Ned Green. (original) (raw)

Ned Green was one of the first and most colorful of Texas� 20th Century millionaires. Though he wasn�t born in Texas, and his wealth was an accident of birth as much as anything else, Texashas always been quick to claim E.H.R. �Ned� Green as its own. Green, for his part, usually managed to keep a leg in Texas, even when he was away.

Green was the son of Hetty Green, the richest woman in the world known not so affectionately in her day as the �Witch of Wall Street.� Hetty was known for shuttling back and forth between Brooklyn and Hoboken to avoid establishing a residence and paying taxes even as she cleared millions on the stock market. Ned Green fit the image of the Texas millionaire, measuring 6-foot-4, but he was missing one leg, thanks to his mother�s frugality. When he injured the leg as a boy, his mother hauled him from one doctor to the next, looking for the best deal, until it was too late to save her son�s leg.

Green came to Texaswhen he was 25 to take over the Texas Midland Railway, which his mother owned. The railroad was faring poorly but Ned Green promised to turn the �two streaks of rust� into �one of the best railroads in the Southwest.� He deposited $500,000 in a Terrell Bank, more than doubling the bank�s resources, and bought uniforms for the local baseball team and started a brass band.

In the meantime, Green commenced to enjoy himself with lavish parties and an interest in the opposite sex that attracted scornful local attention in his adopted hometown of Terrell. But even his detractors had to admit that Green was doing some good things for the local community. While vastly improving the status of the Texas Midland Railway, which boasted the state�s first electrically lighted coach, Green also invested in experimental crops and demonstration farms to help local farmers. He was an early supporter of research aimed at eliminating the boll weevil and owned the largest stamp collection in the world.

As much as anything, Green is remembered for bringing the first automobile to Texasand for being involved in what might have been the state�s first automobile accident. The car was a two-cylinder St. Louis Gas Car surrey, designed by George Norris.

The accident occurred when Green and Norris were driving the car from Terrell to Dallasin October of 1899 but were run off the road by a farm wagon. Green and Dorris repaired the car and chugged on into Dallas, down Elm Street toward the courthousewhile hundreds of onlookers lined the streets to get a glimpse of this so-called horseless carriage.

Lawsuits were subsequently filed against Green and his contraption, claiming that the automobile caused horses to run away, buggies to wreck and riders to get thrown. As late as 1910, a Dallasnewspaper noted that the car, nicknamed �Old Hurricane,� was still being used as a pace car at the Texas State Fair.