The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-22

cess. With the money he made as law
yer he purchased property on the West
Side i'll Chicago, and the rise in values
made him more than a millionaire.
Much of his success was due to the
efforts of the keen witted woman who
kept his books and took charge of his
Office. This was Miss Culver. When Mr.
Hull's wife died, she expressed a wish
that Miss Culver, whom she had known
from childhood, should take charge of
her growing children. So Miss Culver
became housekeeper as we'll as bookkeep-
er and for nearly so years devoted all
her time and energy to Mr.. Hull, his
family and his fortune. Both children
eventually died, but the fortune kept on
increasing.
Mr. Hull was a man who had practi-.
cal ideas on philanthropy. For years he
kept cellar full of coal that poor peo-
pie were welcome to help themselves to.
He built small, Comfortable cottages
and sold thGm to workingmen on easy
terms. He spent much Of his time and
a great deal of money in looking out for
the needy. Some Of his ideas were rath-
or eccentric, but the goodness Of his
heart was never in doubt.
In the course of time the business of
looking after the vast estate was grad
ually assumed almost entirely by Miss
Culver. The property consisted largely
of tenement houses on the West Side in
Chicago and Of houses in other cities.
Miss Culver looked after the rents,
the repairs and a thousand and one de-
tails. She was also interested in Mr..
Hull's philanthropic work and knew his
plans thoroughly. Eight years before
he died Mr.. Hull made a will leaving
all his property to Miss Culver.
When the will was read, there were
four disappointed nephews. An attempt
was made to break the will, but it fail
ed, and SO Miss Culver, who had begun
as housekeeper, inherited the millions
For years she lived very quietly, going
down to her dingy real estate Office as
regularly as any of her clerks and trans
acting business that many men would
be incapable of conducting.
The Office in which this millionaire
business woman spends SO much of her
time gives an idea of the practical way
in which she lives and works 1t is on
the second floor of a three story build
ing on a busy street. There she occupies
three rooms. The Office furniture is Sc
verely plain. Miss Culver does not &C
in for mahogany desks, Turkish rugs,
silver inkstands, fancy penwipers and
leather covered sofas.
There is not even q roll top desk. She
uses a plain, convenient desk, with a
box of pigeonholes on either side.
There areVthree straight backed chairs
and row of lawbooks on a shelf above
the fireplace. An old fashioned clock
is the only wall decoration.
Miss Culver herself is of medium
height, plump and rather matronly
looking. Her hair is white, for she is
now nearly 60 years of age, but, except
for her hair, does not look it by 20
years. There is nothing about her that
the cranky old maid. In fact,
five or six hours a day in her Office,
and the rest of her time is taken up with
the various mission work and other
philanthropic schemes which she is in
terested in.
She is practically unknown to the
swell society people of Chicago. At her
comfortable but unpretentious home in
a quiet quarter of the West Side no So
oial functions are ever given. She has
many friends, however, who are doing
the same work among the poor that she
is, and her time is fully occupied.
Miss Culver's 81. OGO. 900 gift is to be
.sed in founding a school of biology.
Its generous proportions will allow of
extended research into the science of
living, and observation stations where
The study of bacteria and germ life can
De watched will be instituted.