DOUGLASCAIN

And finally, a little about my hero from historic Newburyport, Lord Timothy Dexter, an increadibly wealthy and lucky businessman, who was both highly eccentric and friend of George Washington.  Dexter bought a huge estate in Newburyport and decorated it with minarets, a golden eagle on the top of the cupola, a mausoleum for himself and a garden of 40 wooden statues of famous men, including George Washington, William Pitt, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson and of course, himself. It had an inscription "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World."

One day he began to wonder what people would say about him after he died. He proceeded to announce his death and to prepare for a burial. About 3,000 people appeared for the wake. However, Dexter's wife refused to cry for his passing, for which he later caned her, and so he decided not to appear to his guests at all. Timothy Dexter actually died in 1806.