| Show I I OUR RICHEST WOMEN A LOOK AT THE MONEY QUEENS OF AMERICA Gossip About the Millionairesses of llio United States Rich Widows and Wealthy Maidens How Some Women Manage Their Fortunes Special Correspondence WASHINGTON April 20 Tho death of the rich Catherine Wolfe calls nttoiition to tho rich women of the United states This is an age not only of millionaires million-aires but of millionairesses as well The wealthy women of the United States are now numbered by hundreds and every city has its girls who aro worth their weight in gold The richest woman of them all is perhaps Mrs Hetty Green of Now York who is worth 30000000 and has been estimated as high as 40000000 She is a sharp businesswoman business-woman and has made the 813000000 which slip received from her father breed rapidly Sho added 1000000 to her fortune by marriage mar-riage and she cuts her expenses more closely than many a woman who worth a thousand tunes less Mrs Mark Hopkins who is building build-ing a 2000000 palace at Great Barrington Mass is however nearly as rich She is worth somewhere between 20000000 and 40000000 but her money comes from her husband Mark Hopkins who made a fortune for-tune out of the Central Pacific railroad rail-road Hopkins estate when ho died was inventoried at 21700000 and it was worth fully onethird more Nearly tho whole of this was left to Mrs Hopkins and she spends her large income generously Mrs Terry got onethird of her husbands fortune of about 80000000 and in case her baby ds sho will get the rest This baby is a girl ii t > yet 2 years old She is worth at least vVi000000 and is said to be the wealthiest > lialiy in the world Mrs John Jacob Astor of New York is snid to be worth 8000000 and all her ivlatives have gold galore Mrs Thomas A scott the widow of the railroad president is worth 5000000 and Mrs Joseph Harrison Harri-son the widow of the man who built the first I railroad in Russia 4000000 Mrs Jayno the widow of the patent medicine man is worth 3000000 Mrs Josephine M Ayer I who gets her money also from patent medicine medi-cine is estimated to be worth from 4000000 to 5000000 and Mrs Edwin Stevens of New York has 15000000 Now York has a number of other rich I widows Mrs Martin Bates was left 1500 000 which her husband made in dry goods mid Mrs Jane Brown received from her husbands estate about 4000000 which was accumulated in banking Mrs W E Dodge estimated at 4000000 sends much of her income to the heathen and Mrs Robert Goclet worth 3000000 owes her fortune to hardware Mrs John C Green is said to be worth 10000000 and Mrs Commodore Com-modore Vanderbilt has increased the 1000 000 which she received from her husbands estate until it is near 2000000 Clarkson Potters widow has an immense income Mrs John Minturn is worth 2000000 Mrs Marshall O Roberts the eight millionaire widow of a mining king is said to have cried when it was charged that she was about to marry President Arthur Philadelphia widows are numerous and there are rich women of all kinds in the City of Brotherly Love I have spoken of Mrs Tom Scotts wealth Mrs Disston the widow of tho saw manufacturer who died not long ngo is worth 1000000 and she lives l in a marble palace Mrs John Ray Barton is worth 7000000 Mrs M AV Baldwin the widow of the locomotive builder is estimated es-timated as worth 2000000 and Mrs Charles j Bromley tho widow of a carpet manufacturer manu-facturer is worth about 1000000 There is a widow in Chicago Mrs Cyrus II McCormick who is said to bo worth 10 000000 and as to Washingtons wealthy widows wid-ows they are many Mrs Admiral Dahlgrcn has several fine houses in thc fashionable part of Washington und Mrs John O Evans the widow of the lato president of the Mutual Union Telegraph company owns much Washington Wash-ington real estate Mrs Craig Wadsworth of New York has a fine residenco on Massachusetts Massa-chusetts avenue and is said to be worth 1000000 Mrs Patten tho motherinlaw of Congressman Glover lives in a house worth 75003 and kcq l it is said 1000000 in government bonds in the Washington banks 1 As to rich young women there are numerous numer-ous good catches in the United States Miss Elizabeth Garrett the sister of the president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is said to bo worth between 15000000 and 20000010 and she is both bright and business like The three daughters of Francis A Drexel of Philadelphia are worth 4000000 and there is a millionaire girl in Tennessee named Maud St Pierre who lately bought 34000 I acres of coal lands and who has enough business ability to manage her own fortune and a husband as well One of the richest young ladies in Washington is Miss Jennie lliggs whose father George W Riggs was a partner of W W Corcoran and there is aMiss a-Miss Bernice Morrison in St Louis who several sev-eral years ago was down on the tax lists as being worth 964990 Miss Clothilde Palms ho 1 Detroit beauty whom Senator Jones in vain tried to woo is said to be worth 2500 000 and she is as beautiful as she is rich and there is now hardly a city in tho United States which has not an heiress or two whose fortune runs high into the hundreds of thousands thou-sands Miss Benson of Philadelphia inherited in-herited 1500000 from her father who was and Miss a well known Philadelphia banker r Helen Erben another Philadelphia girl the daughter of a wealthy wool factor is also worth a million 1 Miss Erben is a fino horsewoman She drives a spanking pair of bay horses and often n tandem The Drexel girls are also fond of horses and this is in fact their only dissipation Each of these three four million airesses has n splendid Arabian steed which 7 goes like the wind They ride out from their country seat near Philadelphia as early as t < C j oclock in the morning and they go galloping about the country until their cheeks are like roses They are said to be as well posted on horses as veterinary surgeons and they sometimes some-times it is said rub down their horses themselves them-selves after they come in from a hard drive I Mrs Mark Hopkins is another groat horsewoman horse-woman She is as fond of horses as was her husband and her stables at Great Barrington are among tho completest and most comfort well bred able in the country Sho keeps horses and every fair day you may see her y about Great Barrington driving behind a pair t of fino trotters and herself holding the reins excursions around the surrounding Sho makes long of and inhabitant rounding country every the colony knows her c Mrs Hopkins is noted for her charity There is a church at Great Barrington which and the about 150000 cost her all told largest part of tho preacher salary I imagine J comes from her Sho is not alone among her sisters in almsgiving Mrs N K Fairbanks i ono of tho rich women of Chicago gives Mrs and in charity S I away 10000 a year Marshall Field the wife of the rich dry goods man is said to keep an almoner whoso busIness I busi-ness it is to make the rounds of the city searching for the worthy poor Sho is fond educating poor children and pays 5000 a year out of her individual allowance for this alone The three Drexel sisters of whom I have spoken are also systematic in their charity They keep J a female executive to preside over the benefactions and have it is said two men constantly employed in looking up the needy and in caring for their wants They are perhaps tho most charitable young women in the United States and it is said their list of pensioners contains no less than 350 names and that their gifts amount to around a-round 100000 yearly They inherit their I b 1 charitable tastes Their father was noted lor his almsgiving and their mother paid the rent for 100 families for several years before she died and gave away it is said 40000 a year to the poor Mrs Philip Armour is very charitable Mrs Leland Standford docs much unostentatious giving and I am told that Hetty Green gives away considerable though she is very careful that it goes to the right persons Mrs Greens chief ambition seems to be to make money and I might add also to save it She is not at all extravagant and there was a paragraph published not long ago which described her as carrying a sum of money to Philadelphia herself in order to save the heavy charges which would have been en tailed had it been sent in some other way She sometimes carries fortunes in securities about New York in a hand sachel and uses the street cars as often as she does her carriage car-riage Mrs Hopkins thoroughly acquainted with all the ways of business She has a broad grasp of financial questions looks after her vast interests closely and drives a bargain bar-gain with both tact and economy Miss Elizabeth Eliz-abeth Garrett was the confidential secretary of her father for some years before he died and she understands the value of Baltimore and Ohio railroad stock as well as any man in the country The richest widow in Colorado was the wife of the late John W Iliff who was known some years ago as the cattle king of Colorado Iliff left about 100000 head of cattle and it is said that his widow manages his estate as well as any business busi-ness man could She went to Colorado as a sewing machine agent though she came of a wealthy family and could have remained at home doing nothing She there met Iliff and married him and I doubt not the experience she obtained in connection with the sewing machine aids her in the management of her fortuna Speaking of cattle there is a cattle queen in Texas near Corpus Christi Mrs Rogers who is said to be worth 1000000 and who has many times as much stock as Job did in his most prosperous days Her husband is a preacher but Mrs Rogers manages man-ages the business She sells the stock herself buys all the supplies and can ride a horse as well as any of the many cowboys whom she has in her employ Another cattle queen is the widow of Gen Meredith of Illinois and she breeds a different kind of cattle from Mrs Rogers Her stock is of a better grade Meredith was worth about 500000 along in the seventies but he failed His wife took what was left of the herd managed it and mude money She was content with a good round price for her stock and she did not believe be-lieve in owning 10000 bulls and 5000 calves One of the wealthiest women of Ohio is Mrs George Ward Nichols who is said to have an income of 200000 She is the daughter of Joseph Longwortb and she is the founder and proprietor of the Rockwood pottery which is now noted for its exquisite workmanship work-manship both in Europe and America Mrs Nichols took up the pottery craze when it came over the country a few years ago She developed the art tastes of Cincinnati and established this factory She works in it about five hours daily and is constantly at work imnroving her ware Her works sell well in New York and they have an international inter-national reputation Mrs Frank Leslie has made 1000000 in four years and there is no brighter business woman in the world than shoTho The richest woman in South America is a good business woman She is Dona Isadora Cousino of Santiago Chili She got a big fortune from her father and married another Her husband died and she has now millions mil-lions of acres of land millions of money hundreds of thousands of cattle coal copper and silver mines a railroad rail-road and a fleet of iron steamships She has an income of several millions a year and her coal mines bring her in 80000 a month She owns a town of 7000 people and pays out 100000 a month in wages She has superintendents superin-tendents for all her establishments and sIlO receives weekly reports from them She is sharp at driving a bargain and while sho is very generous she requires a strict account of every dollar made and spent upon her estates She is still under 50 and declares she will never marry again She understands fortune hunters and fortune hunting and is satisfied to remain as she is 1 I have said nothing about the rich married women of the countrywomen who have property in their own rightand I forgot to mention among the rich unmarried girls that Amanda Eubanks who lives near Sparta Ga is the richest negress in the world It is said that Miss Eubanks received 400000 from the estate of a wealthy Georgia planter who died in 1SS5 leaving an estate of about 500000 He had no children but a large number of relatives He cut off his kindred with small sums and bequeathed the remainder remain-der as above stated Speaking of rich married mar-ried women many of our prominent public men have added to their fortunes by good marriages Whitelaw Reids wife the daughter of D O Mills is worth a fortune Mayor Hewitt of New York dates his prosperity pros-perity from the time he was made tutor to Peter Coopers daughter whom he afterward married Senator Paynes wife brought considerable con-siderable real estate into the family and the old Perry farm upon a part of which the Payne homestead stands is now in the most fashionable part of Euclid avenue Secretary Secre-tary Whitney married a prospective fortune in Henry B Paynes daughter and Mrs Whitney or her children will probably fall heir to the dozqn and more millions which her bachelor brother Oliver owns Congressman Congress-man Hitt of Illinois got a nice lot with his wife and John Hay was made a millionaire by his marriage with the daughter of Amasa Stone Congressman Tom Bayne of Pitts burg has made a good deal of money himself but his wife who is the daughter of Smith the partner of Hostetter who made the stomach bitters has a fortune which runs high into the hundreds of thousands and Senator Hales wife inherited a fortune from her fatherZach Chandler FRANK G CARPENTER |
