False. Madge and Mr. Pennybags actually grew up together in Concord, NH. They went to the same church (episcopalean) and their fathers were in the same fraternity (Phi Gamma Kappa) at Princeton. When Mr. Pennybags himself enrolled in Princeton, he wrote letters to Madge on an almost nightly basis. Although there were other women during his college years, he married Madge immediately after graduation, probably in a large part due to her father's ownership of the B&O Railway, one of the nations first rail superpowers. Within a decade, Madge's father retired and turned the company over to his young son-in-law. Mr. Pennybags proved worthy of the responsibility, acquiring two other railroads and finally the fourth "major" on his thirty-fifth birthday. With the acquisition of the Reading Railroad, Mr. Pennybags was able to raise transportation costs significantly.
As he moved into real estate, his fortune grew, but his personal life was ridden with problems. He was known for his work drive, often spending twenty hour days in his office at Park Place, but all that time meant absence at the homestead. Childless and for most of her days husbandless, Madge faced severe depression and turned to food and drink. Her unhappiness led her to become sharp with her husband on the rare occasion he was home, which probably added to his desire to stay at the office. Doubtlessly aggravating the situation was the fact that Madge could not concieve. A doctor prescribed bromide to her, and she went through her final years in a haze. At the still young age of forty-nine, she died from "congestion of the brain," which probably meant a tumor.
Mr. Pennybags stayed a widower until he was fifty-two. By that time, he had built a sizeable empire and controlled most of the real estate around Atlantic City. Although he was still a workhorse, it was less necessary for him to stay in the office for hundred-hour weeks, and more necessary for him to mingle with high society. At a party thrown by the son of Andrew Carnegie, he met a nineteen-year old socialite named Mina Goodsworth. Enchanted by her youth and beauty, he began courting her immediately. He longed to propose, but her parents were catholic and did not approve of his religion, which had always played an active role in Mr. Pennybag's life. Mr. Pennybags had been hard of hearing since an accident when he was twelve, and as an inside joke he and Mina had become accustomed to communicating by tapping each other's arms in morse code. Mr. Pennybags finally proposed to her, on her arm, in morse code, but it was two years before they could wear down Mina's parents (who were actually a decade younger than the groom.) Finally they were married in Mr. Pennybag's fifty-third year. Astonishingly, Mina produced three sons, and the marriage lasted until Mr. Pennbag's death in the year of their twentieth anniversary.
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