For many early emigrant Scots who had left home seeking a new and better life, their dreams were fulfilled in America. Compared with the old-established economies and often rigid societies of Britain and the European continent, the fast-developing markets and fluid structure of society in the New World presented tremendous opportunities to those of talent, resourcefulness and determination, and many prospered beyond their wildest dreams.

Many Scots arriving in America brought with them specific skills, experience, or business or professional acumen; others did not. Some were highly educated, others less so. But regardless of background, a significant number of Scots and Americans of Scottish ancestry with a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship were to rise to positions of great power. Some made remarkable achievements, accumulated astonishing wealth, and showed extraordinary philanthropic leanings. Some of these contributions have enriched the lives of people around the world.

So wrote Andrew Carnegie, the famous American industrialist, at one time the richest man in the world and perhaps the greatest philanthropist of all time. Carnegie espoused a philosophy that has left a vast legacy of trusts and endowments.

The young Andrew was born in a weaver's cottage in Dunfermline, Scotland. Initially his family were relatively well off but the advent of the steam-powered loom ruined the business. At thirteen, Andrew emigrated with his family to America where he spent the next two years working in a textile mill as a bobbin boy. He then became a telegraphic messenger, and joined the Pennsylvania railroad. There he made his first investment – soon celebrating his very first dividend. Over the next decade or so, he moved up the ranks, became a top executive, invested in sleeping cars, train- and bridge-building, and amassed a considerable amount of money.

Anticipating heavy demand for oil and steel, Carnegie left the railroad and concentrated on building up an iron and steel business in Pittsburgh. This made him a fortune and one of the richest men in the world. In 1901 Carnegie's companies were incorporated into the United States Steel Corporation and he retired, setting about distributing ninety-five per cent of his wealth.

Carnegie set up foundations and endowments for education and research and sponsored over 2,800 libraries in the USA, UK and Canada. Among a wide range of initiatives in the USA and abroad, he established the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh – today the Carnegie-Mellon University – founded Carnegie Hall in New York, the Carnegie Corporation for the Furtherance of Civilization, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and much more besides. Truly a "Star Spangled Scotchman",* Andrew Carnegie never forgot his Scots heritage. He purchased an estate at Skibo in the Highlands and, through the Carnegie-Dunfermline Trust, he "bestowed a series of princely gifts on his beloved Dunfermline which he once described as 'the most sacred spot to me on earth'."**

There were, of course, many other Scots Americans who showed extraordinary talent and vision. Duncan A. Bruce, author of The Mark of the Scots and The Scottish 100, mentions numerous of these, including Robert Dollar, a Falkirk-born American of little education who went on to found The Dollar Line in San Francisco. His fleet of ships eventually numbered sixty and pioneered trade with the Orient. Dollar, too, reportedly gave away millions of dollars.

Then there was John Davison Rockefeller. He inherited Scottish blood from his mother and, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, became one of the earliest and greatest of US oilmen. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil company with just $900, starting with a single refinery in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

John D. Rockefeller was the first to make a fortune out of oil in the USA, and his company became the largest industrial company in the world. Like Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller devoted the latter years of his life to establishing charitable corporations. Estimates of disbursements vary from $530 million to £750 million. The University of Chicago, the first major recipient of his largesse, received a total of $35 million. His son John Davison Rockefeller, Jr, who worked closely with him, continued the tradition of philanthropy, contributing a further $400 million to charitable causes.

More recent millionaire and billionaire philanthropists have included the legendary oil magnate and founder of Getty Oil, J. Paul Getty, at one time the richest man in the USA and probably the world. His roots too were modest. Author Duncan A. Bruce relates that, on his mother's side, Getty's ancestors came to America having fled Scotland after the Battle of Culloden. On his father's side his ancestors were Ulster Scots Presbyterians who founded Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Getty set up charitable foundations worth hundreds of millions and his son, John Paul Getty II, who now lives in England, has continued the tradition.

Another significant modern-day philanthropist is the billionaire founder of Microsoft, William (Bill) H. Gates III, who is also of Scottish descent through his mother.

Philanthropy is widespread in America – but perhaps notably so among people with Scottish roots. In his book The Mark of the Scots, Duncan Bruce points out that, as of 1993, of the twenty-one largest charitable foundations in the USA – boasting assets of over $25 billion – thirteen were started by Scottish Americans.

Perhaps one of the keys to the extraordinary achievements and successes of so many of these and other Scots-Americans is that, while never forgetting their Scottish roots, they wholeheartedly and determinedly embraced the opportunities of the New World.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone and early "rescuer" of the National Geographic Society, was another young man with initially limited means. He commenced his career in Edinburgh as an elocution teacher. At twenty-three he accompanied his father to Canada and then to Boston where he set up a school to train teachers for deaf and dumb pupils. While still in Scotland, Bell's interest in speech had led him to explore methods of its transmission. Continuing his work on this in the USA, in 1876 he introduced the first successful telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell continued to teach and to work on sound transmission, in 1877 founding the National Bell Telephone Company (which later became AT&T).  This brought him great wealth. He had many other interests and in 1903, with a friend, launched one of the world's earliest flying machines. But to the end of his life he retained a primary interest in communication with the handicapped, and he founded the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. The decibel was named after him.

Countless other people of Scottish descent have contributed to the development and wealth of their adopted country through their talents and hard work. Today those of Scottish descent reportedly have a higher average per capita income than any other group in the USA. How appropriate then that, as Duncan A. Bruce has recorded, it was two Scots-born Americans, Archibald Binney and James Ronaldson who, in 1797, cast the first ever dollar sign. Half a century later another Scottish immigrant, James Wilson Marshall, was to find gold at Sutter's Mill, and this launched the California gold rush...