First American to reach 1 million dollars in personal wealth
Now things get a little trickier. Elias Hasket Derby, a merchant and privateer owner from Salem, accumulated a substantial fortune through trade both before and during the American Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, the American dollar didn't exist when he amassed the most of his wealth; instead, he used currencies from Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
He suffered some financial setbacks after the war but was still one of the richest, if not the richest, persons in New England. Although there were wealthier men than him when America was still a British colony, some people say that he was America's first millionaire.
Others claim that George Washington was the first American whose wealth exceeded $1 million, however most of Washington's wealth was connected to real estate. He actually frequently had money problems. The case that John Jacob Astor is the first millionaire in America is arguably the strongest.
With an estimated fortune of $20 million (about $650 million today), he was unquestionably America's first multi-millionaire. Fur trading, opium trafficking, land speculation, and other successful ventures were how Astor amassed his wealth. When the Titanic sank in 1912, his great-grandson John Jacob Astor IV was widely regarded as the richest man in the world.
