The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1883-12-21
HENRY WILLARD,
Somsthing About . Man who Promises to
Become Money King.

become money King.
Now that Gould and VANDERBILT, have
retired. temporarily. A. least. from tho
financial arena. there Is some curiosity
~ 10 who shall be the next dictator. al
whose nod tho "strcei" shai. trcmble
By common consent MIR. Henry Willard
seems to be awarded the proud position.
though whether he wants il is quite an
other matter, for the leading spirit in
the Northern Pacific Railroad and the
Oregon Navigation Company is mod
est man. not tOnd of noise or notoriety
As he Is likelytO como before the public
far more prominently during the next
few years than any other financial mag
nate OF the day, some words rs TO the
man may not be without interest do
not know whether he has ever made
good his claim by IN aetdf Lei sseire
to the name of Villars: or not, but at
any rate his name was originally Hill
gard, and many of the same family may
now be found in Believille, Iii. Tho
distinguished superintendent of the
Coast Survey, Professor Julius Hilgard.
one Of the men of whom the scientific
world is proud, is an uncle of Mr. Viii
lard. The Heinrich Hilgard of thirty
years ago. or the HenryVillard of to-day
Is the son of Gustave Hilgard. formerly
President Of the Supreme Court IN Mu-
mich. Gustav Hilgard was the only one
OF five brothers who did not emigrate
to America, and il was not originally
intended that his son Henry should
come here. But some wild escapade,
while studying at the University at Mu-
Mich, induced him 10 come to this
country in 1858, being then 10 years of
age. He got rs far as Chicago, when
his fortune gave out, and he was taken
in hand by his uncle Robert G. Hilgard,
Of the Belleville Savings Bank. who took
him TO Beileville. where he remained
until he could find his way around the
new country. But Bclleville was too
small place for the Young man, who
wandered of to see the world, and was
not heard OF for several years. In his
wanderings he became acquainted with
Horace Greeley, who was making his
way across the continent, and Greeley,
seeing the solid worth in young Hilgard
engaged him as correspondent, with u
rowing commission in the West. This
was before the outbreak of the. war, and
in that time of great opportunities Hill
gard soon made name for himself in
q double sense-he became noted as an
excellent correspondent, and made his
nom de plume of Willard so favorably
known that he ended by discarding his
own name in its favor. Before the close
of the war he was Oh the high road to
fame as newspaper writer of brillancy
and judgment, and, had he remained in
newspaper life, he would unquestion-
ably have made his fortune.
But the close of the war and the be-
ginning of the era of wild speculation,
which lasted from 1868 to 1873, offered
him greater opportunities for money
making than any newspaper career. He
went back to Europe and laid before the
rich merchants of Germany and Holland
the opportunities for getting 10 and IL
per cent. for their money, ,slead of one
fourth of that rate. He. fad enormous
faith in our gOvernmenSsonds. Money
was intrustei to him .S-,yiace i'm this
country. and he carried o b. his contract
with So much judgment that enormous
sums We're soon placed at his disposal.
In ten years after the war he made four
trips to Europe, each time strengthen
ing his position. The crash of 1873
found his investments in excellent shaEk,
and with the revival OF prosperity in
1873 Willard began to loom up rs not
only the agent of millionaires, but one
OF the fraternity himself. He had taken
as good care of his own money Us of
other peoples, and his career in the
northwestern part of the Ulited States
was marked by almost infaliible judy
ment and no reverseS. The history of
his fight with the Northern Pacific road
and its complete equalization is too re-
cent to need repeating. He holds the
controlling power over the railroads Of
the Northwest. and is. next to Wander
bilt and G"uli the mos, impOrtan:
railroad man In the country. and IN
such q comparison Vanderbilt can
scarcely be said to count, as his power
10 due to inherited wealth rather than
to an inbsrn faculty for railroad finance
such as characterize Gould and Viii
lard.
Personally Mr.. Willard is extremely
unos,entatiOus. big man in every way,
physically and mentally. good humored.
kind hearted. fond of work. but devoted
to his family. and with cultivated taste
for art and music. What his personal
wealth is few persons have any means
Of judging; it may be anywhere from
IS. 900, 600 TO $40, 100000. More I'M
portant than the actual amount of stock
he may own, is the influence he welds
over foreign investors. who have COM
plcte faith in his judgment. He has be-
come in manners and language rs much
# an American rs if he had been born
here. and evidently intends to make
New York his future home, for he is
building q house which will equal the
Vanderbilt mansion in spaciousness and
effect. 1t is on Madison avenue. back
of the Cathedral, where MIR. Wizard
bought the block between Fiftieth and
Fifty-first streets. The style is renais-
sanoe, and the material brown stone; it
Is about fifty feet wide, by something
over 100 feet deep. The plasterers are
now NJ work inside, but it will be an
other year before it is ready for the
family.