Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-06-12
the BLUE STONE KING.
Anairs of J. F. KilsOur. the Big stone
Dealer.


ing Orange county people and property
which has been commenced in the twenty
years was brought in the United States
Circuit court for the Southern District of
New York under the title of John F.
Kilgour VS.. William r.. Scott and the Ma
tional Bank Of Port Jervis. In Equity
As our readers will doubtless recall, the
name of John f. Kilgour has been asso-
ciated with the bluestone business along
the line of the Erie for the past 30 years
and in connection with such men as Jay
Gould, (" Jim Fisk, Hon. o. b. Wheeler,
the late Hon. e. NJ. Madden, Of Middle
town, and others
So prominent did Mr.. Kilgour become
through these connections and through his
long fight against the combination that
the title'rThe Bluestone King" was known
and recognized, as a certificate of pre-emi-
nence throughout the limits of the blue
stone trade.
In his long business career which was
marked with backs rs well as successes,
Mr.. Kilgour gradually gathered u number
of valuable properties, large tracts OF
quarry land in Pike county, Pa, thousand
acres of valuable timber, farm and quarry
land in Delaware county, N. Y o., and an al
most palatial home in Passaic, N J.. be
sides other lands and houses in that grow
ing city.
Among his properties was the famous
'Shohola Glen" the beauties of which Mr..
Kilgour first discovered and which he
spent nearly $4,000 in purchasing and I'M
proving and which has since been the de-
light of thousands.
With tho apparent prosperity and the
fame which came to him through his wide
spread business and rs the owner Of ShO-
hola Glen, Mr.. KilgOur was doubtless an
object of envy to the thousands who heard
| and tpad of thp ffRInpetoOp KING -
Few outside of his immediate friends
knew, however, that day and night, year
| In and year out, he was a sufferer from
the most excruciating pain, which never
left him for q moments and which mt times,
amounted to the intliction of n torture;
such however was the fact, for, as the re
suit of the labors of his eaIly manhood,
when, poor boy, he labored with his own
hands in the very quarries which he after
wards owned, and as n result of exposure
to all sorts of weather the giant Blue
stone King was sufferer from the most
cruel of diseases-so great and so cOntinu-
GUS were his sufferings from this disease
| that every tooth was extracted, and that
failing TO alleviate his sufferings Mr.. Kill
govr spent three hours upon the operating
table while the foremost surgeons of the
land cut and removed every nerve from his
| face.
Heroic as were these measures, Mr.. Kill
| gour still continued to suffer almost undis-
| minished pangs of the disease, and at length
became addicted to the use of all sorts of
drugs, narcotics and stimulants which
would alleviate, even momentarily, the
horrible pains of his neuralgia attacks.
In February, 1891, while suffering from
one of these attacks, Mr.. KilGour put him
self so much under the influence of stimu-
lants as to lose all rational control over
| his movements, and awoke to reason to
| find himself two days out at sea from Hal
| ifav N cta or hound fOr IiuprnOpl
When he landed there his first thought
was of the business which he had been
| building up for thirty years, and he cabled
to his relatives in this country to turn over
| to the National bank of Port Jervis, to
which, as he claims he owed about $12, 500,
all of his property, to be held by 1t for the
payment of its debt and for the benefit of
his other creditors and by the next mail
| he sent to his son, A Stearns KilGour, an
absolute power Of attorney, with instruc-
tions to carry out the wishes outlined in
| his cabled message, and with the under
standing that the bank was to run the
bluestone business through some compe-
| tent representative, until his return.
| Having thus, as he thought secured his
business against waste and his creditors
against loss, Mr.. Kilgour gave some
| Thought to his own shattered condition,
and went to the Royal institute of Edin-
borough for treatment, from which place
he returned, somewhat improved, in June
1891.
In the meantime the National bank of
| Port Jervis had secured the title to all his
property, and through Charles St. John,
| its president, was continuing the business.
MIR. st. John died at about the same
time that Mr.. Kilgonr returned, and his
| heirs transferred the property TO w. n
Scott, the cashier of the bank who also
continued the business and the control of
Mr.. Kilgour's property. Mr.. Scott upon
II 10. l.
| KilgOur, as all parties admit, entered into
an agreement whereby Mr.. Kilgour was to
enter Mr.. Scott's employ in the business
which had so lately been his, and for a
term of years, was to actually manage the
| business, except the handling of the cash,
which was to remain in Mr.. Scott's hands.
| Each was to draw a salary from the busi-
ness for his respective services and Mr..
| Scott was to sell none of the property with
| out Mr.. Kilgour's consent, evidenced by
his becoming subscribing witness to the
deed or deeds. This agreement was made
in July, 1891, but Mr.. Kilgour was unable
| to procure 1t to be put in writing until
April, 1898. AS Mr.. Kilgour claims, Mr.
Scott commenced to sell his Passaic pro-
| perty in the summer of 1894, and Mr.. Kill
gour, through Hon. VIM. 2. Gourley, then
prosecutor of the pleas Of Passaio county,
secured an injunction restraining the fur
ther sale of the Passaic property
Then the parties met in the Astor house
In New York city and the statement was
made by the bank that Mr.. Kilgour then
owed 1t $6l,936, and that the books of the
business would show It. In the agreement
of 1898 Mr.. Kilgour's indebtedness had
| been stated at $36, 500, and in 1891 Mr.. Kill
gour claims that his total indebtedness
amounted to but S12,5OO. As result of
! the AstOr house conference it was agreed
that the bluestone business should at once
be turned back to Mr.. Kilgour, but ON con-
dition that within 90 days he would make
/ from the business $4,000 in cash and nav
1t to the bank, besides repaying to them
&, 100 which they at the same time ndvan-
ced to him, and within another year would
| pay of a 5000 Indebtedness due to out
side parties and secured by mortgage on
Pike county property. This agreement
was made in the middle of December, 1894,
and with only enough money to carry him
over his first pay roll, Mr.. Kilgour went
into the quarries, which were once more
| his, to raise $4,000 In 90 days. Impelled
/ by this herculean task and melted by the
desire to get back the business which for
SO many years had been the pride of his
/ heart, Mr.. kilgOur worked with almost
| superhuman energy; stone were dug out
Of four feet OF solid Ice; quarries were
| cleared OF heavy SHOWS; the market was
secured for customers; the Erie was i'm
portuned for cars, and day and night Mr..
kilgour's men worked to put the old
man ON his feet, and at the expiration OF
the sixty days Mr.. KilgOur triumphantly
paid to the bank $l2, 100 in cash, and was
once more at the head of his bluestone bust
| ness.
The bank and Mr.. Scott had agreed in
their written agreement to turn over the
title Of the property and take back, sub
stantially, s53,O0O in mortgages on Mr..
kilgours different properties when he
should pay them the $l2 100; and they also
agreed 70 turn over TO him the books show
ing how this indebtedness Of S8l ,g68 had
/ haQn fucurrnd Tha.r r,oda ~. - f--