This book traces the business career of Jacob Bunn. A New Jersey-born farmer who ventured west to Illinois in the mid 19th century and had his hand in a wide variety of business enterprises, ranging from a grocery business, coal, iron, sugar beets, railroads, banks, newspapers, and timepieces, he helped make Illinois a center of innovative industry. Bunn was involved in the making of Lincoln as President, in the success of the Illinois Watch Company, and set the stage for Illinois-based companies like the Sangamo Electric Co., well-known into recent times around the world. His real legacy, according to this young scholar, is his legacy of integrity and his honorable behavior when faced with bank failure in the Panic of 1873. Read of a time when industrial pioneers were settling a frontier. Jacob Bunn's life has had a global impact. He left companies and a legacy, and should serve as a model for the contemporary business world.