E. Joe Brown

Apr 01, 2025 by E. Joe Brown

Several times, I've said, "I love the research part of writing historical fiction." One area I had to research to support the Kelly Can Saga Series was the wealthiest people in America from 1915 into the Roaring Twenties. The research led me to a list of thirty individuals worth at least $50 Million in 1917 dollars. That would equal at least $1.3 Billion today. According to Forbes, John D. Rockefeller was the wealthiest man in America in 1917, with a net worth of $1.2 Billion in 1917 dollars. That equals $32.6 Billion today. He and all on the Forbes list made it through the winter of 1917 just fine.

I hope everyone reading this has read A Cowboy's Destiny and A Cowboy’s Fortune. If so, you know that Susan was Walter Kramer's only child. I created him as the wealthiest man west of the Mississippi River. He would have been second on the list mentioned above to Mr.
Rockefeller.

I’ve had more than one person tell me, “Joe, your books are fantasy; no one had that kind of money back then." Yes, some certainly did. Now, if you question if young folks in their twenties could handle the kind of wealth Susan's father had created, I would say this: maybe, and it sure makes for an interesting story.

J. Paul Getty is a character in the Kelly Can storyline, and he was twenty-four in 1916 when he became a millionaire in the oil business living in Oklahoma. Today, several examples of billionaires made their first million before age thirty. Here is a partial list:

Mark Zuckerberg – Meta – 22 years old
Richard Branson – Virgin Galactic – 23 years old
Larry Page – Google – 25 years old
Bill Gates – Microsoft – 26 years old
Elon Musk – PayPal and Tesla – 27 years old
Warren Buffett – Berkshire-Hathaway – 30 years old

As you can see, over the last century, hardworking young people working in a growing industry could become wealthy. Because my Granddaddy Kelly's stories of being a cowboy back 100 years ago on the Miller’s 101 were during the World War and the Roaring Twenties, it seemed like it would be fun to create a story of how a cowboy meets an heiress and make what my publisher has always said is a blend of the movie Lonesome Dove and the TV show Dallas. It
also means I can create big problems because of big business and ranching. See you down the trail.

Happy Trails!
Joe

 

Prev