Timothy Dexter
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Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1748 – October 26, 1806) was an eccentric American businessman noted for a series of lucky transactions and his writing.
Biography
"Lord" Timothy Dexter was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He had no schooling to speak of and was working as a farm laborer at the age of 8. When he was 16, he became an apprentice to a leather-dresser. In 1769 he moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts and began his trade. He was successful enough to attract a wife, a rich widow Elizabeth Frothingham, and buy a big house. He was considered a lackwit by his social contemporaries, and they gave him bad business advice in order to discredit him and make him lose his fortune.
At the end of the American Revolutionary War he bought large amounts of depreciated Continental currency that was worthless at the time. After the war was over, the U.S. government made good on the dollars and by the time trade connections resumed, he had amassed a fortune. He built two ships and began an export business to the West Indies and to Europe.
Because he was uneducated, his business sense was peculiar. Somebody inspired him to send warming pans for sale to the West Indies, a tropical area. His captain sold them as ladles for local molasses industry and made a good profit. Next Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place. Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.
People jokingly told him to "ship coal to Newcastle", which he did, and through sheer luck there was a miners' strike going on at the time, and his cargo was sold at a premium.[1][2] At another time, practical jokers told him he could make money shipping gloves to the South Sea Islands. His ships arrived there in time to sell the gloves to Portuguese boats on their way to China.[1] Someone told him to send warming pans (used to heat sheets in the cold New England winters) to the tropical West Indies - an unlikely market. However, his captain successfully sold them as ladles for the area's burgeoning molasses industry, and again Dexter made a significant profit.[3] Dexter bought an estate in Chester, New Hampshire. He also bought a new house in Newburyport where there was a mausoleum for himself and a garden of 40 wooden statues of famous men, including George Washington, William Pitt, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson and himself. It had an inscription I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World.
At the age of 50 he wrote a book about himself - A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress. He wrote about himself and complained about politicians, clergy and his wife. The book contained 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but no punctuation, and capital letters were seemingly random. At first he handed his book out for free, but it became popular and was re-printed in eight editions.[citation needed] In the second edition Dexter added an extra page which consisted of 13 lines of punctuation marks. Dexter instructed readers to "peper and solt it as they plese".[4]
Dexter announced his death and urged people to prepare for his burial. About 3,000 people attended Dexter's mock wake. The crowd was disappointed when they heard a still-living Dexter screaming at his wife that she was not grieving enough. Timothy Dexter actually died in 1806.
Dexter's Newburyport house became a hotel, then a library. Storms ruined most of his statues, the statue of William Pitt being the only identified survivor. His "littel book" remains his primary legacy to this day.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Knapp, Samuel L. (1858). Life of Lord Timothy Dexter: Embracing sketches of the eccentric characters that composed his associates, including "Dexter's Pickle for the knowing ones". Boston: J.E. Tilton and Company.
- ^ Nash, Jay Robert (1982). Zanies, The World's Greatest Eccentrics. New Century Publishers. ISBN 0-8329-0123-7.
- ^ http://voices.yahoo.com/lord-timothy-dexter-newburyport-massachusetts-wealthy-111411.html?cat=38
- ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: p. 207. ISBN 0-86576-008-X
References
- Samuel L. Knapp (1858). The Life of Lord Timothy Dexter, with Sketches of the Eccentric Characters that Composed his Associates, including his own writings, "Dexter's Pickle for the knowing ones", &c., &c. Boston: J. E. Tilton and Co.
- Dexter, Timothy; Quince, Peter (1881). A pickle for the knowing ones: or, Plain truths in a homespun dress. S. A. Tucker. 36 pages. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
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External links
- The Official Virtual Seat on the "Noue Systom of Knollege & Lite" Assigned the Notable and Most Noble Lord Timothy Dexter
- Complete transcription of "A Pickle for The Knowing Ones; or Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress" ~ with translation and annotations
- NPR’s "Weekend Edition": The 'Literary' Legacy of Lord Timothy Dexter
Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
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