My great-grandfather, William A. Draves I, died this week 100 years ago.
He came to America at age 21 from Germany. He was "in" on the beginning of the Industrial Age, starting several factories in Milwaukee. He was a co-founder of a manufacturing company that eventually became a Fortune 500 at one time. Yet he drove a horse and buggy (only a few cars existed).
By coincidence, I was born 100 years after him. My son, William A. Draves V, was born 100 years after my grandfather, William A. Draves II. WADV and WADII are/were both 20 in '06. By reading my grandfather's diary from 1906, I understood he behaved exactly like my son does today, both into technology and part of a generation creating a new century.
(picture of my grandfather as a young man)
Native Americans honor their ancestors, and now I know why. I have learned much from them about the 21st century. I am grateful to them. Do you know where your great-grandfather is?
My great-grandfather worked in the textile mills of Manchester, NH, was a union organizer, and a semi-pro boxer (the boxing probably helped him with the response of the owners to union organizing). He also was a bootlegger during prohibition.
I see parallels between today's out of control CEO salaries and the massive financial inequality between workers and owners at the turn of the century. (The more things change, the more they stay the same?)
I also admire his entrepeneurial spirit in bootlegging, and see similarities to today's small businesses that are run out of the home. Somewhat of a stretch as I'm sure his bootlegging wasn't run as a typical business. What kind of product liability is involved when making bathtub gin?
Posted by: Erik Holden | March 28, 2006 at 03:29 PM