Where others saw defeat, Henry Clay Frick saw opportunity.

Despite a humble upbringing, few social graces and little formal education, Frick became one of the most powerful men of his time. Like fellow steel magnate and one-time partner Andrew Carnegie, he helped build the foundation for turning post-Civil War America into a major world power.

What he lacked in social status, he made up with confidence and foresight — and the discipline to follow through on them.

As a union buster and monopolist, Frick (1849-1919) was far from universally loved. But few would deny his generosity or his courage to trust his instincts in the face of others' doubts and criticism.

Frick was born to a working-class family in western Pennsylvania. The parallels between Frick's early life and those of Carnegie, his future partner, were uncanny.

Historians Jack Newfield and Mark Jacobson spell out the similarities in their biography "American Monsters."

"Both were sons of men who had never been able to earn more than subsistence for their families, and learned as children to be ashamed of their poverty," the biographers wrote. "Both were small, aggressive, willful, sharp and hardened by adversity. They were both extraordinarily talented financial managers and businessmen, who displayed from adolescence a . . . devotion to the expansion of their holdings."

Frick proved himself a hard worker early on. At 10, he spent summers gathering wheat sheaves, hauling water and wood, and completing other farm chores to earn enough money to buy his own clothes.

When school started, he "displayed the same earnestness of purpose," wrote biographer James Howard Bridge. By 14, Frick supported himself as a store clerk.

By 19, Frick served as a bookkeeper for his grandfather's flour mill and distillery. He kept his ears and eyes open while he worked, learning the finer points of business.

It didn't take him long to put that knowledge to use. Though he earned nearly twice as much at the mill as most Americans at the time, he had bigger dreams.

Dan Rottenberg's book "In the Kingdom of Coal" describes his ambition: "One night at the distillery, when the conversation turned to future ambitions, Frick remarked laconically, 'I see no reason why I should not become a millionaire during my lifetime.' "

It was a milestone he reached by his 30th birthday.

That was no fluke. It was the result of hard work and keeping careful tabs on trends. Recognizing a growing demand for iron and steel, Frick figured that the region's production of coke — a coal byproduct that's used to fuel iron and steel plants — would play a big role.

He persuaded one of his grandfather's partners and another man to help finance the purchase of 300 acres of coal-rich land and a coke plant with 50 ovens.

Frick & Co. was born.

Growth Period

The industry foundered during the economic panic of 1873. But Frick didn't flinch. Instead, he jumped on the chance to buy new coke plants from sellers eager to get out of the business. His business partners also sold their share of the business, giving Frick full control.

Frick's risk paid off handsomely. As the economy recovered, the price of coke rose from 95 cents a ton to nearly $5.

It wasn't simply price that made the difference. Frick made sure his product was consistently high quality. And by all accounts, he was a disciplined and efficient manager.

"His extraordinary management skills — organizing production on a large scale, assiduously weeding out waste, unifying his mining operations with his shipping and selling operations — whipped a disparate operation into an efficient machine," Rottenberg wrote.

Frick studied all sides of a proposal before committing to or rejecting it. Because of the steel industry's dependence on coke, Frick became one of only a few people who could strike fear in steel baron Andrew Carnegie.

When Carnegie approached him about uniting their companies in 1882, Frick thought carefully about the idea. It seemed that Carnegie would reap the better part of the deal, getting first crack at Frick's coke plants.

But after analyzing all the figures, Frick realized that the partnership would be mutually beneficial. The pair bought shares in each other's companies, and Frick became head of Carnegie Steel.

Wielding the heft of Carnegie's empire, Frick bought out rivals and built up the Union Railroad to connect the company's operations.

The next few years proved a delicate balancing act for Frick. Even though Carnegie Steel wanted a cheap supply of coke, Frick worried that competition in his old coke business would obliterate prices. So he continued buying up other coke firms and persuaded rivals to form a syndicate to keep prices steady.

Frick achieved this despite several personal tragedies that evoke empathy among even his fiercest critics. He lost two of his four children in their youth and watched helplessly as his wife slipped into depression and alcoholism.

Frick held tightly to his principles even at great cost. Consider the way his relationship with Carnegie crumbled in the wake of a bitter labor dispute in 1892.

Determined to rein in labor costs, Frick spearheaded a worker lockout at the firm's Homestead, Pa., plant. The lockout led to a 13-hour shootout that killed seven striking workers and three hired guards.

Carnegie, on vacation in Scotland, knew a conflict was brewing and had assured Frick of his full support.

But according to John Steele Gordon's account in "Empire of Wealth," much of the country sympathized with the workers. Carnegie, trying to cultivate a worker-friendly image, largely washed his hands of the affair.

Dodging Death

The clash also led to an attempt on Frick's life. Alexander Berkman, an anarchist who sympathized with the workers, sneaked into Frick's office and shot him twice in the neck, and when that didn't kill him, he stabbed him three times.

Frick emerged the victor — in more ways than one.

He fought off the attacker and survived. Gordon wrote that Frick refused an anesthetic when doctors probed for bullets, and insisted on finishing his work for the day.

Frick's tenacity also turned public opinion against the union and Carnegie himself. In her book "Andrew Carnegie: Industrial Philanthropist," Laura Edge cites an editorial written by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time:

"Say what you will about Frick; he is a brave man. Say what you will of Carnegie; he is a coward. And gods and men hate cowards."

Though it came at a great cost — in human loss and Frick's historical legacy — the Homestead episode halved labor costs, as Frick hoped. Union activity at the plant fell silent more than four decades.

Later, Frick decided it was time to give back to his community. A strong advocate of learning, he gave money to educational causes in New York and Pennsylvania, much of it anonymously.

When he died just shy of 70, he left most of his $50 million estate (more than $600 million in today's dollars) to charity.
BY KEN SPENCER BROWN