The philanthropic impact of Andrew Carnegie continues to this very day.

To cite just one example, the Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, the first of its kind, was recently renovated and reopened as Carnegie One Braddock.

Established in 1889, Carnegie One, according to its website, “embodies the opulence of the nineteenth-century industrial boom. Its architectural style and intricate details reflect the prosperity of the era.”

The library, which served as a guidepost for all the other community hubs that followed, fulfilled a lifelong passion for the Scottish American industrialist who became one of the richest men in the world.

Carnegie, named after his paternal grandfather, was born in 1835 to William Carnegie and Margaret Morrison Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland. For a time, the penniless family resided in a one-room cottage. In Scotland, William Carnegie was a master weaver who had his own business.

He was put out of work by automation. Frustrated because of his perceived status, William became recognized “as of the most troublesome street orators in Dunfermline.”

In 1848, the Carnegies sold their belongings, borrowed some money, and the family, including Andrew and his brother, Thomas, who was eight years younger, immigrated to Pittsburgh, where Margaret already had family.

Like countless others at the time, William Carnegie initially found Pittsburgh to be an improvement to working conditions in his home country. That didn’t last long.

They settled in “Slabtown,” a gritty and rough working-class neighborhood on the North Side, where wild pigs reportedly attacked children the streets. Decades later the homes that made up Rebecca Street would be torn down to make room for Three Rivers Stadium.

At 14, Carnegie, who entertained himself by reading his grandmother’s Horatio Alger books, began working in the scorching heat at the Scottish-owned Anchor Cotton Mill with his father. Margaret worked doing laundry for others as the family continued to struggle. William didn’t last long at the mill and went back to the weaving business.

In 1849, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company. It was a job that he embraced. Andrew bicycled around Pittsburgh and did everything he could to remember names and other details about business clients.

Andrew was promoted to operator in 1850. It was around this time, Carnegie met Colonel James Anderson, a railroad contractor and educator who had a huge personal library of 1,800 volumes he donated to Pittsburgh for public consumption. This intrigued Carnegie. He learned about Morse Code, among other subjects that would suit him well in the future. It’s also believed that it was through Anderson’s influence that Carnegie focused on future philanthropy, most notably with libraries.

Carnegie was hired by Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1853. As usual, Carnegie worked hard and advanced in his role. By Dec. 1, 1859, at the age of 24, Andrew was named Superintendent of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He hired his younger brother, Thomas, as his personal secretary and cousin Maria Hogan, who became the first female telegraph operator in the country.

Scott encouraged Carnegie to invest his money into profitable businesses. Soon, Carnegie had investments in railroads (like the Pullman Sleeping Car Company), bridges and oil derricks.

In 1863 Carnegie was one of the founders of the Jones and Nimrick Manufacturing Company, which for years was a big steel manufacturer in Pittsburgh. Through Scott, Carnegie met John Edgar Thomson, the railroad industrialist. Together, the three made sound investment decisions, some say because of insider trading. Carnegie admired the businessman so, he named his first company — the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Company — in his honor. Carnegie also named the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock after his friend.

Carnegie did not fight in the Civil War (there are some reports that he paid a replacement to take his place) and instead served as superintendent of the Military Railways and the Union Government's telegraph lines in the East. He also invested in the Columbia Oil Company and later the Keystone Bridge Company. Both moves assisted in his burgeoning wealth.

Around this time, Carnegie moved from Pittsburgh to New York City. He was disappointed in the business community there and reportedly called them “scoundrels.”

Pittsburgh was not the first place to use blast furnaces, as Massachusetts and New Jersey were among those smelting iron and Henry Bessemer’s converters (which made skyscrapers possible) were being used in nearly a dozen locations before steel was prominent in Western Pennsylvania.

But Pittsburgh had the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers and the region’s rich coal reserves made Western Pennsylvania prime for steel expansion.

In 1872, Carnegie and a group of investors purchased 107 acres of farmland that was once known as “Braddock’s Field,” where the French Army and their Native American allies ambushed Gen. Edward Braddock’s men more than 100 before.

The steel industry in Pittsburgh officially began in 1875 with the Edgar Thomson Steel Works. Thomas Carnegie was a co-founder. Strengthened by the best architects and engineers money could buy, rail mills, Bessemer furnaces and an eager workforce that at one time reached 12,000 people, Carnegie’s ascent to incredible success was well on its way.

Carnegie quickly pushed his employees to work 364 days a year, with only July 4 off as a day of rest. In addition, despite seeing his own father pushed out of work in Scotland due to advancement in technology, Carnegie sought efficiency and replaced workers with technological advancement whenever he could.

In 1881, Carnegie teamed with Henry Clay Frick, another rags-to-riches industrialist who was just as committed to business dominance. Frick was entrusted in managing Carnegie’s steel empire.

Together they targeted the nearby Duquesne Works for acquisition and made other innovations on their way to becoming billionaires. In the early 1890s, Carnegie wanted to change his image as a ruthless businessman to a champion of worker’s rights but also wanted to slice expenses. He left on a trip to his castle in Scotland and gave Frick the marching orders to cut costs and increase working hours at their Homestead Steel Works.

What came next was the Homestead Steel Strike, the Battle of Homestead, or the Homestead Massacre, depending on one’s interpretation. The industrial lockout and strike began on July 1, 1892, and culminated in a battle with 300 Pinkerton private security agents taking on 10,000 steel workers on July 6. Gov. Robert E. Pattison then sent in 8,500 members of the National Guard to settle the situation. Ten people died during the incident.

The Battle of Homestead would divide Carnegie and Frick for the rest of their lives.

Carnegie Steel continued to thrive. By 1900 Carnegie’s companies were producing more steel than all Great Britain. In 1901, Carnegie sold the company to J.P. Morgan for $480 million (more than $17 billion today). That made him the richest man in the world at the time and U.S. Steel was born. Frick, who had been fired by Carnegie, was brought in to lead U.S. Steel after the purchase.

Andrew Carnegie, then living in Massachusetts, withdrew from business and spent the rest of his life — until his death in 1919 at the age of 83 — giving away his entire fortune. He had Carnegie Hall built in 1891, but the building did not bear his name until after his death. And while Carnegie innovated 2,500 libraries around the world, only 500 bear his name, including One in Braddock.