Oakes Ames – 1804–1873

At 16, Ames took over his family’s modest shovel-manufacturing business and transformed it into a multimillion-dollar business triumph, for which he became nationally known as the “Ace of Spades.” Anxious to complete the floundering transcontinental railroad, Abraham Lincoln asked Ames to oversee financing the massive project. The result was the founding of Crédit Mobilier, whose investors essentially paid themselves to build the railroad at inflated prices. The Union Pacific-Central Pacific got built, but the Crédit Mobilier scandal destroyed Ames’ reputation.