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By Root 867 0

men could make. He was at once greeted as an important figure, a player, a man who might leave a big mark on the city of broad shoulders. He spent his days in an office on the eleventh and top floor of the Owings Building, a downtown skyscraper owned by his mother. Despite his youth and lack of business experience, he was quick to make ties in the new city, as visitors streamed in to introduce themselves. Hetty was already well known in the city as a landowner. Ned told people that he liked Chicago and planned to stay. His head swelled with his first rush of importance as a man of affairs, a man about town. Within a few weeks of his arrival he was gregariously announcing big plans.

“Chicago will soon have a private bank, or rather a trust company, backed by an immense amount of money,” the New York Times reported in a dispatch from Chicago in November 1890. “Mrs. Hetty Green, known widely as the richest woman in America, and her son, E.H.R. Green, will be at the head of the concern.”

The article quoted Ned as saying, “Arrangements are practically completed for the new business, or rather the new form of our old business.” He added, “Ours will be a mortgage business. We will loan money on securities and nothing more. We will loan it at a reasonable rate of interest and borrowers may take up their paper at any time. Ours will be a sort of private bank. It will be conducted on the principle of the Chemical Bank of New York.”

At twenty-two, Ned spoke like a seasoned professional. “My mother and myself will have the controlling interest, for we never invest in anything unless we have control over it,” he said. “Others interested will be the Chemical Bank of New-York and Baring Brothers of London. San Francisco capitalists will also be interested. The nominal capital will be about $300,000, but the reserve will reach to about $150,000,000. The Chemical Bank of New-York is conducted on a similar plan. Its capital is small, but its reserve reaches about $30,000,000. This bank will be made, I think it is safe to say, one of the foremost financial institutions of America. Final details will be settled soon.”

He finished this confident and boastful statement with a promise that must have warmed the hearts of civic boosters in Chicago. “We have decided to make the city of Chicago our home, and we will open an institution in keeping with the future high rank Chicago will hold as a financial centre [sic].”

It’s not clear whether Ned spoke on Hetty’s authority, or was simply indulging in grand dreams. Soon, however, the talk of the new bank quieted down. A gregarious young man, Ned loved to be quoted in newspapers, and genuinely liked reporters. By the next summer, he had begun to imagine himself as a budding newspaper mogul. The New York Times reported on July 16, 1891: “It was rumored to-day that E.H.R. Green, son of Mrs. Hettie [sic] Green, intended to buy a newspaper in Chicago.” According to the story, three newspapermen—two from New York and one from Chicago, had approached Ned about the possibility of starting a large daily in Chicago. The paper would devote a page to New York news and a page to Boston news, in addition to local coverage. Ned did not identify the men, but said they were prominent journalists who were tired of drawing salaries and wanted to own their own paper. About the same time, an attorney had contacted Ned saying that someone could buy the Chicago Times for $300,000 to $400,000. “Whether the attorney was an authorized agent of that paper or not, I don’t know. But if it is for sale, we shall make the paper a proposition,” Ned said.

The newspapermen had asked Ned to put up sufficient funds to construct a building and furnish the presses, type, and staff. “I told them if they could show me that there was any money in the scheme I would go into it. The New-York parties have gone back East to see if they can secure aid. They will return next Saturday, and a meeting will be held in my office to see how the land lays.”

Ned’s high talk about becoming a newspaper mogul was at variance with the reality of his position