 Arthur William Cutten |
| |
|
| Nickname: |
Commonly referred to himself as a “dirt
farmer.” Recognized as the “greatest speculator this country ever had” by
Henry Wallace. |
| Background: |
Grew up on a small farm as the eldest of eight
children. Left home in 1888 and settled in Chicago. Hired by commodity broker A. S.
White & Co. as a bookkeeper for $4 a week ($82 adjusted for inflation). |
| Primary Markets: |
Wheat, Cotton, and Stocks |
| Birthplace: |
Guelph, Ontario in 1870 |
| Greatest Wealth: |
$67 million ($723,915,100 adjusted
for inflation), early 1929 before the Wall Street Crash. |
| |
|
| 1906: |
Used savings from his bookkeeping job to purchase a seat at the
Chicago Board of Trade. In late July, he married Maude Boomer. |
| 1908: |
Made and lost a fortune in cotton, but accepted the losses as
a normal part of speculation and continued to make successful investments. |
| 1912: |
Bought a five hundred acre farm near Wheaton, Illinois and named
it “Sunny Acres Farm.” Built an extensive mansion with many gardens on the property. Parts
of the farm are now a part of the Hidden Lake Forest Preserve, which the State of Illinois purchased
in 1978. |
| 1920: |
Bought a house in Atlantic City, New Jersey. |
| 1922: |
Entered Wall Street and soon his success eclipsed that of Jesse
Livermore. |
| 1923: |
Met with 6 other men (Charles Schwab, Richard Whitney, Albert
Fall, Jesse Livermore, Leon Fraser and Ivar Kreuger) at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, whose combined
wealth totaled more than that of the entire US Treasury. |
| 1924: |
Earned a profit of over $2 million ($21,704,108 adjusted
for inflation). |
| 1925: |
Reportedly paid more than $540,000 ($5,848,412 adjusted
for inflation) in income tax. |
| 1927: |
Began preparations for the Cutten Club golf course in
Guelph, Ontario. The project was completed in 1931 with a final price tag of $750,000 ($8,311,310
adjusted for inflation), all covered by Cutten himself. |
| 1928: |
Featured in a cover story of Time Magazine’s December
10 issue, in which he remained optimistic about the declining farm prices. |
| 1929: |
Lost more than $50 million ($533,212,092 adjusted
for inflation) in the stock market crash, leaving him with what he called
his “last $17
million” ($183,679,950 adjusted for inflation). |
| 1933: |
Henry A. Wallace, US Secretary of Agriculture, charged
Cutten with improper trading activities and tried to have him barred from trading
on all futures exchanges in the US. Cutten was brought before the Senate’s Precora Commission,
the committee that investigated the stock market crash, but Cutten professed a poor memory of the
details and was later not charged. |
| 1936: |
Indicted on charges of tax evasion, totaling more than
$400,000 ($5,387,289 adjusted for inflation) in unpaid taxes. After paying the fines and
his lawyer fees, along with keeping up his lifestyle, Cutten’s fortune dwindled. |
| 1936: |
Died of a heart attack at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago,
a few weeks before his 66th birthday, with no money to his name. |
| |
| Cutten
on the cover of the December 10, 1928 issue of Time Magazine. |
 |
| |
| |
Profiled by: Jacob Spencer |
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