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July 23, 2026: The Man Who Lost Everything Except the War
Description
This is Part 1 of a two-part episode. Part 2 airs July 24.
On July 23, 1885, Ulysses S. Grant died in a borrowed cottage at Mount McGregor, New York, at the age of sixty-three. He had been broke for just over a year, ruined by Ferdinand Ward, whose brokerage firm Grant and Ward turned out to be one of the earliest Ponzi schemes in American history. The collapse in May 1884 left Grant and his wife Julia with roughly $210 in cash and nothing else. The cancer diagnosis arrived months later.
What Grant did in the time he had left - and what it produced - is the subject of tomorrow's episode. Today's episode covers the fall: the pre-war business failures, the post-presidential financial vulnerability, the Ponzi scheme, and the moment Grant walked into his Wall Street office and found out that the most trusted name in America had been worth exactly nothing in the wrong hands.
From bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.
Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.
For more daily business stories, visit www.bsnsDAILYpodcasts.com