Western Kansas world., 1886-05-15

DUBOIS MILLIONS.
The IS 900 900 Estate of the States Great
Lumber King.
CLEARFIELD, Pa, April 3O.-John
Dubois, the bachelor lumber king Of
Pennsylvania, fled here to-day an abso-
lutte deed, conveying all his property,
valued at about Sc, ,O0O, 900, to his favor.
ite nephew; John E Dubois The deed
bears date January II, 1884, SO that, al
though for more than two years young
John Dubois has been in his uncle's em.
ploy, taking orders from whatever su.
perintendent he CHANGED to be working
under, he has been the actual owner Of
the entire property. Nobody knew il
but himself and his uncle. The senio,
Dubois, who is II years old, has been
ailing lately, and decided to make the
deed public. The only consideration in
the deed is that John E. Dubois shall
pay all debts and fill all contracts his
uncle may make till the day of his death
His purpose in making the deed was
to make sure that his business should go
on in single and absolute ownership, Just
as he has conducted it for the period ol
twenty years, after his death, and that
the 800 workmen in his employ should
not be distressed by the stoppage or en-
barrassment of his enterprise. The deed
makes no mention of any of the other
heirs, of whom there are great many
John Dubois being the only bach
elor in the family of fourteen. It is left
entirely to the conscience of John E.
Dubois whether any of them shall ever
have any share in the estate or not. The
young man is about 25 years old and un-
married. He was educated at Chester
Military academy.
John Dubois stood easily at the head
of the lumber business of Pennsylvania.
It is doubtful if there is any man between
Maine and Michigan who owned more
timber land and cut more timber than he
did. Every year he cut and sawed about
$4,000, 900 feet of boards, enough to build
the dwelling houses of town of 10000
people. He owned at the time of his
death $4,000 acres of land in one con-
nected body about his town of Dubois
on which there is standing about $780,
100000 feet of white pine lumber, be-
sides many million feet of hemlock.
About 5000 acres of it is underlaid with
valuable vein of coal, being on the
western side of the Revnoldsville basin.
Besides his large buildings here, John
Dubois had a. one-fourth interest in a
tract of 10000 acres in West Virginia,
which the axe has never touched, and
large real estate interests in Havre De
Grace and Williamsport. At Dubois,
where he has lately lived, he had mill
improvements worth three-quarters of a
million dollars. When he went there, 10
or 12 years ago, there were only three
houses in the town. It sprang up with
out waiting for the timber to dry. It
now has 1000 population.
John Dubois began life with almost
no capital, and was raftsmen on the
Susquehanna at the age of II. His in
ventive genious helped him greatly. His
mills are full of his devices. Whenever
he found an impediment in his path, he
invented something to overcome it. He
recently recovered 100000 from the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad company
for the use of his patent for deep water
foundations. The automatic dam which
bears his name. is well known. He owned
the fine hotel and half the property in
the town of Dubois, and had Just COM
pleted new opera house, the finest in
the state outside of Philadelphia and
Pittsburg.
He got the first large start in his for
tune by investing in the cheap timber
lands, and the secret Of his large profits
in recent years has been the perfection
Of his machinery and the variety of his
products, which enabled him to use up
all the timber he cut and avoid waste and
profits. He manufactured
houses and shipped them all fitted and
SO that hatchet and nails
we're all TINT were required to put them
together at their destination. A rough
pine log brought from the woods to his
mill, over his own line of railroads, came
'ut at the end of tbe works in the shape
If boxes, boards, lath and barrel heads.
Every scrap was turned to profit. There
vas no waste except splinters and saw
lust.
His works at Dubois have a capacity
# $4,000 feel of lumber, 5000 boxes,
1000 barrel heads and 10000 shingles
,er day, besides hemlock mill with a
apacity of 10000 feet daily, and alarge
and machine shop He had a
arm of 1000 acres, employed 800 men,
nd knew every one of them. He had
'een seriously i'll for several months, and
ecently had DR.. Agnew, of Philadelphia,
aken up to Dubois on special train.
lie stayed just 35 minutes. Though a
nan of warm heart and genial disposi-
ion, Mr.. Dubois never married. He
ever used liquor or tobacco.
A Cheerful Dakota Liar.
Dakota Letter to the Modern Miller
In the east thousands of people plant,
nd SOW Gin the NOON to insure rapid
,roufb b,,t in dakota Il 10 donoorons &o