The records for 1917 included 432 women, or 6.5 percent of the total 6664 millionaires in the United States.
Mary S. Holladay, president of the Williamsville, Greenville & St Louis Railroad, who “sold her stock for a cold million in cash” in 1910.
In 1927, the reported 153 women millionaires in Chicago owned average wealth of $3 million.
The richest woman in Chicago, Edith Rockefeller McCormick, was a daughter of John D. Rockefeller, and ex-wife of the wealthy Harold F. McCormick ( chairman of the board of International Harvester Company and grandson of the inventor of Old Faithful McCormick harvesting reaper), who had increased her holdings with shrewd real estate investments.
She was the only woman listed among the 40 richest Gilded Age millionaires.
Hetty was one of the twelve entries in the 1941 book, “Men of Wealth,” and her husband was known primarily as the “husband of the world’s richest woman.”
Both her mother and father came from old, established Colonial families. Hetty’s great-grandfather went to sea at an early age, got in at the start of the American whaling industry, and eventually owned the country’s greatest whaling fleet.
Mrs. Henrietta King in 1890 was the richest woman in Texas. A cattle baroness, her estate was valued at over $5 million. The King ranch extended over 1.5 million acres south of Corpus Christi, Texas, an area as large as the state of Delaware. The King ranch was stocked with 100,000 head of cattle, over 1000 horses, and with over 1000 cowboys and employees, including her son-in-law. (King Ranch Ford trucks connection https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/03/they-had-some-extremely-odd-ideas-of.html )
Yone Suzuki, the Kobe multi-millionaire, was deemed one of the most successful business women in the world, dominating both finance and industry. The Wall Street Journal reported in 1923 that Suzuki and Co. had incorporated two establishments in San Francisco, with $40 million in capital, each headed by Yone Suzuki. The global Suzuki business empire spanned many continents and included ownership of 115 ocean liners, along with vast holdings of cotton mills, silk firms, canneries, breweries, sugar refineries, and coal manufacturing enterprises.
She had started out with an inheritance of around $12 million, but through her brilliant business initiative her estate was ultimately valued at $95 million when she died.
Both her mother and father came from old, established Colonial families. Hetty’s great-grandfather went to sea at an early age, got in at the start of the American whaling industry, and eventually owned the country’s greatest whaling fleet.
Her father, Edward Robinson, who joined the family whaling-ship business, increased the family inheritance 20 times over.
Her husband was 14 years her senior, an affable businessman from Bellows Falls, Vermont, who’d made his money in the Philippine silk trade.
Wall Street watched in astonished amazement as she took large positions in the highly unregulated stock market, particularly in certain railroads (the hot stocks of the era), and made money almost every time. No woman had ever done this.
By 1881, Mr. Green, who was a speculator in the stock markets, had lost most of his $2 million fortune, 14 years after they'd married.
She kept $20 million to $40 million (think a half billion in today’s terms) in cash at all times for quick loans. More than once the City of New York called on her to keep the city solvent. Hetty Green was one of the lenders in J.P. Morgan’s emergency operation to save the banks during the Panic of 1907.
Her son lavished millions on racing cars, yachts, planes, and had a fleet of 25 cars
One was built by General Electric, Stearns Knight, and Rauch & Lang
He only drove one, a small electric car with no clutch, no gear shift, merely a brake and accelerator - which he uses to go sight-seeing on his estate, because one of his legs had been amputated. He ordered a similar brougham and a touring car with a raised driver's seat in the rear.
He ran the Midland Railroad which his mother bought.
His amazing passenger cars were instruments of new technology. He created the first café lounge cars, the first observation sleepers in the Southwest, the first electric locomotive headlights, the first steel boxcars, and after the introduction of automobiles the first high speed gas-electric railcar. By 1923 Texas Midland stock included 16 locomotives, 16 passenger cars and 183 freight cars.
He bought a magnificent Pullman palace car to aggravate local, state, and Federal tax collectors, and made the Pullman car his legal residence, frequently moving it to another state or town when he suspected the tax collector was looking for him. He had homes in Florida, New Jersey, Pasadena, and Texas
Of his many interests were a radio station at his estate in South Dartmouth, Mass in cooperation with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Goodyear Rubber Co. in aircraft.
Her son's powerful radio transmitters, built by Dartmouth College and financed by him, were used in the late 1920s to keep in touch with explorer Richard E. Byrd’s Antarctic expedition.
Her daughter married a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor I.
Dedication,Jesse! Thank you for presenting such informative and insightful articles. Respect coming your way! Cheers,Rob.
ReplyDeletethank you!
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