The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-29

popularity supposed to neaq AIneIlcd
 list of miIEonaires. with an estimated
 fortune of one hundred and foruy-hVe
 million dollars, doesn't talk much about
 his past life. In fact, John D. Rocke-
 feller is subject on which the great
 millionaire says nothing. He lets other
 people do the talking, the guessing and the figuring, while he does the money
 ma king.
 The name of Rockefeller is always
 associated with the city of Cleveland Ohio, as it was there that he embarked
 in the oil enterprise which has made his
 name famous the world over. But MT.
 Rockefeller is not a, native of Cleveland, He was born in the western part of New 1 York state and he and his brother Will liam roamed about the country like or dinary country boys. Their parents
 were poor and moved from place to place, It is a matter of history that one day, when the two boys were roam
 ing about the country. farmer hired
 them to pick up potatoes. The two
 boys labored hard all day, and at the
 close they were paid twenty-five cents
 each for their days work, MT. Rocke- l feller and his brother William both &C.,
 knowledge that the first money they
 ever earned was the hardest It is l William who tells the story, and he | seems to get pleasure out of 1t. | Joseph J. O'Donohue, the city chamber
 lain, appointed by former Mayor Gil-
 roy, is worth some five million dollars, all of which he made himself, mainly | by dealing in coffee. MT. O'Donohue
 came to this country when small boy and after a little schooling went to | work for a large coffee house in lower 1 Wall street His business was to carry messages from the office to the foreman of the dock where the vessels dis charged their cargoes. For this work he received the generous pay of two
 dollars per week for days work from a. m. until D. m.
 John H. Starin had hard time, He was raised in the Mohawk valley, which was rather a wild place sixty years ago, when he was boy. At that time he labored along under the musi- cal sobriquet of John Hank. MT Star in, who now has something like twenty
 million dollars to his credit, likes to tell
 about his early money-making experi-
 ences. He says that he began earning
 money before he learned to talk, and
 
 back to his first deal.
 He dates his prosperity from the time, however, that he got a package of horse medicines on credit, and start ed to tramp about the country selling them. It was dreary foot-work, as the farm-houses were far apart in those days. But he carried the news of all the villages about with him, and by 1,iatt that he thought up as he walked along, he managed to put the farmers in good humor and sell them horse medicine. In less than year he had saved enough to buy a horse, and then he thought his fortune was made, as he could then ride about the country in style.
 The reason Mi. starin dates his pros perity from the time of his horse medi- cine career is that his peregrinations brought him in contact with the canal boatmen in the Mohawk river. There he picked up certain knowledge about the canal business. which later on led him to visit New York and seek an in- terview with old Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. He managed in some way to see the commodore, whom he told bluntly that he could get good deal more freight for the Hudson river road than 1t was getting. The commodore bluntly replied that he had such d-d cheek he ought to be able to get any thing. The commodore gave the coun- try boy a chance, however, and the lat ter made his assurances good. In time | MT. Starin controlled all the lighterage | business of the Central railroad, worth | hundreds of thousands of dollars a | year.
 Ex-Senator Warner Miller, one of the | republican Big Four" of the state, Is | reputed to be worth one million dollars | or more. He was raised in the same | section of the state as Mir. Starin, and | rather appropriately began his career | as general chore boy in 8 country mill. | The young ambition of his life was to | become the owner of the mill, a posi- | ton for which he thought his name pe- culiarly fitted him. He worked sixteen | hours a day the first year for his board, | and clothes. The eX-senator says that he was never much of dude, and in consequence the item of cloth ing was not an expensive one to his employer
 John H. Inman, who has built up l fortune Of eight million dollars in cot ton and southern railroads, had an humble start. He dates his first mon ey-making experience from the time he arrived in New York, directly after the war He was a. big, strongly-built boy, with just one hundred dol lars in his pocket when he reached the The first thing he did was to hunt up Richard T. Wilson, who was also a Tennessee man, who had settled In New York and was rapidly building a fortune Major Wilson had kindly l feeling for the young southern boy, and gave him repeated lifts, which eventu- ally enabled him to- start in business for himself.
 The late Eugene Kelly, who left such ]. vast sum when he died couple of l months ago, was an extremely modest nan, but when he could be induced to ak of himself he always dwelt upon lis first start in the business world He was scarcely more than child when his parents brought him to this but their finances were in an unhealthy state, and he had to find york He used to say he found plenty if it in large furniture store in the ! 3OwerV where he was general utility !