The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1867-01-10

Il Beggnred millionaire.

Last week brief article chronicling
the sale of the Steele Farm ,on Oil creek
for taxes due the government, started
! on It's voyage on the sea of newspaper
dom. The paragraph will doubtless be-
read by many without second thought,
but few lines might easily form the text
fora discourse as lengthy as the moral
law. 1t is hardly exageration to state
i that wherever petroleum is known,
/ the name of Johnny Steele
the young prince of Venango
comfy, has been heard while the ac-
counts of apparently boundless wealth
and reckless expenditures, were told in
hundreds of papers from the New York
Herald down or up. Soon after the sale
OF the farm, the closing act, a brief his
tory of the same may not be entirely
without interest, which the Crawford
journal thus narrates:
This farm, more generally known
ION the creek" as the widow McClin-
took farm, is Immediately opposite the
furnishing little town of Housewife,
and among the first of the oil producing
farms of the valley. Early in 1869 the
Van Slyke well on this farm was struck
and flowed for some time at the rate OF
1000 barrels per day, and several wells
y
struck at subsequent periods. Besides
these there were many smaller wells
and the territory, though sadly mis-
managed, is still regarded as among the
best in the oil region. In 1861 widow
McCintock died from the effects of
burns received while kindling fire
with crude oil. At this time the aver
age daily income from the landed inter
est of the farm was $1,000, by her will
the property with all her possessions in
money, was lett, without reservation, to
her adopted son, John w. Steele, then
about twenty years Of age. In the iron
safe where the old lady kept her money
was found $780, OO-tWo-t thirds the a.
mount in greenbacks and the balance
in gold. Mrs. McClintock was hardly
cold in her coffin before young Steele,
who appears to to have had moth
ing naturally vicious in his composition,
was surrounded by a set of Vampires,
Who clung to him as long as he had a
dollar remaining. The young million
aires head was evidently turned by
his good fortune, as has been that Of
many an older man who has made his
pile i'll OIL" and was of the impression
that his money would accumulate too
rapily unless it was actually thrown
away land throw it away he did. Many
of the stories concerning his career in
New York and Philadelphia SAVIOR
strongly OF fiction, and would not be
credited, were they not so wei aulhen-
ticated. Wine, women, horses, faro.
and general deDauchery soon made a
wreck Of that princely fortune, and in
twenty months Johnny Steele sGuan-
dered two millions of, dollars. Hon
John Morrissey, M. ca went through'
him at faro, to the amount Of 100000
in two night: he bought high priced
turn outs, and after driving an hour or
two gave thom away, equipped q large
minstrel troupe and presented each
member with a diamond pin and ring,
and kept about him besides two or
three men who were robbing him day
after day. Johnny Steele is reported as
now film the honorable position of door
keeper sor Skiff &Gaylod's Ministries,
the company he organized and is, to
use verp expressive but not strictly
classical phrase, completely ''played
out.o
The wealth obtained by those Who
worked so ossidiously to effect Steele,s
ruin, gave little permanent benefit to
its possessors. The person most brazen
and chiefly instrumental in brnSing a.
bent condition OF affairs, was the notori-
Gus Seth Slocum, who hung around this
city several weeks last summer. He
WIS worth at one time over 800, 900,
which he had "captured'' from Steele,
and laid aside fora rainy day, bnt when
the latrers money vanished, this amount
soon took unto itself wings, and he If at
present known among his own associates
as a "dead beat" At the last accounts,
Slocum was incarcerated in the Jail of a
neighb0rihg county for various breaches
Of the peace, and was unIble to obtain
bail in the sum of $500. Exemplifica-
lions THESE of the old adage, s'easy come
easy CO., or the other "fools and their
money are soon parted"
WASHINGTON CoLLEGE.-There are
now 369 students at Washington Col
lege, Lexington, Va, who hail in the
numbers given, from the following
States: Virginia 1870, Tennessee 40, Ken
tuekey 81, Texa, 22, Louisiana II, Ala
bama a, Miss 'ssippi IL, Maryland 8,
North Carolina Z, Georgia !, West Wiz
ginia 8. Florida 5,sMissouri 5, S9uth