Smyrna times., 1879-02-12
.aq2'lcMI1aE2'0I.
Speculative Farming.

The ups and downs of American life
have seldom, perhaps never been lllustra'
ted on such an extensive scale as by the
history of NJ. L. Sullivant, the great llll-
nois farmer, who died last week pauper
on an Ohio river steamboat, having but
few months previous been the owner OF
farm eight miles square, giving employment
to 400 men and 500 mules. Mr.. Sullivant
was no "kid glove" farmer, neither. He
was his own overseer, and gave every de-
tail of his gigantic operations his own per-
sonal supervision. Sullivant was born in
Ohio in 1905, and began life as the owner |
of o good farm there. When about % |
wears old he married ard went west to |
Vermillion county, Illinois, where ne bought |
a large tract of land, calling it Broadlands, |
improved and cultivated it, and gradually
made it one of the largest and most profit
able farms in the West. In 1868, however,
r. Aitcheson Alexander, of Kentucky,
(called "Lord Alexander, the famous
breeder of shorthorns and racing stock, and
owner of Lexington, Asterold, and many
more of the same Sort being raided upon
by the Confederates, came over into ILL
nois and bought Broadlands of Sullivant,
who was somewhat in debt for other large
purchases of land which he had been max
ing. Sullivant moved upon his new pur-
chase, Sullivant township, comprising 4S-,
coo acres of magnificent prairie, besides
several thousand acres in another county,
and began to clear, to build, to improve,
with his characteristic fiery energy. lie
built great number of tenant houses, and
had all his farming arrangements so plann
ed as to economize time and space in every
possible way. He raised only corn, and it
was his belief that grain could be grown
and sold at profit for fifteen cents a
bushel. His plowman worked in gangs,
often running off straight burrows OF from
two to FIVE miles in length, so as to lose
no time in turning. At his most prosper
GUS period on his Burr Oak estate he was
out of all debt save about $4,000, against
which he held gilt-edge paper worth $3.50,
900. But Just at this point the mania for
speculation seized him, and he ran heavily
in debt in order to improve and subdivide
his great estate into small farms, by the
sale of which he hoped to realize very
largely. He borrowed half a million dol
lars from a single money lender, securing
the loan by trust deeds, mortgaged his per
sonal property deeply, and borrowed even
all the money he had settled on his wife
lie paid ten per cent. interest and five pei
cent. commissions on many of his loans
and for some time paid 100000 year-tht
interest on q million-in interest on hi
loans. Meantime prices OF land and pro
duce were declining steadily, and the yer.
basis upon which Sullivant rested his specu
lations had collapsed. A year ago Sulli
want made an assignment, his liabilitie
amounting to S2,000,000, and his principa
creditor took his entire real estate, tn
personal being entirely absorbed by tn
chattel mortgages. Thus the greatest farm
er in Illinois came to the last period in hi
strange career. lie would have been
happier man, and might have died ricl
one likewise, if he had been content t
stick to the "good farm in Ohio."-Bah
more San.