The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-10-24
JOS. RICHARDSON'S MILLIONS
How the Misery Millions were Made.

parsimony, by narrowness. by misery.
Tho queer old man came to this country
In 1s41 as stonemason. and the stones
he chiselled and travelled are still in the
buildings Of the business district.
He u snad to have borrowed money from
his brother Henry with which to tesin
business In a small way a. a contractor.
Aided by stingtness and natural thrift.
his fortune rapidly increased. He mar
ried an equally thrifty wife. He built the
Bridgeport wsterworks and became mil
liona1re. He had son. George who now
controls these waterworks, and daughter,
Delariffa, who lives In the old family house
on Houston street.
In due time Joseph Richardson came un-
| dor the observation o. Jay Gould, and to-
gether they built several railroads The
solitary million grew into many millions.
With the gradual widening OF his resources
the old miser invested In stocks, In bonds,
| In real estate and In railroad properties.
His brother Henry came over from Scot
land and asked Joseph for the money
loaned years before.
Joseph was poorly clothed and deceptive.
Il am too poor TO pay you" he Is said
| to have replied.
Miseries of the MultimilIlonafre.
With bis thousand miseries, Joseph Rich
ardson had but one happiness-that was
TO appear as a poor and needy man. This
ordinary person.
| Always poorly dressed. always needy
looking, always secretive and suspicious,
he became more SO when his first wife
died. At this time George. his son, had
grown up and had gone to Bridgeport to
! live.
Delariffa. his daughter. had grown up
In the path OF misery chosen by her father
and was fairly contented in the emulation
or his ways, until the old man married
again. The second wife. was Mrs. Mac
lay. the widow OF member OF the Seventy
ninth New York volunteers. The mar
rage took place about fifty years ago.
The second Mrs. Richardson had money
OF her own, and when she came to live
IN the Houston strest house with Delar-
ina, they could not agree.
misery ever hauned the house by day
ana hovered over 1t. dark as the wing of
Azrael, at night.
Mrs. Richardson owned a bit of ground
at the corner OF Eighty second street and
Lexington avenue. 1t was only seven feet
wide and ffty-two feet long. Nobody on
earth out miserable and revengeful mil
iionaire could have found any use for it.
ot4er than to sell 1t and pocket the money.
man 'aiHer, lulrd avenue clothier
owned the four adjoining lots, on which
ne proposed TO erect an apartment house.
ne offered $1,000 for the Richardson lot
Oh, no, said the man of miseries 81
won't take less than $4,000" AS this was al
exorbitant price Sarner refused.
lie put up his apartment house In due
u'me, and IL was peopled with tenants
Then Richardson figured out the case to
himself in this wise: TN build me a
house on this strip of ground to shut out
the light from Sarner's windows. on course
no one will rent It, Consequently, | viii
have TO live in 1t myself"
So the Richardson spite house was built
with Its narrow. casemate- like rooms and
Us small furniture and Its cramped and
GREATNESS stairways. Into this house the
richardson's moved and there he lived to
the day OF his death.
Mrs. Richardson cooked. washed, ironed.
swept, made the beds. and then Is said TO
have slept and cooked again. year after
year. with the miseries OF her eccentric |
husband ever lowering like n shadow about
her She was ever silent and uncomplain-
ing, though miserable.
1t Is no fun to live in a house no wider |
than hall room in boarding house and |
scarcely large enough to harbor a canary
ana cato wake up the morning with |
the walls so clcse about YOU that they |
seem to obstruct your breath. What Mrs |
Richardson dfpored most of all was the |
iack OF yard room and growing grass.
On one occasion, twentyfv years ago, |
the thought Of death had come to the mil |
lionare. Here was an expense that could |
ba obviated In only enc way This was |
to bufld his own coffin.
he went up to bridgeport. picked out |
maple tree. and had a man saw it. into |
boards and make a box. Then this apology |
for coffin was stored away, against the |
time OF Mir. Richardson's death.
But 1t came about that the old man of |
miseries never slept in 1t after all.
Miserfes of Richnrdson's Rclntivcs.
The miseries OF Richardson's relatives In
great measure have been the miserIes OF
gaunt poverty.
In the first place. his brother Henry
came over to this country from Scotland.
hoping to collect the money he had loaned
Joseph many years before. Being put off |
on plea OF poverty, Henry went to Pitts
burg and took drink.
Already poor man. he sunk to the
direst depths Of poverty He had a daugh-
ter named Della, who grew UP without any
particular education.
She drudged and shaved and labored as a
servant day by day, knowing nothing par
ucuar OF her rich uncle in New YORK. and
caring less, She was miserable becnuse
she was poor. All she wanted was enough
money TO pay her debts and live on.
IN the meantime her father, still in the
Whirlpool OF drunken existence, came
back to the East.
One day he was found sick ON the streets
OF Baltimore, and some time later was
sent 10 poor house. His health shatte-ed
~ urink mad steadily declined and be died
IN 1858 In the siek ward OF the institution.
and was buried in potter's field.
so ended the miseries of one member Of
the Richardson family.
US daughter Della went to Joseph and
told him that his brother was dead and
lhat she would like to have him help her
remove the body from potters field, but he
refused. 80 ~
some time afterward Della married a
cebbier named Maxwell and went /, San
francisco Her husband died in 1878. In
ner poverty and misery she wrote for aid
70 her uncle, but the lttten were returned
unopened.
She became a cook for the rough Ia
oorers az the Pusnse oil wells. ana went
ran - 1