This president's financial scandal had a local connection

Carol W. Kimball

James D. Fish and local scandal
President Grant's son and local scandal
Ferdinand Ward, a Wall street speculator with a Ponzi scheme
Firm of Grant and Ward
Marine Bank failure
James D. Fish, born in Mystic, buried at Elm Grove
ex-President Ulysses S. Grant and many others impoverished

Kim07-019

Scrapbook

8: Communication Artifact

Documentary Artifact

The Day

New London, CT

05/07/1998

Carol W. Kimball

James D. Fish, born in Mystic in 1819, was a key figure in the 1884 financial scandals involving President Grant's son and Ferdinand Ward that caused a Wall Street panic that thrust families into poverty, including the family of ex-President Ulysses S. Grant. Ward developed a huge Ponzi scheme that attracted investors but collapsed in May 1884. Fish was sent to Auburn prison and Ferdinand Ward was sent to Sing Sing. But just before his arrest, the 66-year old Fish secretly married a yound operetta star, Sallie Laing-Reber, by whom he had a child the following Year. Fish lived to be 92 years old and is buried in Elm Grove Cemetery.

Fish, James D.
Fish, Asa
Dean, Prudence
Ashbey, S. B.
Grant, "Buck" Ulysses S. (Jr.)
Ward, Ferdinand
Laing-Reber, Sallie
Grant, Ulysses S. (ex-president

scandal
ex-President Grant and his son's company
Mystic
Ponzi scheme
unethical
illegal
Marine Bank failure
Auburn prison
Sing Sing
Elm Grove Cemetery
Firm of Grant and Ward
Fish scheme
arrest
embezzlement
operetta star
poverty