Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1907 — OUR GILDED WIDOWS. [ARTICLE]

OUR GILDED WIDOWS.

Six of Them Have Fortunes Aggre* anting; Quarter of a Billion. Six widows of the United States hars an aggregate wealth of more than a quarter of a billion dollars. William Henry Smith, who died the other day in Japan, left an estate estimated at $70,000,000 Hetty Green does not talk about her fortune, but it has been placed at from $00,000,000 to $80,000,000. Mrs. Russell Sage came into $85,000,000, but she has given away $15,000,000 in less than a year. There is Mrs. Anna WeighEtaan Walker, who is worth $60,000,005. Man Marshall Field is comfortable on $15,000,000, and Mrs. Marshall Field, Jr., has $5,000,000. Her wealth is not so great in itself, but her sons will come into, perhaps, $50,000,000 when they are of age. All this wealth has not accumulated by the husbands of the women; as a matter of fact, in but two instances were the husbands the money makers, and they were Russell Sage and Marshall Field. Hetty Green inherited about $12,000,000 from her father, and she has spent all her life trying to see how high she could pile up the pyramids of golden coins. When she is not engaged in fighting lawyers, Mrs. Green spends her time in buying substantial securities and clipping coupons. When she dies the fortune will go to her son, Edward Green, a railroad builder and politician in Texas, and her daughter, Sylvia, who is unmarried. Mrs. Russell Sage’s greatest gift was $10,000,000 for improving the condition of the poor. She has announced that in the distribution of the Sage millions there will be no indiscriminate giving. Mrs. Walker is primarily a business woman and spends most of her time keeping track of her investments. Her wealth came from her father, William Weight man of Philadelphia. Perhaps the greatest of all recent estates was that of Marshall Field, the Chicago merchant, who died worth more than $100,000,000. Provision for his grandchildren, who will, in time, inherit the bulk of the estate, and the important educational and charitable bequests left a comparatively small sum for the widow, Mrs. Marshall Field, Jr., is training her sons to care for the millions that will be theirs.