Editing PAB Widener (section)

== From Butcher to Baron ==

Peter Arrell Brown Widener was born on November 13, 1834, in Philadelphia, his career beginning in the butcher trade where he supplied meat to Union troops during the Civil War—a contract that provided the initial capital for his subsequent ventures. His transition from butchering to transit, and his cultivation of political connections that transit franchises required, demonstrated abilities that extended beyond mere business acumen. His partnerships with William Elkins and Thomas Dolan created the syndicate that would dominate Philadelphia's streetcar lines.<ref name="baltzell">{{cite book |last=Baltzell |first=E. Digby |title=Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class |year=1958 |publisher=Free Press |location=Glencoe, IL}}</ref>

His acquisition of streetcar franchises, which required city council approval that his political connections facilitated, created the monopoly whose profits funded his subsequent activities. The relationship between his business interests and the political machine, particularly his alliance with Republican boss Matthew Quay, illustrated the corruption that Progressive Era reformers would later attack. His financial participation in the machine's operations, and the favoritism his businesses received, demonstrated practices that his era accepted though subsequent generations would condemn.<ref name="strouse"/>

His expansion beyond Philadelphia transit to include investments in tobacco, steel, and other industries diversified the fortune that his streetcar monopoly had initiated. His participation in the syndicate that created American Tobacco Company demonstrated the national scale that his ambitions reached. The wealth these ventures generated, estimated at over $100 million at his death, placed him among the richest Americans of his era while funding the art collection that his son would eventually donate to the nation.<ref name="baltzell"/>