WEBVTT - Lucky 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.760 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:25.119 Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Marie and 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.639 Charles welcomed their son Aunton Joseph in eighteen fourteen, but 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.720 they called him Adolph. Marie cared for the home and 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.280 the children, while Charles worked as a carpenter. His gift 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.080 for woodworking made him highly sought after among wealthy Belgian clients. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.160 Oh William the First, the reigning monarch of the Netherlands, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.240 commissioned to Charles to make musical instruments for the military. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.000 His father's work that Adolph spent plenty of time around music. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.160 He watched his father carefully shaped the wood into fine instruments. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.560 Adolph's love of this art and craft led him to 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.600 learn to play the clarinet and the flute. As a teen, 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.480 Adolph helped his father make improvements to wind instruments. When 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.680 he wasn't studying music or watching his father, Adolf spent 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.840 his youth doing one more thing, keeping himself alive. The 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.319 only thing that overshadowed young Adolph's musical talent was his 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:19.120 ability to skirt death. In his mother's words, her son 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.160 was condemned to misfortune. When Adolf was just three, he 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.400 tumbled down three flights of stairs before his head smartly 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.880 met the stone floor. Reports of his recovery vary from 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.080 a week's bed rest to a temporary coma. As many 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.000 a parent might commisserate. Toddlers and young children sometimes eat 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.600 things that they shouldn't, and Adolf was no exception, and 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.760 not long after his fall, he swallowed a large needle. 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:49.240 Fortunately it passed without incident. Miraculously, he also survived after 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:53.200 drinking a combination of arsenic white, lead, and copper oxide. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.760 All of this would be enough to age any parent, 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.440 but Adolph was just getting started. He suffered from severe 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.960 burns after falling onto a hot stove. Although the incident 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.800 left him with scars on his side, he avoided infection. 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.440 At ten, he fell into a nearby river. A stranger 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.040 passing the mill saw him floating face down and rescued him. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.440 On another occasion, he was enjoying a walk down the 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.000 street when a chunk of slate broke loose from a 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.480 rooftop and struck him in the head. He made a 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.080 full recovery. Adolf had one more brush with debt. He 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.720 happened to be in his father's workshop when a container 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.320 of gunpowder ignited from a nearby flame. Though the blast 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.880 threw him across the workshop, Adolf survived. The fact that 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.240 he lived to see adulthood surprised everyone. He followed in 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.040 his father's footsteps in making musical instruments, and Adolf presented 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.200 nine musical inventions for the eighteen forty Belgian Exhibition. Due 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.680 to his age, the judges snubbed his submissions. He moved 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.960 to Paris and entered another competition. He might have won, 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.680 but someone destroyed his new invention, the saxophone. Undaunted, he 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.280 made another. In fact, he made six other variations by 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.760 eighteen forty six, including the sex Traumba and in eighteen 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.920 forty nine the sax tuba. If you've never heard of them, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.480 it's because only the saxophone ever made him any money. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.200 People either liked the saxophone or hated it, and mostly 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.440 the saxophone found a following with the military, but it 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.079 wouldn't be until World War One, when U S soldiers 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.480 and the era of jazz and blues made the saxophone famous. Sadly, 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.680 Adolph Sax's luck ran out. He died in eighteen seventy 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.200 decades before his invention became popular. If history has taught 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.360 us anything about luck, it would be that sometimes it's 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.280 fickle other times, though it has a strange sense of humor. 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:53.320 I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows. Nothing sums up 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.640 Timothy Dexter's life more than the phrase it's smarter to 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.880 be lucky than it's lucky to be smart, a light 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.120 many others living in Ireland during the seventeen hundreds. His 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.280 parents immigrated to the Americas in the hopes of escaping 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.400 British tyranny. England had stripped them of their land, religion, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:15.680 and culture, among other atrocities. The Dexters settled in Malden, Massachusetts, 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.640 where Timothy was born in seventeen forty seven. While the 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.599 Irish were still not wholly welcome in the colonies. The 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.960 family squeezed out of life as farmers, and they considered 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:30.120 themselves lucky. Other Irish immigrants were forced into indentured servitude 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.159 with little hope of escaping, a system that kept them subservient, 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.480 and Dexter and his siblings attended school and helped around 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.880 the farm with the daily chores in the house, field 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:43.200 and barn. During certain growing seasons, crops became more important 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.840 than schooling. The family was poor, and to help keep 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.040 them fed and clothed, Dexter left school at eight years 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.480 old to find outside employment. He worked as a laborer 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:59.359 for larger, more profitable farms before eventually finding an apprenticeship. Essentially, 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.880 family would send their sons to live with a tradesmen 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.600 who agreed to house, feed, and teach his young apprentice 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:08.800 say valuable trade in exchange for free labor. Other times 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.520 the parents paid a small fee. Poor farming children didn't 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.400 have much schooling. They were offered only the most basic 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.640 education in reading, writing, and some math. By age nine, 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.800 their schooling was considered complete. College for boys like Dexter 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.560 was mostly limited to Latin colleges, requiring them to train 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.640 as ministers of the Christian faith. Alternatively, parents could opt 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.000 to keep their sons at home to learn their father's 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.800 trade or find them an apprenticeship. The colonies were new 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.599 and tradesmen and workers were in short supply. A Dexter 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.200 began his apprenticeship at a tannery to learn how to 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.440 make leather goods when he turned sixteen. The job was 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.440 far from glamorous. The due to the smell of the 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.880 animal hides. Tanneries usually existed on the outskirts of towns. 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.200 The tanners used every type of animal skin, from wild 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.039 to domestic. The colonies needed every amount norble leather product, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.560 including shoes, boots, and hats, as well as carriage tops, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:09.680 harnesses and saddles. Dexter's apprenticeship lasted for five years. In 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.720 seventeen sixty eight, he opened his own shop and dreamed 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.120 of becoming wealthy. But as good as his products might be, 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.120 they would never build the wealth he wanted. So he 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.240 did the next best thing. He married into money. He 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.240 met Elizabeth Frothingham, a widow ten years his senior. She 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:31.000 had money, a home, and four children. In seventeen sixty nine, 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.359 he married Elizabeth while continuing his business selling gloves and 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.520 moose hide trousers. As you might imagine, with his available 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.719 inventory and the British blockade of Boston Harbor, Dexter mostly 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.039 lived off his wife's fortune. At first, Dexter hoped that 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.440 his wife's social status meant he would be invited to 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.039 high society functions. He was not. Many looked down on him. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.840 He came across as nothing more than a vain, poor, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.480 uneducated man who had managed to marry his way into money. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.279 The slights infuriated Dexter, and he set out to prove 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:09.040 his equality and rightful place among Boston's and Charles Town's elite. 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.960 Aside from making his own wealth, he had two other options. 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.640 He could join the army and work his way through 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.040 the ranks, or run for public office. He set his 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.200 sights on an appointment in the town of Malden, and 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.120 if at first he didn't succeed, Dexter tried again and again. 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.520 He applied and harassed council members so much that at 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.320 long last they relented. They created a position just for 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.960 him informer of deer and the appointment required him to 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.040 track the deer population in Malden, even though no one 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.240 had seen a deer in the town limits for nearly 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.280 twenty years. Some townsfolk thought the position was ridiculous, but 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.440 Dexter was content he had achieved his goal of having 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.040 an official public office appointment. Now all he needed to 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.560 gain social status was to make a lot of money 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:09.680 in the most unusual way possible. During the Revolutionary War, 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.200 the British pound had value, while the Continental dollar was 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:18.200 practically worthless. Congress printed approximately two hundred and fifty million 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.880 in Continental dollars, but merchants were reluctant to accept it 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.800 with good reason. They were worth pennies compared to the 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.640 British pound. Congress printed more bills, causing the dollar to 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.040 depreciate even more. The value dropped so drastically the colonists 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.600 took to saying that items of low value weren't worth 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.800 a continental. Congress paid the military with Continental dollars, leaving 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.480 most soldiers destitute after the war, and John Hancock purchased 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.640 some of the bills from soldiers at full value to 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.720 help drive up the Continental's were the good deed raised 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.839 Hancock's popularity inspired Dexter believed that if he purchased more 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.840 dollars than Hancock, kid finally be accepted among societies elite. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.920 Dexter went about it a little differently than Hancock. He 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.360 used his wife's money to buy the bills for pennies 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.800 on the dollar instead of full value. A Dexter purchased 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.239 so many bills that he and his wife went bankrupt, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.480 and townsfolks shook their heads and whispered among themselves. The 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.800 Dexter was an idiot and had dragged his respectable wife 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.880 down with him. When the Colonies won the war, a 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.720 few things happened. They signed the Constitution and throughout the 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.760 British tax and monetary systems, the founding Fathers added a 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:31.560 provision promising to trade treasury bonds for continental dollars. Suddenly 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.480 Dexter was exceptionally wealthy. Neighbors scratched their heads. No one 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.319 could argue that Dexter was undoubtedly lucky, and while none 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:44.040 would ever call him intelligent, some thought he might be shrewd, 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.920 and Dexter was delighted. Finally his wealk would grant him 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.800 a place among the powerful and elite. It did not. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.600 He continued with his rude interruptions and vulgar comments. Coupled 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.600 with his crude behavior, he remained an outcast, feeling they 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.080 just needed to warm up to him a bit. Dexter 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.240 continued being Dexter. All he had to do, in his mind, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.160 was hold on to the money and not go bankrupt again. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.080 When things didn't improve to his liking, he moved his 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.000 family to Newburyport. The problem wasn't him, he insisted, The 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.640 people in Boston were just uptight and stuffy, Newburyport, on 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.599 the other hand, was nearly perfect, a rich and poor intermingled. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.080 The town was smaller than Boston, and Dexter felt confident 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.079 he would stand out. Immediately after arriving, he bought ships 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.839 for his next venture, exporting food. The residents in Newburyport 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.360 found Dexter as uncouth as those in Boston had. The 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.640 wealthy wondered how someone is crude and illiterate. As Dexter 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.480 had become a millionaire, his personality and business decisions made 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.240 them speculate about his mental stability. Dexter claimed that the 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.000 other wealthy merchants disliked him because he was a rival. Still, 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.600 he wanted to become part of Newburyport's upper society, so 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.800 he took their business advice to heart. He didn't realize 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.120 that they wanted to destroy his fortune so that he 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.920 would move out of Newburyport. One businessman advised Dexter to 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.560 get into the bed warmer trade. Though the device was 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.520 popular in cold New England winters, the businessman suggested Dexter 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.079 sell it in a new market the Caribbean. Convinced he 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.679 would make a tidy profit, Dexter sent forty two bed 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:26.800 warmers to the Caribbean. Unsurprisingly, the bedwarmers didn't sell oh well, 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:31.560 not as their intended use anyway. The sugarcane industry was 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.960 huge in the Caribbean. The serrupy sugarcane byproduct molasses, was 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.840 also wildly popular. Plantation owners found the long handled bedwarmers 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.839 made perfect molasses ladles. Soon plantation owners scrambled to buy 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.600 more bedwarmers. Dexter raised the price by nearly eight percent 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.400 and made his second fortune. The joke the Newburyport businessmen 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.040 played had backfired, but that didn't mean they were about 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.640 to give up. They urged him to expand into the 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.840 coal business, though much needed. New England already had plenty 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.760 of coal, especially in the England mining town of Newcastle, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.520 and still Dexter shipped coal to the town as suggested. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.040 When his ships arrived laden with coal, the miners were 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.240 on stripe. Residents bought the coal for a markup, making 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.560 Dexter even wealthier. The merchants put their heads together to 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.600 come up with something even more outlandish. They had to 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.440 do something to run him out of town, and certainly 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:38.360 Dexter's luck couldn't hold forever. While various advisers handed Dexter 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.400 some pretty outrageous business ideas. A Dexter himself came up 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.120 with a few so outlandish that the townspeople were sure 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.840 they would bankrupt him. All they had to do was 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.800 sit back and watch. Dexter decided to send gloves to 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:55.520 Polynesia Again. His idea worked. Portuguese traders arrived and bought 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.560 the gloves to sell in China. For his next endeavor, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.160 Dexter traveled back to Austin, where he purchased an enormous 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:07.240 quantity of whalebone. This material isn't actually bone, but rather 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.120 the strong, flexible filtering teeth of bailen whales. A whalebone 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.600 was used in corsets, toys, and caller stays. He had 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.080 purchased enough that he controlled the market and set his 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.600 own price. Dexter raked in more money, thinking wealth alone 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.640 would win over his wealthy neighbors, and he bragged about 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.160 buying bibles at wholesale for less than half price. Then 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.520 sent the bibles to port cities. His captains carried a 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:37.120 poorly written note from Dexter, complete with frequent misspellings. The 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.520 note stated that anyone who didn't have at least one 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.440 Bible in the house would go to hell. Of course, 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.600 he had plenty of bibles for sale to help save 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.600 their souls. Dexter made another handsome profit, much to the 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.520 town's dismay, and yet they swore his next scheme would 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.040 surely be his last. You see, Dexter took it upon 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:00.800 himself to reduce the town's overpopulation of stray cat He 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.320 offered to buy the cats, and of course people brought 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.080 him plenty of strays. Unsure what he planned to do 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.320 with them, Dexter sent them to the plantation owners in 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.160 the Caribbean. As it turned out, their warehouses had a 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.480 rodent problem, and they were willing to pay a tidy 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.000 sum for the cats. With all his wealth, Dexter purchased 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.160 a mansion alongside some of the town's most prominent families. 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.200 While everyone avoided him, they enjoyed the company of his wife. 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.160 This angered Dexter. He became so jealous of Elizabeth that 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.400 he treated her poorly. He had always been a heavy drinker, 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.840 which was bad enough, and now he started to ignore her, 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.120 calling her a ghost and pretending as though she weren't 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.520 a living, breathing human being. He cheated on her more 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.320 than once. It's not clear if he had affairs with 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.360 married women are not but at some point someone gave 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.160 Dexter a serious beating. He promptly sold the mansion and 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.160 bought a new home in a different part of town. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.240 He didn't treat his children much better than his wife. 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.200 In turn, his and Samuel became an alcoholic as well. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.200 His daughter Nancy made poor choices in men. She married 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.960 one who took to beating her, and she returned home 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.440 and she also began drinking heavily. Still trying to impress 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.440 the town, Dexter furnished his home with the largest and 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.320 gaudiest objects. He called his new home the Princely Chateau. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.240 Forty statues, each costing two thousand dollars, sat in the 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.600 front yard. Alongside statues of people like Washington and Jefferson. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.320 Stood Dexter's own statue at the base. The inscription bragg 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.240 that he was the greatest philosopher in the Western world. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.080 Dexter furnished his home with an impressive library, though he 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.160 never read a single book. He collected a gallery of 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.080 paintings to adorn the walls. With the house and gardens complete, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.520 Dexter awaited his wealthy neighbor's lavish praise and attention. None 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.680 of that happened. Still rude and obnoxious and unable to 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.400 see the real problem, he had alienated everyone, including his 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.800 wife and shul Drin. Determined that his greatness would not 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:07.400 be denied, Dexter decided he'd find new friends, one's equally 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.840 as strange an outcast as himself. One such friend, a 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.240 former teacher named John, had come from a respectable family. 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.800 John's undoing had been to open his own school to 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.960 teach students on subjects in which he had no formal training. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.320 His teachings were so bizarre that John's family disowned him. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.560 A Dexter found another friend and Madam Hooper, a wealthy 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:34.040 widow turned fortune teller. Hooper offered dexter astrology advice and 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.520 took her payment in tea. But even his new friends 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.600 couldn't fill Dexter's desire to be loved and admired. If 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.880 no one else would give him compliments, he'd pay them. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.800 Dexter hired a twenty year old selling halibut from a 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:52.800 wheelbarrow to be his poet laureate. In Dexter wrote and 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.560 published A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, a nonsensical book 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.480 in which he ranted about his wife, religion, and politics. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.640 A Dexter could barely read much less right. Complaints about 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.800 his spelling and grammar rolled in. To solve the issue, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.119 Dexter printed an extra page of commas in his next edition, 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:12.719 with a note telling the reader to put commas wherever 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.159 they liked. The book got plenty of attention, though maybe 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.480 not the way he intended, since he had to give 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.880 away the copies. Still, Timothy Dexter considered the book a success. 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.639 He managed to give away enough copies for eight printings. 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.760 Newberry Port took solace the Dexter couldn't do anything more 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.360 ridiculous or absurd, and they'd be wrong about that. Aside 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.280 from his bizarre behavior and business dealings, Dexter had started 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.040 to demand Newburyport residents address him as the Earl of Chester. 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.560 When the demands failed to produce results, Dexter took to 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.359 paying them in a pickle For the knowing ones, Dexter 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.000 wrote that he was the first Lord of the United States, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.040 a titled bestowed upon him by the Blick. He claimed 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.600 the people of America had spoken and he was helpless 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.000 to do anything other than allow them to grant him 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.800 the title. He paid children who called him Lord Dexter 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.399 a quarter. Adults were paid with dinner and drinks. His 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.440 gaudy statues brought spectators to look at his house. While 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.640 Dexter might have thought they appreciated his fine art, they 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.480 were more likely curious about the tawdry outdoor museum in 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.720 such a fancy neighborhood, and Dexter continued to chase after 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.720 younger women. Drinking remained a favorite pastime, and he often 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.840 took two walks while drunk, his little dog walking beside him. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.159 And No one lives forever, and Dexter began planning for 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.720 his eventual death. For years, he worked at building a 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:46.320 magnificent tomb. Peep even arranged to the funeral. Dexter wrote 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.400 a will making ample provisions for his family and friends, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.000 though after years of neglect and abuse, it took bribery 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.159 to convince his wife and children to promise that they 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.440 would show up at the funeral. Dexter was fifty nine 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.040 when the day he had planned for finally came. Nearly 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.560 three thousand people turned up. Guests greeted his widow and 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.720 paid their respects. Elizabeth accepted their well wishes politely enough 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.159 and occasionally laughed with a few of the guests. Given 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:17.280 Dexter's treatment of her, none were surprised that she never 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:21.800 shed a tear. Well, everyone except Dexter, who had planned 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.120 and faked the funeral. He had wanted to see how 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.439 everyone would react to his death, especially friends who he 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.480 worried had remained at his company for the money. Dexter 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.000 got up from where he had been pretending to lie 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.680 in state. Furious, he began to be rate and beat 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.520 his wife in front of the spectators for not properly 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.720 mourning him. His actual death occurred shortly after the faith one. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.080 He passed on October six of eighteen o six. This 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.840 time he made provisions to leave his fortune to the poor, 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.639 in addition to the wife and children he had treated 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.520 so poorly. There is no record of whether anyone attended 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.800 the second funeral. The mass of tomb he had created 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:04.320 was declared a hazard, and his family laid him in 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.800 a standard coffin and had him buried in a small 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:11.480 hillside cemetery. No one visited, and no one maintained the site. 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:16.920 Grass eventually overtook his grave. Dexter may have been exceptionally 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.560 lucky in business, but was unsuccessful in the areas he 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:26.760 wanted the most love and respect. There's more to this story. 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.679 Stick around after this brief sponsored break to hear all 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:44.320 about it. Everyone agreed that little Violet Jessip was lucky. 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.960 During the eighteen hundreds, a diagnosis of tuberculosis generally meant 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.560 to death sentence. She was just a child when the 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.600 doctors delivered the news to her parents a Violet would 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.320 probably die within a couple of months. She surprised them though, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.959 beating the odds and sir driving this highly contagious and 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:06.919 often fatal disease. However, Violet's luck did not transfer to 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:10.720 her father. He did die, leaving his wife and six 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:15.040 remaining children in a dire financial situation. The family had 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.160 immigrated from Ireland to Argentina, where Joseph Jessup had worked 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.000 as a sheep farmer. Without a way to earn a living, 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.680 Katherine Jessop moved the family to England and found employment 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.359 aboard ships as a stewardess. The work took Catherine away 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.680 for extended periods, leaving Violet to care for her siblings. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.600 When Katherine fell ill, Violet needed to join the workforce 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.000 to feed and care for the family. She also applied 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.800 for jobs as a ship stewardess. She was young and 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:48.000 strikingly beautiful, which promptly earned her rejection. After rejection, employers 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.919 shied away from hiring young girls with extraordinary looks. In 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.720 their opinion, such beauty distracted the crew and male passengers. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:58.639 Jobs that paid enough for women to support a family 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:02.359 were rare. A viole, it had to get creative. She 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.719 wore clothes that made her look older and reapplied, this 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:10.359 time without wearing makeup. Her creativity paid off. Violet found 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:14.439 work on the Orinoco Royal Mail steamer. In night, she 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.440 found a better job with the White Star Line, one 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.399 of the largest ship companies of the time. The ships 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.040 carried cargo and passengers, and Violet's job was to cater 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:28.280 to the wealthy passengers every need. Additionally, she cleaned cabins, 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.040 arranged flowers, and ran errands on the ship. The Violet 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:34.800 proved to be a reliable and hard worker and was 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.160 well liked by passengers and staff. Although the White Star 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:42.520 Line paid slightly better, she earned every pound sterling. She 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.640 worked seventeen hours a day on ships that frequently traveled 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.880 rough seas and bad weather to compete with other large 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:52.760 shipping companies, the White Star Line launched three luxury ships, 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:56.720 offering wealthy passengers and experience and service that rivaled the 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.360 world's finest hotels and resorts. A Violet worked on all 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:03.080 three ships that she had worked on the first ship, 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.520 the Olympic, for a year, and everything ran smoothly until 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.280 September of nineteen eleven. As bad luck would have it, 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:15.240 the ship crossed paths with the HMS Hawk, a combat ship. Fortunately, 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.480 the Olympic didn't sink and no one was injured. It 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.840 limped back to port, where everyone disembarked. The company offered 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.480 her a job aboard second ship, designed to cater to 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.400 the world's most elite. The Violet was hesitant. A while 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.359 American passengers treated her well, rich Britons treated her poorly. 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:37.159 The job would be more prestigious, the company promised, and 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:39.920 the ship, though it had yet to sail, had captured 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:45.240 everyone's attention. Without better prospects, Violet accepted. She kept a 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:48.320 journal and made notes on the passengers. Some of the 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:51.320 world's most wealthy and prominent passengers had booked a trip, 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:54.560 and many were as pretentious and rude to the staff 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.040 as she had anticipated. Violet had just returned to her 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:02.080 bed when the Titanic struck the Iceberg. The captain ordered 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:04.400 all the staff on deck. She stood with the other 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.960 stewardesses while staff loaded children and women passengers onto lifeboats. 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:11.760 A ship officer ordered Violet and a handful of other 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:15.000 stewardesses onto lifeboat number sixteen to show a few of 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:17.879 the remaining women that the boats were safe. The officer 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:20.800 called to Violet and handed her a small bundle. Here, 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:24.960 miss jessup, look after this baby. The lifeboats floated away 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:27.960 from the sinking ship. They drifted for eight hours until 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:32.080 the crew aboard the Carpathia rescued them. Violet still clutched 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:34.159 the infant close to her on the deck when the 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:36.560 mother grabbed the baby and ran off without so much 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:39.679 as a thank you. A Violet returned to work aboard 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.040 the newly repaired Olympic until World War One broke out 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.040 in nineteen fourteen, when she served as a nurse above 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:49.240 the White Star Lines third ship, the Britannic. The ship 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:52.720 hit a German mine in the Aegean Sea. Violet been 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:55.640