The Portland daily press., 1867-01-02
A Beggared Millionaire.

Last week, a brief item chronicling the
sale OF the Steele Farm, on Oil Creek, for tax
es due the Government, started on lis voyage
on the sea OF newspaperdom. The paragraph
will doubtless be read by many without a sec
ond thought; but III ose few lines might easily
form a text for a discourse as lengthy as the
moral law. 1t is hardly an exaggeration to
state that wherever petroleum is known, the
name OF johnny Steele" the young prince of
Venango county, has been heard, while the
accounts oil his bounGless 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 brief history of the same may not be en-
tnely without inter est, which the Crawford
journal thus naTrates:
This farm, more generally known ION the
creek" as the Widow McClintock fam, is i'm
mediately opposite the fiourshing little town
OF housewife, and was among the first of the
oi-producing farms of the valley. Early in
1858, the Van Slyke well on this farm was
struck, and flowed Tor some time at the rate
of $500 barrels per day, and several wells
Welding from 200 to 800 barrels were struck
at subsequent periods. Besides these, there
were many smaller wells, and the territory.
though badly mismanaged, is still regarded as
among the best in the oil-region. In 1864
Widow NlcClntock died from the effects OF
crude oil. At this time the average daily in
come from the landed interest OF the farm
was $1,000, and, by her will, the property,
with all her possessions in money, was left to
her adopted son, John W. Steele, then about
twenty years oil ace. In the iron safe was
Sl50,U00, two-thirds Of the amount in green
backs and the balance in gold. Mrs. Nc
Ciintock was hardly cold in her coffin before
young Steele, who appears to have had moth
inO n naturally yipiOnc in his
surrounded by a set of vampires, who chung
TO him as long as he had dollar remaining
The young millionaire's head was evidently
turned by his good fortune, as has been that
OF many an elder man VINO made his ''pile on
OIL" and he was of the impression that his
money would accumulate too rapidly unless
it was actually thrown away, and throw it
away be did. Many Of the stories concerning
his career in New York and Philadelphia sa-
your Of fiction, and would not be credited
were they not SO well authenticated. Wine
women, horses, faro, and general debauchery
soon made wreck OF that princely fortune,
and in twenty months Johnny Steele squan-
dered two millions ofIdoilaIs. Hon. John
Morrissey, NJ. G., went through" him at faro
10 the amount of 100000 in two nights; he
bought high priced turnouts, and after driving
Il EN- an hour OF two,~ gave them away;
equipped large minstrel troupe and present.
ed each member with diamond pin and
ring, and kept about him besides two or
three men who were robbng him day after
day. lie is now filing the honorable posi-
ton of doorkeeper for Skin & Gaylord's min
strels, the company he organized, and is, to
use very expressive but not strictly classical
phase, completely "played out"
The wealth obtained by those who worked
SO assiduously to effect Steele's ruin, gave lit
tie permanent benefit to its possessols. The
person most brazen and chiefly instrumental
in bringing about the present condition Of at
fairs, was the notorious Seth Slocum. who
hung around this city several weeks last sum-
mer. He was worth at one time oyer $780,
00J, which he had captured" from Steele and
lsid aside for rainy day, but when The lat
ter's money vanished, this amount soon took
unto Itself wings, and he is at present known
among his old associates as dead beat"
AT last accounts, Slocum was ncarcerated in
the gaol Of neighboring county Tor various
breaches OF The peace, and was unable to OBJ
tain bail in the sum Of 5000. Exemplitications
these OF the Old adage, easy come, easy CO."
or the other, 'fools aud their money are soon
parted"