The Mysterious Bank

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The bank gained nearly 600 depositors after the Herald's articles came out. The deposit was doing well enough that Sarah House moved the bank to a new location in Boston south end. She reportedly threw a party for her husband's birthday where she invited total strangers so she could have a crowd to see the presents. But it's still a little mysterious how she spent that kind of money.

In the late 1870s, a woman named Sarah Howe started a bank just for single women called the Ladies’ Deposit Company. She asked new customers to tell their friends about the bank rather than advertising in newspapers, and she promised she could almost double their money.

Today, the story of the woman running a Ponzi scheme before Charles Ponzi was even born.

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Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

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