William Scully (1821–1906) was an Irish-American landlord who inherited lands in Ireland then moved to the United States in 1850.
Scully started by buying unused land warrants given to veterans of the Mexican-American War.
Scully was attractive because he bought large quantities of land and promptly set up farms for tenants to rent.
In 1851 he added more than twenty-one thousand acres to his Illinois holdings, which became the basis for his tremendous wealth.
His field agents worked with 1,200 tenants who paid cash rent for one year at a time; most were saving up to buy land from someone who would sell it.