Wellington R. Burt. What a story! I first heard of him in the late 1980's, when one of my children's friends married one of Mr. Burt's long distanced relatives. I was told a tale that seemed unreal but it turned out to be real and on a recent Monday, 5pm, that relative had a large sum deposited in their bank account. Let's see...$100 million divided by 12. Hmmm. A tidy sum for sure. Intriguing? I'ma thinkin' so!!!
Mr. Burt was a Michigan lumber baron and at his death in 1919 he was one of the 8 richest people in America. Yes, he had money and yes, he had lots of it but he also seemed to have some negative personality/character traits and was labeled...greedy, stingy, miserly, vindictive etc. Wonder if tightwad was in that years lingo? Maybe grudge holder also?
Somehow or other he got irritated with his family or fed up or just plain mad. They had tried to get him to share his buckaroos and he gave little bits of money to the family. One favored son got $30,000 annually but the others got the equivalent of the wage of the hired help- like his housekeeper, cook, coachman, chauffeur. Receiving annually anywhere from $1000 or lower. One daughter received zero.
Who knows what the final straw was but 2 years before he died, he hand wrote a "spite clause", of such unusualness, to his original will, that right up to that 5pm deposit in the 12 accounts, it has been closely watched for 92 years!
Here is how he laid it out in that 1917 mean-spirited note . All heirs were to be bypassed receiving any inheritance until, 21 years had passed... after the last grandchild died. That last grandchild died in 1989. So that pulled the 21 years wait date to 2010.
I'm sure relatives came out of the woodwork but 30 claimed they were legit in their requests so the legal team worked it out, by the family genealogy and whittled it down to 12 heirs, tracking back 5 generations! There was some sort of stipulation that if feuds contesting the Will happened, no one would receive anything. So in this 21 year wait there were very tense times occasionally and a lot of people holding their breath that no one would rock the boat. It took 20 attorneys to sort it out as to who got how much.
So I've heard about this off and on for the past 20 some years but still, it was surreal, when I got the call...Mother, they deposited the millions in their account!
What is the point here? Lots of life lessons to draw on! I thought that Wellington would have enjoyed having shirts printed for his family, like we did 2 years ago, for our family reunion.
We Put the FUN in dysFUNtional!!
Thinking of the finances in our family....we would merit a segment on coins, along with the chairs and beds and porridge, in Goldilocks & the Three Bears story. We don't have to much. We don't have to little. We have sufficient for our needs. It's just right!!!
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. Mr. Burt was a Michigan lumber baron and at his death in 1919 he was one of the 8 richest people in America. Yes, he had money and yes, he had lots of it but he also seemed to have some negative personality/character traits and was labeled...greedy, stingy, miserly, vindictive etc. Wonder if tightwad was in that years lingo? Maybe grudge holder also?
Somehow or other he got irritated with his family or fed up or just plain mad. They had tried to get him to share his buckaroos and he gave little bits of money to the family. One favored son got $30,000 annually but the others got the equivalent of the wage of the hired help- like his housekeeper, cook, coachman, chauffeur. Receiving annually anywhere from $1000 or lower. One daughter received zero.
Who knows what the final straw was but 2 years before he died, he hand wrote a "spite clause", of such unusualness, to his original will, that right up to that 5pm deposit in the 12 accounts, it has been closely watched for 92 years!
Here is how he laid it out in that 1917 mean-spirited note . All heirs were to be bypassed receiving any inheritance until, 21 years had passed... after the last grandchild died. That last grandchild died in 1989. So that pulled the 21 years wait date to 2010.
I'm sure relatives came out of the woodwork but 30 claimed they were legit in their requests so the legal team worked it out, by the family genealogy and whittled it down to 12 heirs, tracking back 5 generations! There was some sort of stipulation that if feuds contesting the Will happened, no one would receive anything. So in this 21 year wait there were very tense times occasionally and a lot of people holding their breath that no one would rock the boat. It took 20 attorneys to sort it out as to who got how much.
So I've heard about this off and on for the past 20 some years but still, it was surreal, when I got the call...Mother, they deposited the millions in their account!
What is the point here? Lots of life lessons to draw on! I thought that Wellington would have enjoyed having shirts printed for his family, like we did 2 years ago, for our family reunion.
We Put the FUN in dysFUNtional!!
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order,
confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home,
a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow.
--Unknown
Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
1 Timothy 6:7,8
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
( You curious nosey little kitty.....The answer that you want?....paid off every single one of their debts- including house, bought his and her Rolex's, a blue BMW convertible for the wife, going to decorate their mini-mansion size home but right now are heading to a financial planner)
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