The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-15
N. C. CREEDE'S FORTUNE
SIX YEARS AGO THE MILLIONAIRE
WAS WORKING A "GRUBSTAKE."
Woman who Caused His Death This
Week Formerly Kept BOarders
in Mining Camp.

DENVER, Col. July AN. c. Creole,
the millionaire, who died at his homeI in
Los Angeles this week from an overdose of
morphine, and who has been known by the
name of Creole since about 1872, almost
twenty years before he acquired fortune
was probably as interesting a character as
any man who has ever risen from the lot
of prospector to the position of a capital
ist and wealthy owner of mines. He owes
his distinction in a great degree to the fact
that the mining camp in which he located
the first great silver mine bears his name
The town of Creole in its day was one of
the liveliest and most picturesque mining
camps which ever sprang up in a mining
country. AT the time it's first great mines
were opened there had been no phenomenal
mining excitement since the rush to Gipin
county, in the sixties, and the Leadville ac-
tivity, which came in the seventies The
attention of the world was attracted to the
silver camp of Creole Hundreds of pros
pectors rushed to the town. There were
hundreds who wanted to invest and some
who desired to locate and live in the place
While the boom was at its height there
We're more kinds and classes of people in
the camp than any mining town has ever
known before or since
N. g. Creole was by no means remarka-
lar with his townsmen. 1t was by hard
work on the part of a few people that his
name was given to the town, and then only
by dividing the place in half and calling
the neighbor Jimtown. Creede prospected
for several years all over the State after
previous years of scouting and pioneering
on the plains. He was the founder of
Monarch Camp and made some thousands
from time to time out of localities he dis
covered.
OF his history previous to coming to Col
orado little is known. His real name was
William Harvey. He came here from Iowa
in the early seventies and settled first in
Pueblo. His first prospecting was in the
Monarch district, near Salida. He located
the Monarch mine and sold it. Since that
time he prospected in nearly every district
in the State.
The reason for his change of name is said
TO have been nothing at all disgraceful to
himself He, and a brother courted the
same girl, and when his brother resorted TO
trickery to win, William Harvey quit his
family and native town, changed his name
and came to Colorado. He came into what
is now Creede in May 1890, and located the
Holy Moses mine. He was grubstaked by
Smith q Nailor, of Salda. He got into
trouble with his partners and negotiated
a sale. D. H. Moffat S. r. Smith and l.. p
Campbell bonded it for $4,000 While work
ing, they employed Creole at So a day. a
grubstake and third interest to pros pect
for them. They never took up the bond on
the Holy Moses, not being satisfied with
the returns. The property is now owned
Viii working on the Holy Moses. Creede
located the Amethyst. 1t paid him as much
as $1,000 day for a time. and caused him
multi Millionaire.
The marriage which caused the death of
n. Z. Creede grew ut of q late-in-life love
affair and what the Creole pioneers re-
garded as an elOpement 1t smacked of a
rough mining camp romance inf it's every
detail. Ten or twelve years ago when N
{. Creole roamed the mountains a poor and
lonely proSpectOr. he made the acquaint-
ance OF his present wife. She ran trav-
elers boarding house in Del Norte and was
married
In winter when the deep SHOWS in the
mountains made prospecting well-nigh i'm
possible, Capt" Creole drifted into Del
Norte. He usually made his headquarters
in the house of the woman. Once he re-
snow storm, which had almost bound him
in the wilderness and ridges and canyons.
The experience brought on pneumonia. and,
neglecttng her own business, the landlady
by the bedside of the stricken proSpector
until she nursed him into health. She was
not any too prepossesing then, being large.
angular and oVeraddicted 10 manufacturing
her own facial compilations. But she was
kind TO old Creole, as the boys called him
and when his ship with it's cargo of silver
came in the prospectOr rewarded her.
In the fall of 1891 Creole discovered the
Amethyst vein in what was then known
as Sunnyside section, now Creole, giving
him rich ore before his first years assess
ment work was done. When the output
reached 81 900 month notion that he
could afford TO keep home and wanted one
took hold of him. He built cabin al the
head OF West Willow Gulch. In Upper
Creole, and made a quiet trip TO Del Norte
to call on the kind landlady of his pros
pecting days. What promises he might
have made her is their own secret but
when n. c. Creole returned to his new
made log abode in West Willow Gulch the
Del Norte clearinghouse lady accompanied
him. She became Creedes housekeeper