Business & Finance: Cracking Wealth

A daring financier was Jonathan Ogden Armour, heir to the meat-packing fortune of famed, hard-boiled old Merchant Philip Danforth ("P. D.") Armour (1832-1901). Sometimes J. Ogden would rush in and buy where more conservative tycoons feared to tread. Result: The great packing concern his father and he had built up found itself at the War's end overstocked with high-priced meat for the Allies. Armour's personal $150,000,000 fortune, involved in grain as well as meat, dwindled by $1,000.000 a day for some 130 days. He died in London in 1927 insolvent, owing much money....

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!