Catherine the Great owned a pearl necklace containing 389 pearls and weighing nearly 10 pounds, almost as heavy as the curse it carried for its owners. It was worth a million dollars when it disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century, only to resurface in the hands of the Dodge family. Then the two Dodge brothers, John and Horace, died within a year of each other. John was 55, Horace only 52. Their premature deaths in 1920, attributable to the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918, ended one of the first chapters of American automotive history, but the Dodge name remains alive and well. They were different, unwilling or incapable of conforming to social expectations, but they were visionaries and indefatigable workers who helped Henry Ford build his company before starting their own. The Dodge story is a story of great wealth, yachts, entrepreneurship at its best, and a true American saga of two of the early 20th century's giant industrialists. [1,753-word Titans of Fortune article]
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