-Zepheniah & sons + Mann. co (with founder Barnabas Hale) have a leading weapons manufacturer
and research division, and make lots of success this way. It all started in the Land Down Under.
-King of australia starts a mad war with hills, and this (supposedly) leads to grabbing land in the Americas
-Zepheniah and his two sons, Blutarch and Redmond and his wife Elizabeth go to the Americas under
the advice of his two sons, promising rich gravel deposits.
-The gravel turned out to be sand, and the sons betray the father by squandering all but a part of his fortune.
Zepheniah gets every horrible disease known to man and dies after a long struggle but not before giving his wife his house and splitting the useless land in between the two rivalling brothers.
-BLU and RED are founded with the two sons leading them and Spytech and Mann. Co being the weapons suppliers and primary R&D section.
(rumors)
The photograph shown here gives me a very good idea of what happenned to Zepheniahs fortune.
http://www.teamfortress.com/pumpkinpatch/family_portrait/
The cut out person on the right seems to be awfully spy-like, and I would say that this person gains the fortune of Zepheniah and uses it to start Spytech industries. Also note Elizabeth looks an awful lot like the fan-made announcer picture.