Timothy Dexter
Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1748 – October 23, 1806) was an American businessman noted for his writing and eccentricity.
Biography
Dexter was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He had little schooling and worked 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. He married Elizabeth Frothingham, a rich widow, and bought a mansion. Some of his social contemporaries considered him unintelligent. Many of them gave him bad business advice 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 . 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 largely uneducated, his business sense was considered peculiar. He was inspired to send warming pans (used to heat sheets in the cold New England winters) for sale to the West Indies, a tropical area. His captain sold them as ladles for the local molasses industry and made a good profit. Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.
