The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-21
OHICAGO'S MILLIONAIRES.
Men of Fortune in the Lake City and
How They Gained Their Wealth.
Personal Traits of Some of the headers of Chi
Cages Big Business-Pullman, Marshall
Field, and Other Noted Characters.

Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.
CHICAGO Nov 19--In double sense the prlde
of Chicago is its youth The community is ro-
bust. vigorous one of comparative tender years,
and among it's rich young men there IS no Idle
ness. New York, Boston and many of the older
cities of the East are cursed with idle rich young
men who have no purpose in life out 10 raise
CAIN With few exceptions, the great Cnlcago
fortunes are still under the control OF the men
who reared them. Where they have passed to
the second generation the heirs. as rule, are
men or women of discretion whose early years
had been passed in toll or in view of active la
Dor and they have inherited practical ideas as
we'll as money The rich young men Of Chicago
have never had time for indulgence In the lux
ury of idleness or its accompanying vices There
are several hundred men in Chicago under forty
years of age who are in receipt Of liberal in
comes. the fruit of ancestral toll. But there is
no distinctively idle class there is in New
York.
At the time of the FIRE. fifteen years ago, the
mllionares of Chicago could have been num-
bered on the fingers of one hand Now there
are hundreds in this class. The Cyrus III. Nc
Cormick fortune is well distributed, but it has
not been scattered or wasted, the heirs of that
sturdy old pioneer having developed q tact for
holding on to what was left them. The Peck es-
tate is handled as entirety, and the admins
traitors or trustees have added to the value OF
the property very greatly since the death Of the
man who accumulated it.
During the past few years several huge fort
unes have been amassed as by magic. They
80 81 ofC "A I'd
Oil chicanery or railroad-stock watering and the
freezing out Of minority stockholders. P. d.
Armour is probably the most conspicuous in the
list of millionaires. He is supposed to be worth
$25, 00O 00O Twenty years ago he operated
little one horse butcher shop on Archer avenue.
To-day he gives employment to eight or. ten
thousand men in his various establishments, here
and in the West, and he probably has more irons
in the fire than any other man in Chicago. He
lives in quiet style on Prairie avenue. His
whole existence is wrapped up in business to
which he is perfect slave He takes fewer
hours for enjoyment than any of his WORKING
men, and probably finds his lot as hard. Z n
slant toll is having its effect the iron frame,
ardhe shows marks of the hard usage to which
he is subjected himself. He could not stop
work now if he tried to, and will probably die
with his harness on twenty years earlier than he
would if he had taken things easier and devoted
less vital energy to the accumulation of millions
which he will have to leave behind him.
Geo. NJ. Pullman is the body and soul
of the Pullman Palace-car Company, the sal
aries of whose employees you and | have been
helping TO pay for 10, these many years. He
may be a very rich man he may be
parativcly poor one. Nobody knows anything
about Geo. Pullman or the Pullman Palace car
Company except Mr.. Pullman He is backed in
his enterprises by small circle of personal
81 - b. nAA 1on~ &c
of money and who place the utmost confidence
in his business sagacity and honesty. Doane.
rich wholesale grocer. Marshall Field, and few
others of that class form this close corporation
whose interests more or less wrapped up in
Mr.. Pullman. Pullman lives in magnificent
palace on the South Side, and his wife is recog
nized leader of the social aristocracy, whose
corner. stone and arches are gold and pork.
Marshall Field is gentleman Of aristocratic
figure and elegant carriage, with the appearances
of high bred man. He has bright eyes and a
head of thick iron-gray hair and does not look to
be over fifty years old. Twenty years ago he
was clerk in Potter Palmer's dry goods store
To day Potter Palmer is worth possibly $5, 000-
600, and his old clerk could buy him out three
times over and then have comfortable fortune
= left He. too. lives on Prairie avenue, 8 street
along which the envious poor sometimes walk
and imagine they are oppressed by the smell of
pork and their finer sensibilities offended with
the sight OF various evidences of plebeian origin
and ostentatious vulgarty.
One of the very rich men Of the town is Mr.
John Cudahy, who has made five six million
dollars within the short space of five or six
years, or at the rate of million year Taken
straight through, an income of q million a year
would satisfy man of moderate ambition.
This last millionaire ran errands and did other
light work about the packing houses of Chicago
and Milwaukee In his very youthful days, and
most of his life has been spent within the cheer
full environments of the swiao- butcheries. Mr..
Cadnhy Is not distinguished as society man.
In fact he knows less about society than his set
Ting clerk Nevertheless he, like the other rich
men, has built himself gorgeous residence on
one Of the most fashionable streets of the South
Side He employed the most popular architect
he could fnd paid him a liberal fee, told him to
drawsthe plans for as fine house as he could
think of and build it regardless of expense The
architect obeyed instructions, and the result is a.
SNOWY pile of stone. brick mortar and iron that
excites the wonderment and admiration of the
beholders Although reared aud educated in an
atmosphere of pork, Mr. Cudahy made his for
tune in selling wheat what wasn't hisn." He
early mastered the intrcaces of selling short
and his operations on the Chicago Board of
Trade were huge scale, and for the past sew
eral years they have been almost uniformly sue
eessful Mr. CudahyS grammar may not be al
ways perfect, but his signature at the business
end of acheck has higher commercial value
than Lindley Murrays or any authority on
language If Mr.. Cudahy sticks to his money
or If the money sticks to Mr. Cudahy his chill
dren will be society lights.
Mr.. Sid Kent is another multi. millionaire He
is of distinguished New England family: that
is to say. distinguished in the way of fat bank
accounts. He has been a resident of Chicago
Tor many years. is heavy stakeholder in several
banks, the principal owner of ork-packing es-
Enlistment lives in princely style On one of the
finest houses In the city, and although supposed
toSbe a very cultured person. the fact would
not be known were it not for his money bags.
Mr. Kent had a very large hand in the construc.
ton of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail-
road, and out of this enterprise he made a large
fortune, a portion of which ne is said to have
subsequently, invested in Mexican enterprise
which did rot pan out as we'll. He is rated at
$4000.000, and groans his way through life
victim of dyspepsia and bad dreams.
Mr.. n. S. Jones is late recruit to the ranks of
millouaires He made his money on the Board
Of Trade by placing his bets with the lucky
Irish pork-packer above described and is now
building him mansion in the uitra-aristocratic