Famous Business Masons

Many men throughout history have been members of our fraternity.

In these pages we will present you with them and try to impress upon you the great men that have been Masons.

Famous Mason Categories
Articles of ConfederationAstronautsBusinessmenEntertainersExplorers and FrontiersmenGovernorsMilitary Leaders
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Members on this page are Businessmen

Leaders of Industry, Founders of Corporations and Inventors

During the Industrial Revolution, a captain of industry was a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way. This may have been through increased productivity, expansion of markets, providing more jobs, or acts of philanthropy.

Photo of Edmund Orson Wattis

Edmund Wattis

Builder of Hoover Dam
Birthday: March 6, 1855 Deceased: February 3, 1934

Biography

Oldest of the Wattis Brothers and founders of the Utah Construction Company. Wattis was born in Uintah, Utah Territory, the second of seven children born to Edmund Orson Wattis and Mary Jane Corey. Edmund was 21 when he left his home in Uinta to start a career in heavy construction, working on bed grading for the Canadian Pacific and Colorado Midlands. With his brother William, he formed a firm to lay track for the expanding railroads. The fledgling Wattis Brothers firm was wiped out in the Panic of 1893. While William continued to try to find construction projects, Edmund focused his energies on running a sheep ranch the brothers had established in the Weber Valley. This ranch would later provide the financial strength for the large construction projects to come.