The Grants’ fortune arose largely through the firm of Ward & Grant. Ferdinand Ward, the son of a minister, hailed from upstate New York. His inattentive partner was Grant’s son Buck, who had made money in western mining speculations using his father’s political connections and the geological knowledge of Ward’s brother. Ward was running what would later be called a Ponzi scheme; in an economy with falling returns on investment, he delivered dividends and annuities that seemed too good to be true. They were.
