While he is remembered as a tycoon in the age of laissez-faire, cut-throat capitalism, he nevertheless helped the economic development of his native state and the South in general.

The business grew rapidly, and in a few years he amassed a fortune of several million dollars in the cotton trade, that came to be centered in New York City largely through his activity.

In association with other businesspeople who relied on his judgment, he invested over $5 million in the enterprises of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, including the bituminous coal mines at Birmingham, Alabama, the blast furnaces in that city, and Bessemer Steel Works at Ensley City, near there.

Inman said, in declining, that he would rather part with all railroad interests than to sever connection with the Board of Directors of the Fourth National Bank.

He was one of a few owners of the South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad, running from Bristol, Tennessee to Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

The other members of the committee were J. Pierpont Morgan, August Belmont, Samuel Babcock, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.