St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-13
TWO CURIOUS CAREERS.
How Two Early California Pho.
neers Ended Their Lives.

IzOW 4 VIZ "NAiAOA - Nv
neers Ended Their Lives.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Two curious careers were recently
ended on the Pacific coast, both show
ing the extraordinary reverses that be-
fall many spectators in California. In
a rude cabin in Virginia City last week
was found the dead body of Il. D. Girls
void, who had persisted by his own
hand. GrisWold was one OF the early
pioneers who came here with Harry
Meiggs. afterwards famous as the
railroad builder in Chilli and Peru.
Meiggs was was soon worth millions,
but GriSWOld didn't prosper so rapidly
because he had no fortune to start with.
Still he soon owned a trading schoon-
er which piled between this city and
Mexican ports, and he amassed a COM
Portable fortune. But when the Com
stock excitement broke out he went to
Virginia City with the rush OF adven-
turers. and there sank all he had made
in California. His old associate, Meggs.
was threatened with ruin here in the
SOS. when he took one Of his clipper
ships, loaded her with miscellaneous
cargo of goods, and one night slipped
the cable and made his way out OF the
Golden Gate.
There was gnashing of teeth the next
morning among his creditors; there was
racing and chasing down the coast to
capture the fugitive vessel with the
biggest defaulter California had ever
then known, but MeiggS made his es-
cane and he was never afterward seen
in his old haunts. His defalcation and
fight ruined dozen men in this city,
whose only mistake was IN trusting him
implicitly. Six years after he left here
MeiggS was rich, and for twenty years
before his death he was many times a
millionaire, yet in all this time he made
no INQUIRIES into the affairs OF the
friends whom he had ruined, nor did he
make the least effort to repair the
great wrong he had done.
career closed, like GriSwold's, in tinan-
cial gloom. was Daniel G. Barton, who
died recently at his little vineyard near
Cucamonga, in San Bernardino county.
Barton was cousin of the great finan-
cler Ralston, and was Il young and
handsome broker when the Big Bonanza
excitement of 1S74-75 struck San Fran
cisco and converted every curbstOne
..cbipper'' into a prospective million
aire. Barton was ShreWd, and bought
enough stock in the big Consolidated
Virginia and California mines to yield
hiai over half million in few months.
His friends thought he was on the
high road to great wealth, as he seemed
to have that Invaluable instinct which
tells speculater when the market is
going to rise or fall. His actions were
closely watched, and many small opera
tors made money by buying when they
saw Barton loading up, and selling the
moment he began to dump stocks. Yet,
despite his extraordinary run OF luck,
Pine street and Pauper alley and paid a
visit to the East and Europe.
In Saratoga he cut all immense swath.
He had suits by the dozen, and ne wore
the costliest and most unique jeWelry.
He hobnobbed with old Commodore
Vanderbilt. who graciously allowed the
Californian to bear more than his just
| burden of the cost of entertaining the
select crowd of railroad millionaireS
that he gathered about him. Barton
| shone like a meteor for one season, and
he told friends on his return that he had
dropped $4,000 in setting it up for the
| boys and in bad bets.
The same run of i'll luck followed him
in Europe. He took flyer" on all the
| English and French racecourses, but
there was a hoodoo on him, and he
couldn't win. He became desperate.
| plunged into all kinds OF dissipation,
and dropped the remainder Of his coin
at Monaco in the vain endeaver to re-
trieve disaster. He saved just enough
out of the wreck to pay his fare back to
California. Barton was SO thoroughly
dIshearteued when he returned that he
never visited his old haunts in the stock
exchange, but went to San Jose and
started a new business. He couldn't
make it go, however, and he soon re-
tired to his vineyard at Cucamonga,
which he had taken for small debt
years before, and had regarded as worth
| less. For the last seven years OF his life
he live like recluse, seldom yenturing
away from home.