Talk:John Warne Gates

A few touch-ups

I moved information about Gates' wife and son to the lead paragraph and added the facts that Gates Memorial Library started out as Port Arthur's public library and is now the campus library for Lamar State College-Port Arthur. Applejuicefool (talk) 19:54, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Cause of death?

The cause of death reported in the article does not correlate with the source. The New York Times reported it as kidney disease and pneumonia like symptoms. Where is a source stating throat cancer?Hoops gza (talk) 21:07, 6 February 2002 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:John Warne Gates/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Jaguar (talk · contribs) 17:00, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Looks very comprehensive and well written. I should have this to you by tomorrow at the latest JAGUAR  17:00, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Cheers Jaguar, yes, so comprehensive in fact I think there's a future FA possibility, but first thing's first ;-)♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:08, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Initial comments

• "including the sale of firewood to homes and to the local railroad" - is this meant to mean homes along the railroad or a station? I don't know how he could sell firewood to a railroad

In the very old days, the steam locomotives were fired with wood. Later on they were coal fired and some were oil fired. William Crooks (locomotive) These fellows were keeping this train going by grabbing the wooden fences for fuel. :) We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

• "When he was assigned to the Texas territory" - how is it a territory? I'm sure it was a state that was part of the US back then This means the Washburn-Moen company's sales territory--have added that to the article. We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "demonstration of the wire in San Antonio's Military Plaza" - I would link San Antonio, just for the sake of having more blue links in the lead!  Done We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "Because he had been involved in some harmless childhood mischief in both grammar and Sunday School, when the Sunday School collection was stolen," - could be re-worded to Because he had been involved in some harmless childhood mischief in both grammar and Sunday School, he was accused of stealing a collection at the Sunday School or something like that? changed. We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "Gates was serious about Dellora from the time they met; he proposed to her at one of the house parties" - the first half sounds a bit informal, I would cut the 'serious' part of the sentence and keep the proposal part changed We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "With this, Mary Gates went into action. She told her husband he needed to help his son financially" - sounds out of place, the sentence might be better as With this knowledge, Mary Gates told her husband he needed to help his son financially changed We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "Gates quickly learned that while he found friends and ready poker playing companions" - ready? gone :) We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "Rumor had it that Gates was short 60,000 shares" - it was rumored? changed We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
• "Osgood announced he was willing to meet Gates halfway, but Gates would have none of it" - a bit informal, what about but Gates declined the offer? Changed wording We hope (talk) 22:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

References

• No dead links

On hold

That's all the prose issues I could find. I really enjoyed reading his biography! I liked how he stood up to JP Morgan (one of the biggest fools in history) and how he bet a lot! This article is generally comprehensive and well researched, which I can see becoming a FA in the future if the work was put into it. JAGUAR  21:35, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for addressing them so quickly, We hope! The article now meets the GA criteria. I was impressed by how comprehensive it was. JAGUAR  10:53, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Thankyou Jaguar and We hope!♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:05, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Steel industry and dashed hopes

The description of the two Southern integrated steel operations describes them as being able to make high quality steel at low cost. In fact while their cost was low their production was steel which had sufficient quality for some uses but not others. The main product of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company was railroad track. United States Steel had Mills which could make higher value products. I have read about the company because my great grandfather was Chief Operating Officer from 1888 to 1891.RichardBond (talk) 14:01, 31 March 2016 (UTC) RichardBond (talk) 14:01, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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Minor But Necessary Edit

John W. gates did not found Texaco. Joseph S. Cullinan and a group of investors founded The Texas Fuel Company which would become Texaco. Prior to this event, The Texas Fuel Company needed investment and John W. Gates provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for stock ownership. The circumstances of the company restructuring to become Texaco are not well established but major confusion exists as to who founded Texaco because the story of John W. Gates and Joseph S. Cullinan has a missing link so that some list Cullinan as the company founder and some list Gates.

It is far more true to say that Cullinan founded the company because Gates only became involved after the founding of The Texas Fuel Company with an affiliate company called Producers Oil Company. Through investment, Gates eventually becomes possibly the biggest stockholder in the company prior to restructuring and becoming Texaco, but the direct line of the companys founding begins with The Texas Fuel Company which was not founded by Gates as he was only an investor subsequent to the companys founding.

If anyone would like to challenge my findings, please do. But you will need to better answer the discrepency about who founded Texaco be it Cullinan or Gates. If not for Cullinan, the direct course of events may have found Gates investing in another company but the likelihood it would have become known as Texaco doesn't exist without The Texas Fuel Company. Armorbeast (talk) 10:47, 4 September 2018 (UTC)