Letty and her mother busied themselves readying for dinner. This meant managing a houseful of servants. Waterwood housed the immediate A. Reed family, Uncle James and his invalid wife – who took all her meals in her room – and 12 servants. Uncle James occupied third floor, Isabelle and Adolphus the second and Letty and her brother lived on the second floor, which was also the nerve center for the many family businesses. The house could house an additional 25 guests easily and could entertain over 200. It sat on 10 acres and was surrounded by Old Man Walker’s Orchards to the East and the senior Reed’s Cattle ranch to the South. The north was a working farm with chickens, cattle, dairy and an assortment of grains and vegetables.
Adolphus and James Reed did a lot of talking on their rides. Always had done. There was something about a long, dusty ride on horseback that lubricated the mind and loosened the lips. The entire Reed Central California Trust was hatched on one of their last trips back from the shining city of San Francisco to the small town they loved. It was not uncommon for the family to hear the details of an incredible venture after the men returned from a long horse ride. More and more those ideas were influenced by the Reed women who always saved their best business ideas for just before the Reed brothers saddled up. On their last trip to the big city, after three hours in the saddle, Adolphus and James Reed had made a number of decisions. A visit to the lawyers was in order.
The Walker and Reed Trusts had bet 67 per cent of its total assets, no small amount, on a gamble that people in California would never know about. They purchased all of the banking assets of both banks and affiliated branches throughout California. They did not take ownership of Wells Fargo freight, stage line or security concerns. The family had always preferred Pinkerton Security to Wells never leaked business information to the press.
The business plan was essentially Letty’s. She was convinced that most banks in the United States were over extended – and especially in California. All that “mining money” as Uncle James called it was tied up in a lot of shaky investments – much of it in the New York Stock Exchange. A minor run on California banks would topple all but those with the cash on hand to ride out an economic crisis. Letty knew banks with too few liquid assets would fail in the next three years and that they could be purchased for pennies on the dollar by a bank rich in cash and gold.
The good news, Letty lectured Uncle James, was that a bad economy was compelling enough reason for America to become involved in the war in Europe. Once that was done, she reasoned, money would start to flow into and out the surviving banks as the best bank customer in the world – our Uncle Sam – needed cash to fund a war. And most of what the US would purchase was raw material and foodstuffs. And that was just exactly what the Reed brothers invested the remainder of their holdings on. They were either going to be richer or fantastically richer in a matter of years..
She was right of course. But, of course, she would not live to see her fantastic successes and the growing fortunes of her family.
Isabella had managed to keep the book out of her hands before dinner but Letty was able to get a glimpse of a few well-rendered words in a strong, intelligent and – she could only hear the word dangerous – hand. The words, some Latin-based language, were fantastical. Bloody and violent on the only page she saw while walking to the stables with her father and uncle.
Then, intercepted by her mother before she could ask one of the thousands of questions about Wells, Fargo, Pinkerton and the book, she was off to arrange the details of the meal with the staff. The men shared a meaningful glance.
“Do you think we did the right thing, Jimmy?”
“We’ve been lucky, Dolfus.”
“Luck ain’t got nothin’ to do with it! We gambled millions on this.”
“The legal boys liked it, Dolphus.”
“Yep.”
“She’s smart.”
“Yep.”
“She just has a talent for reading all those articles and reports and books and coming up with a simple plan.”
“So simple! That’s why I don’t know if – ”
“Dolphus. It’s always been simple. Working with Papa. We pulled metal out of the ground and the men in San Fran gave us money for it.”
“Yep. Hard currency, though, Jimmy. Land, we can see. Horses we can touch. We gave hard money for hard things. This is just all just so much paper…”
“I know your guts as well as I know my own and we’re going to do well. ‘Sides, we didn’t bet it all on the banks. We saved some for commodities and such.”
“She thought of that too. She didn’t even care one way or the other. It was just like – what does she call it? A theoretical exercise? What the hell does that mean, James?”
“It means you got horse sense and your wife’s got book sense, Adolphus. And that beautiful, crazy daughter of yours has both in spades.”
“Yep.”
