased the steamer Raleigh for $40,000 () and her consort Lucerne for $20,000 ().; The following year, he bought a two-ninths interest in the schooner James Couch for $6,222 (), and the barge R.J. Carney for $12,000 (). With oil magnate John Huntington, he purchased the steamer and the schooner Polynesia for $160,000 ().
1886 saw Corrigan create his first shipping business. In October of that year, he, John Huntington, and Huntington's son, William R. Huntington, formed a stock company worth $200,000 () named "James Corrigan, Huntington & Co.". Ownership of the Australasia, Polynesia, Niagara, and Raleigh were transferred to the new firm, which Corrigan operated. In early January 1887, Corrigan sold his interest in the James Couch, Niagara, and Raleigh to the firm for $160,000 ().
Corrigan became a member of the Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association (CVOA) in April 1886. This organization, established in March 1868, was highly influential in establishing inland waterway navigation rules, improving shipping channels, lobbying for the removal of waterway obstacles, winning the improvement of port operations, and more. Corrigan was highly active in the CVOA, which usually met in his offices in the Perry-Payne Building in Cleveland.
Corrigan repurchased the James Couch and Raleigh from Corrigan, Huntington & Co. in early 1887. James and his brother, John, then jointly purchased the schooners George W. Adams and David Dows (for a total of $125,000 []).; ; ;
Corrigan's shipping empire had made him a millionaire by 1889.
Rockefeller lawsuit
The Panic of 1893 created serious financial illiquidity for Corrigan. Pressed for cash to pay the loans on the ships he had purchased, Corrigan turned to John D. Rockefeller, the largest shareholder in Standard Oil. Rockefeller was one of the nation's richest men, and a fellow Clevelander. Rockefeller loaned Corrigan the $400,000 ($ in dollars) he needed to pay the loans. The Rockefeller note was secured by Corrigan's Standard Oil stock.
Corrigan asked Rockefeller to release his stock, arguing that he could use his ships as collateral. Rockefeller refused. Corrigan stopped making interest payments on the loan in 1894. Rockefeller did not immediately foreclose, but allowed interest to accumulate. Rockefeller now offered to buy Corrigan's Standard Oil stock. He offered $168 a share, which would pay the outstanding interest and retire the principal.
Corrigan tentatively agreed, but only if Standard Oil gave him detailed information about the trust's assets, earnings, investments, and securities purchases for the past five years. This would allow him to determine if Rockefeller offered a fair price. At the time, almost no corporations released such sensitive information, and Rockefeller refused the request.