Template:Did you know nominations/William W. Cargill


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by   HalfGig   talk  03:33, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

William W. Cargill

 * ... that William W. Cargill founded Cargill, the largest privately-held company in the US?
 * Reviewed: The Partisans (sculpture)

Created by Edwardx (talk), Nsteffel (talk), Zigzig20s (talk). Nominated by Edwardx (talk) at 00:41, 23 November 2014 (UTC).


 * This article meets WP criteria for a new creation. It is long enough, neutral and has sources cited with in-line citations. The hook is interesting, but currently does not have an in-line citation. The nominee has done a QPQ.

Although the hook is accurate, I am concerned that the article does not have enough discussion to show how the company founded by Cargill became the largest private company in the world. It was a relatively small company when the founder died in the early 20th Century. I think it should discuss the early expansions begun by William and his brothers and how the Cargills and their in-laws (the MacMillans) maintained ownership through the years. Further work on this is likely to yield a better quality hook. Bruin2 (talk) 00:28, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Reply to Comment: I think this should be about William w. Cargill, not other people or the company (which would be off topic). However, some expansion about what specific role he played in building the company would be good. The truth is it is hard to find much about him, because they are such a private family (and company). I wonder if he has ever written anything about agriculture or business?Zigzig20s (talk) 00:39, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg This article is new enough and long enough. The hook facts are now cited because I added an inline citation. The article meets the DYK criteria, it is neutral and I detected no close paraphrasing. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 14:30, 19 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Symbol confirmed.svg The Cargill Timeline, already cited in the article mentions some of the founder's early transactions. In my opinion, these show that the founder believed in growing his company through investment in or outright purchase of other companies, setting a philosophical example for his successors. These transactions could be described in the article to establish a more direct link between W. W. Cargill and today's status of the company he founded. In fact, it seems to me that Cargill may have established an early form of the business conglomerate, as described in the Wikipedia article Conglomerate (company), though this term did not come into common use in the U.S. business world until about 1960. Bruin2 (talk) 16:47, 19 December 2014 (UTC)