Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-11-21
Coal OH johnny.

..Coal OIL Johnny" was 10 the city yes
terday, The fact that Goal OIL Johnny"
Is alive will be news to most people, for
In spite Of the great amount OF newspaper
space given TO that erratlc individual dur
Ing the past twenty years, the public has
never been informed as to what became
of him after he got through spending his
wealth. Goal Oil Johnny" IL now John
Steele OF Lincoln. Neb., and he has .
daughter living In Aitkin county, Mimi.
He was on his way to see her yesterday.
He looks like well-to-d0-farmer and no
one would ever think of him as the man
who, In the early days of the oil excite
ment In Pennsylvania had money to burn
and literally burned It. Clerk Lou
Forbes, OF the Windsor, identified Steel.
fora few weeks ago travelling man had
told him something of the history Of "COal
OH Johnny" and OF his present residence
on Nebraska farm. When John Steele
registered yesterday morning, Forbes said,
by way of making the new arrival feel at
home: Hello. Coal Oil Johnny" The
man on the other side of the desk pushed
his bushy beard over the counter and
remarked: who told your" Forbes was
perhaps more surprised than Steels was,
but he made his bluff good. and had q
talk with the ver.table owner of . name
that Is famous the world over as being the
appellatiOn of q man no spent more
money foolishly than anybody that
breathed before his time. Steele would
not talk about himself. He would not
talk much about anything, in fact, and
only remarked that ''all that fOOiishness
Is past, and let 1t go" referring to his past
life.
Mr.. Steele is man OF fifty three or
fifty-four years. He doesn't know his
own age exactly, for the people who left
him the wealth that he sQuandered took
him out of a poorhouse, where he had been
left as an infant. That was IN 1857, and
he was legally adopted by q farmer who
took him home to Oil Greek. There was
an adopted daughter in the family. and
when the farmer died the farm was left to
Johnny and the savings of the old couple
to the adopted daughter. Before the
death of the farmers wife oil was struck
on the farm, and the old woman could not
count the money that came to her. She
was burned to death In her house one
night and all the great wealth that was In
the farm became Goal Oil Johnny's''
The story of how he spent his money is
familiar to everybody, but his disappear
ance one day when he came to the end of
his rope Is not SO we'll known. He went
out with his family to Nebraska and
started life afresh as freight handler in a
railroad warehouse. His son was edu-
csted through the efforts of his father,
who became as frugal in his manner of
life as If he had been prodigal. and the
boy became clerk and finally got charge
OF the freight house In which his father
was q laborer. About ten years ago a
Philadelphia banker located Steele and
turned over to him q large amount of
money that he had deposited while on a
drunken spree. With this money Steele
bought farm. and the one time million
ARE is now very ordinary Nebraska
farmer, with disposition to save the
money that he gets for the corn he raises,
And he looks the part of a well-to-do
farmer that he is.- St Paul Pioneer Press.