The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-07-22
RICH MEN OF CHICAGO.
Walter Wel,man Writes OF the Million
aires W.-o Lives ia the City by the Lake.


made his money on the Board of Trade, and
he was broker and not n speculator John
Lester is worth q million, and perhaps Nat
Jones and Norman Ream are. but the first
named is the only one whom the cashiers
gave that rating when they made up their
little list lester has made some big
deals on his own account. but the bulk OF
his fortune has been acquired 10y commits
sions on other peoples deals. B. Z.
Hutchinson hes, doubtless, made a good
deal O; money on the board, where he is
an invetcratc scalpcr. always ready to quit
as soon as he gets a profit, no matter how
small but he first got rich in the pork
packing line. He has also done we'll in
real estate should say that two-thirds
of the milionaires here are men who
had the good luck to make lot OF
money seine years ago. and, putting
their surplus into real estate. have
become enormously wealthy through the
wonderful increase in the value of Chicago
dirt Only the other day Senator Leman
told me his father-in. law. Mr.. Dole. had
sold for SO. 900 lot which cost him So
thirty or forty years ago. This same MIR.
Dole, who perhaps would have been
millionaire but for his liberality, and is al
most one as it is, started Nelson Morris in
business Il long time ago. Dole was q
cattle buyer and Morris was doing com
mon labor about the stock yards One
dav Morris went TO Dole and said he
knew where be could buy nice lot of
cattle and make some money on them If
he only had the capital. Dole lent him
the money, and now Morris sends out n
train load Of dressed beef every day.
Gustavus S Swift. the king of cattle
killers. whose establishment works up
10000 head a week and sends the biggest
part of it to the east in refrigerator cars,
once kept little seven by nine butcher
shop in the town of Barnstable. Mass
Not q few of our millionaires were
country storckccpers. like Potter Palmer
This is Il great commercial city. and yet
if We except dry goods and clOIhing, few
of our rich men have come up TO atiluence
in mercantile pursuits. Edison Keith a
milliner and hat maker is rich, but he
has made more money III real estate than
i'm millinery. William Blair and David
Kelley got rich in hardware NJ. ID. Wells
has made a million out of boots and shoes,
and John W. Doanc has made two mill
ions out of groceries, but this is about the
extent of millonaircdom in regular trade.
aside from dry goods and clothing. y.
X. Fairbanks, one Of the best known, most
intellectual. most aristOc9tic mllli0naires
in town, has made his fortune in about
the most dismal looking lard refinery there
is IN this city of packcries and relineries.
-
Lumber has been fruitful source Of
wealth la this city, as one might expect
from the fact that Chicago is and long has
been the greatest lumber mart ON the con
tinon,. Big money has been made in
railroads. TOO. Francis liinckley, q young
man OK 10. has just turned round mil
lion in one railroad operation lie built
liao with other peoples money and sold it
IL the Santa lie. The Keeps. Albert and
Henry. of the Northeastern. and very
rich men. used to be country store keepers
up IN Wisconsin 2 .. Blackstone, a
lawyer. helped rcorganizc road and came
out az tho deal its president. il. Il. Cable
and II. H. Porter are other millionaire
railroadcrs
Levi T. Letter. the Washington aristo-
crat who lives in Blaincs house, made his
fortune in The dry goods business with
Marshall Field, with whom he quarreled
and has ever since been at law with
about some real estate. George VI Pull
man. as cvorF one lnows, came from the
Eric canal. moved and raised houses in
Chicago. tried mining in the west, hit on
the idea q the sleeping ear. acted rs con
dGctor cf the first car, begged people TO
ride with hiL, and is nowo of Chicago's
richest men. lie Is worth seven or eight
millions
One o. the Youngest millionaircs in Chi
cagO is Charles Hutchinson. son Of old
Hutch and good one. IL is only 33,
aud president Of the board Of trade: he is
also at the head of the one great art con
Germ IN the west, the Art institute. He
runs bank aud other important concerns.
Our richest bachelor is Albert Munger,
who inherited his wealth. which was made
in grain elevators. line that has turned
out half dozen millionarcs. Munger,
too, is interested in art, and has half a
million dollars IN fine pictures. Columbus
H. Cummings, the head of the Chicago
gas monopoly. has been in good many
things. He started out II country MGR
chant. took railroad contracts. was in the
nickel plate scheme, owned the Lake Erie
and Western put few hundred thousands
INTO dry goods store, and finally came so
nearly swapping himself in gas stocl; that
wouldn't sell and gas bonds that people
were AFRAID Of that he had 10 sell out
every t.ins except his bank and make a
bitter fight for lie Now he is all right
again, and is still president of the Union
National, one of the largest banks in the
city. r.
There ere several very rich bankers
here. Mark Skinner, Vermont Yankee,
has grown rich making private loans and
shaving notes. Samuel Nickcrson got
rich in the distillu& business. and is now
at the head of the First National bank,
which, by the way, has larger deposits
than any other bank in the country. v
NiclersOn also owns rock crystal, which
is the most gorgeous thing Of the sort the
world has ever seen. 1t is as big as
goose egg, and is worth $4,000 He
leaves it on the parlor table of his North
Side residence during the day, but care
fully locks it up at night along with his
collection Of crystals said to be the rich
est in existence. One of Nicierson's
Il IN