William Bateman Leeds (September 19, 1861 – June 23, 1908) was an American businessman. He dominated the tin plate industry,[1] becoming known as the "Tin Plate King". Together with William Henry Moore, Daniel G. Reid and James Hobart Moore, he became known as one of the 'big four' or 'tin plate crowd' in American industry.
Leeds was born in 1861, to parents Noah Smith Leeds and Hannah Star Leeds in Richmond, Indiana. After receiving an education at public schools, Leeds worked as a florist.
In 1883, he married Jeannette Gaar,[2] a relative of Harry Miller, general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
In 1883, Leeds joined an engineering corps. Three years later, Leeds was employed by the Cincinnati and Richmond Railroad, where he became division superintendent in 1890.
Leeds first went into the tin-plate industry with partners who invested about $250,000, and the company failed.[3] Later, Leeds founded the American Tin Plate Co. in 1898, with his partners Daniel G. Reid, William H. Moore and James H. Moore. The company grew to consist of over 200 companies,[4] and gained control of as much as 90% of the tinplate industry.[5] The company expanded to comprise over 28 mills in Elwood.William McKinley passed a tin tariff, in part to protect their business.[6] They organized the National Steel Corporation in 1899 to provide steel to the tin company, with about $50 million in stock.[3] The company sold for as much as $40 million to U.S. Steel.
Leeds purchased a pearl necklace for his wife.[when?] The necklace cost $360,000 when he bought it, but he only paid the ten percent tariff on pearls, rather than the sixty percent tariff on a pearl necklace. The United States filed suit, and for several years, as the case was litigated, the "Leeds pearls were the most famous jewels in America."[17]
On August 16, 1883, Leeds married his first wife, Jeanette Irene Gaar, in Wayne, Indiana.[18] She was a relative of Harry Miller, superintendent of Pennsylvania Railroad. On March 15, 1886, their only child, Rudolph Gaar Leeds (d. November 21, 1964), was born in Indiana.[18] He was the publisher of The Richmond Palladium and The Indianapolis Sun, two major newspapers in Indiana.[19][20]
On August 2, 1900, Leeds married his second wife, Nonie May Stewart-Worthington, whose first husband was George Ely Worthington (1872–1950),[21] grandson of industrialist George Worthington.
On September 19, 1902, their only child, William Bateman Leeds Jr., was born in New York City.[1] Bates Jr. was the original "poor little rich boy", a name the press coined for him before it was applied to William Randolph Hearst.[15]
On June 23, 1908, Leeds died in Paris, France.[1][22] Leeds was 46. Leeds is buried in Richmond, Indiana.[21]
Nonie and Leeds's son, William Jr., later married one of Prince Christopher's nieces, Princess Xenia Georgievna of Russia.[23] The couple were married in Paris, and lived in Long Island. They had one daughter before divorcing in March 1930.
^ abWeirather, Larry (2016). Fred Barton and the Warlords' Horses of China: How an American Cowboy Brought the Old West to the Far East. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 145. ISBN978-0-7864-9913-7.
^Langguth, A. J. (2018). Hidden Terrors: The Truth About U.S. Police Operations in Latin America. Open Road Media. ISBN978-1-5040-5004-3.
^Williams, Greg H. (2014). The Liberty Ships of World War II: A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 203. ISBN978-0-7864-7945-0.
^Ham, Eldon L. (2011). Broadcasting Baseball: A History of the National Pastime on Radio and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 69. ISBN978-0-7864-4644-5.
