The fourth Governor of New York who also served as the Sixth vice president under James Monroe, Daniel D. Tompkins was an extremely wealthy man during his early lifetime.
But by the time he died in June 1825, he was near-penniless owing to his immense spending during his time as Governor of New York. No, it wasn’t on big houses, but funding the state militia during the War of 1812 when the state legislature refused.
Indeed, he spent so much funding the militia that by the time he became vice president, he was nearly penniless and never recovered financially…