Norman Bruce Ream was the son of Levi and Highly (King) Ream. His father, a life-long resident of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where Norman was born, was of German descent; his mother was of Scotch and English ancestry. The family lived on a farm, but farm life was not to the young boy's taste, and at fourteen he was earning money by teaching in the country school.
Career
He began, also, to take photographs with the ambrotype and was getting on in a small way with this venture when the Civil War broke out Enlisting with the 85th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1861, he was commissioned first lieutenant, December 14, 1862, and served until forced to resign because of numerous wounds in 1864.
After the war, he spent a year in a commercial college and then opened a general store at Harnedsville, Pennsylvania. At the end of one year he sold out his interest to his partner, and in 1866 went to Princeton, Illinois, where he conducted a general store until he suffered heavy loss from fire. Pushing on to Osceola, Iowa, he engaged in the business of buying and selling grain, livestock, and agricultural implements. Two years of short crops put him out of business and in 1871 he was in Chicago, heavily in debt.
He began buying and selling hogs in a small way in the Chicago Union Stock Yards, and finally was able to go into the livestock commission business. The business succeeded and in four years he had made enough money to pay off his debts and buy a membership on the Board of Trade. He was a successful speculator from the start.
He acted as broker for Philip Danforth Armour in the big pork deal of 1879, and this venture was the beginning of his fortune. He was successively a partner in several grain commission houses, and from 1883 to 1886, with John Cudahy, Charles Singer, and Nathaniel C. Jones, he was a power in the speculative markets for grain and provisions. He invested large amounts of money in Chicago real estate and enjoyed the confidence of the elder Marshall Field, who was pursuing a like policy. He acquired extensive holdings in ranch properties in several of the western states, in Kentucky, and in Illinois. By 1888 this first phase of his business career may be said to have been completed.
He retired from the Board of Trade, having discovered a new and more attractive field for his business genius. As early as 1883 he had reorganized the Western Fire Insurance Company. He now became interested in railroad organization and was a heavy investor in railroad stocks. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and in 1895 moved to New York City. Here he enjoyed the confidence of J. P. Morgan the elder and worked in close cooperation with him in organizing the railroad and steel industries. He served on the executive committee of several railroads and carried through a successful financial reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio.
In 1898 he organized the National Biscuit Company, of which he continued as a director, and the Federal Steel Company, one of the companies which later became a part of the United States Steel Corporation. With the Federal Company, Ream consolidated the Minnesota Iron Company, which included railroad and steamship lines and 150, 000 acres of mineral lands, the Illinois Steel Company, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Achievements
Personality
His courage and tenacity were invincible. He was genial and pleasant socially, always approachable. The key to his character and one of the chief causes of his success was his absolute confidence in the rightness of his judgments.
Quotes from others about the person
A financial editor writing of him at that time says, "He is probably the only greatly successful man in the United States who has no enemies".
Connections
He was married, Feburary 17, 1876, to Caroline Putnam, daughter of Dr. John Putnam of Madison, New York, who with three of their seven children survived him.