Herman Hover (1905 - 1996)

Entrepreneur.  Owner of the internationally famed Ciro’s,  Hollywood’s trendiest nightclub of the 1940s and 50s.  Born in Brooklyn,  he dropped out of Columbia University’s Law School to become a speakeasy manager and in the 1930s was a publicity man for stage producer Earl Carroll (the “Vanities” revues).  He claimed to have coined the motto for […]

Walter Vann Hough (1930 - 2000)

Businessman. Founder of Wavaho Oil Company, which started in Lacey’s Spring, Alabama, and became a chain of gas stations throughout the southern United States. He used the first two letters of his first, middle, and last name to create the name Wavaho for his petroleum company.

William Horne (1970 - 1970)

Started a road transport business that was bought out by the Pickfords.

Joseph V. Horn (1970 - 1941)

Businessman. The son of the owner of a surgical supply company, he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and established a restaurant business. Advertizing for a partner, Horn met and hired  Frank Hardart in 1886. Hardart introduced the French-drip coffee that is generally credited with the firm’s early success, and additional restaurants were opened. In the […]

Mark Hopkins (1813 - 1878)

Businessman. He was a 19th Century railroad tycoon, best known as a founding partner and Treasurer of the Central Pacific Railroad.  Born in Henderson, New York to a family of Puritan roots, he started his career in the mercantile trade at the age of 16, first as a clerk in Niagara County, New York and […]

Herbert William Hoover, Sr (1877 - 1954)

Founder, with his father of W.H. Hoover Company, which made saddles until 1908.  Company name changed to Electric Suction Sweeper Company, making the first successful vacuum cleaners. In 1922 it was renamed the Hoover Company. (bio by: Ginny M)  Family links:  Parents:  William Henry Hoover (1849 – 1932)  Susan Troxel Hoover (1846 – 1925)  Spouse: […]

George W. Hoover (1970 - 1924)

Built the Hollywood Hotel.  Family links:  Spouse:  Mary C. Hoover (1853 – 1934) Inscription:Father

Soichiro Honda (1906 - 1991)

Business Magnate. In 1948, he established the Honda Motor Company. Since then, Honda has continued to be one of the world’s leading companies, selling millions of products worldwide including motorcycles, power equipment, ATVs, generators, marine engines and of course, automobiles. (bio by: db)

Benjamin Leroy Holt (1849 - 1920)

Inventor. By the 1890s, with his partner Daniel Best as the Holt Manufacturing Company, he was making steam-driven wheeled tractors and harvesters to replace horse-drawn harvesting machines on large farms. In 1906, he built, patented and manufactured the first practical crawler-type tread tractor. With the success of his tractor, he founded Holt’s Caterpillar Tractors Company […]

George Melvin Holley, Sr (1878 - 1963)

Automotive Engineer and Designer. In 1899, he and his brother Earl founded the Holley Motor Company and sold 600 Holley Motorette automobiles between 1902 and 1906. But it was their design of the Holley carburetor that revolutionized gasoline engine development. In 1903 the Holley Carburetor Company produced carburetors for the Curved Dash Oldsmobile and then […]

Earl B. Holley (1881 - 1958)

Automotive Engineer and Designer. In 1899, he and his brother George founded the Holley Motor Company and sold 600 Holley Motorette automobiles between 1902 and 1906. But it was their design of the Holley carburetor that revolutionized gasoline engine development. In 1903 the Holley Carburetor Company produced carburetors for the Curved Dash Oldsmobile and then […]

Friedrich Hoffmann (1818 - 1900)

Pioneer of new methods of producing building materials; his memorial makes liberal use of his products. (bio by: David Conway)  Family links:  Spouse:  Bertha Luise Amalie Fluegel Hoffmann (1816 – 1898)*  Children:  Agathe Hoffmann (1848 – 1855)*  Eda Hoffmann (1849 – 1855)*  Fritz Hoffmann (1851 – 1855)*  Hans Hoffmann (1854 – 1855)*  Bertha Auguste Marianne […]

Raymond Hoagland (1894 - 1956)

Owner of Rumson Farms kennels of Cartersville. Georgia, a breeding facility specializing in setters and pointers. He was president of the Amateur Field Trial Clubs of America.

Phineas Warren Hitchcock (1831 - 1881)

Phineas Hitchcock attended prep school at Great Barrington, Maine and then attended Williams College, graduating in 1855. After graduation he remained in New York for two years; part of the time as a reporter in central New York and part of the time in law practice. He came to Omaha in 1857 and opened a […]

Tomiji Hirano (1970 - 1970)

Hirano was a trusted pupil of Shozo Motoki, “The Gutenberg of Japan,” who had created the first Japanese typesetting system and founded the Tsukiji Type Foundry. When Motoki decided to step down, he left the business in the hands of Hirano. In 1872, Hirano attempted to revive the company by moving it to Tokyo, which […]

Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Sr (1887 - 1979)

Businessman. He was born in New Mexico Territory to Augustus and Mary Hilton, who ran a small family inn. He purchased his first hotel in Cisco, Texas in 1919 after returning from service in World War I. He quickly acquired other hotels, and formed Hilton Corporation in 1946. His first luxury Hilton Hotel was built […]

Samuel Hill (1800 - 1857)

In 1829 Samuel Hill and John McNamar (aka McNeil) built the first general store in New Salem. A few years later they dissolved the partnership by mutual consent and Hill expanded his investments & opened a carding mill. He was postmaster until 1833 when Lincoln assumed the position in an appointment by President Andrew Jackson. […]

Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)

Author. Born in Pound, Virginia, his mother died when he was very small. His family was very poor so they required him to work to pay his way to attend college.  As a young man he was known as the “Mountain Reporter” for rural newspapers.  He dropped out of college for lack of funds.  He […]

James Jerome Hill (1838 - 1916)

Railroad Pioneer. Born in Ontario, Canada, he was the chief railroad executive responsible for establishing the Great Northern Railway lines which served the upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest of America. In 1873, as a steamboat shipping businessman in Minnesota, he saw the need to expand railways to the  western territories. Between […]

George Washington Hill (1884 - 1946)

Businessman. He introduced the Lucky Strike Brand of cigarettes.  Family links:  Parents:  Percival S. Hill (____ – 1925)  Cassie Rowland Milnes Hill (____ – 1934)

Pattillo Higgins (1863 - 1955)

Texas Oil Pioneer. He was known as, “The prophet of Spindletop.” As a young man, he was often in trouble and wounds from one fight even caused him to lose his left arm. In 1886, he started a company in Beaumont, Texas that made bricks. He learned how some industries were using oil rather than […]

David Higgins (1970 - 1903)

Newspaper Publisher. He was the owner and publisher of Seattle’s “Daily Intelligencer.” Born in New York state, he learned his early skills as a printer before deciding on a career in law. He was admitted to the New York Bar Association in 1850 at the age of 23. Shortly thereafter he traveled to San Joaquin […]

William Reddington Hewlett (1913 - 2001)

Co-founder with David Packard of the Hewlett-Packard Company.  He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and moved to San Francisco at the age of three.  William graduated from Lowell High School and received a bachelor’s degree in 1934 from Stanford University.  In 1935 he earned a MS degree in EECS from MIT and in 1939 […]

William Hewitt (1875 - 1966)

Businessman, Hockey Pioneer and Innovator. Hewitt served as the President of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, Vice President of the International Ice Hockey Federation from 1925 to 1926, and 1928 to 1931, and led Canada as a team leader in the Olympics of 1920, 1924, 1928, and 1936. From 1919 to 1920 he was Secretary […]

Gilbert Heublein (1849 - 1937)

Business Magnate. Born in Germany, he is credited with introducing the “A-1 Steak Sauce” and “Smirnoff Vodka” into the United States. The son of a restaurateur and hotel owner in Hartford, Connecticut, he and his brother Louis took over the family business in 1890. In 1892 they began bottling the first pre-mixed cocktails that were […]

John Daniel Hertz (1879 - 1961)

Business Magnate. Born Sandor Herz on April 10, 1879. When he was five years old, Mr. Hertz’s family immigrated to this country from the little village of Vrutsky, in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later became Czechoslovakia.In his early twenties, he met Fannie Kesner, a member of a well-to-do Chicago family, […]

Iwan D. Herstatt (1913 - 1995)

Banker. The Herstatt bank went bankrupt in 1974 which caused quite a scandal in Germany.

Milton Snavely “M.S.” Hershey (1857 - 1945)

Businessman. He founded the Hershey Company confection manufacturer, and built it into the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Born in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, at age 13 he worked as an apprentice for a newspaper but was later fired. He traveled west to Denver, Colorado, where he worked for a caramel maker. When […]

James Stauffer Herr (1924 - 2012)

Businessman. As founder of Herr Foods Incorporated, he emerged as one of the top producers of snack foods within the industry. Raised on his family’s farm with his sibblings, he acquired skills during his teenage years which proved invaluable throughout his adult life in business. His empire began under humble conditions in 1946, when at […]

Theodore Herold (1863 - 1907)

The son of merchant, manufacturer & vessel-owner Ferdinand Herold, Theodore was employed for a time at the Budweiser Beer & Wine Company. Later he became connected with the Cherokee Brewing Company, of which he became secretary. Severing his connection with this well-known brewery, he organized the Home Brewing Company, of which he became president. He […]