Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-02-04

lnent Eastern Men on the Diret-
tory-They Finally Held Meet
ing and Ousted the Promoters
From Office.
Chicago, February 3.-During the
last ten years in which Francis Ora
bic, the man to whom Cashier Quinlan,
OF the Chemical National Bank, of
New York, loaned in the neighborhood
OF 100000 of the banks funds, has
been engaged in floating the stocks,
bonds and mortgages of his western
enterprises among investors in the
East, not less than $4,000 600 has been
realized. Intimately associated with
Cradle has been w. K. Kurtz, former
ly Of Kansas City and Omaha, now Of
New York.
The principal investors in the specu-
lations of the two men are located in
Philadelphia, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Massachusetts and New York.
For many years Mr.. Cradle has en-
joyed friendly relations with some of
the greatest officials of the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy railroad. So close
was the relations that he was let in
on the ground floor for town sites when
the company extended it's lines to the
Black Hills. He went ahead of the
builders and secured the land where
the company was to locate its stations
from one end of the extension to the
other
He had been attracted to the posi-
bilities of improving the country
through which railroad line passed,
by irrigation, and two irrigating com
| panies were formed. 1t is said both
his big irrigating schemes
WE'RE GOOD ONES,
and if they had been properly man
| aged they would have made good re-
| turns, but with that restlessness of an
insatiate promoter he no sooner got an
enterprise under way than he ceased to
| look after active operation and was on
WlIH the next.
There was stone in the vicinity of
| Edgemont, and he conceived the idea
| that that town should be the great
| manufacturing point of the country for
| grindstones. He forthwith organized
the Edgemont Stone Company, with a
capital of 100000, and spent a large
sum in building the plant for the maxi
| ing of grindstones. He organized a
| building. syndicate, got large amount
of Eastern capital into it, and began
putting up buildings right and left
along the business streets of the place.
| Most of the buildings were rented, and
| it is claimed this part of the scheme
for making a metropolis of Edgemont
is not a bad one if it, too, had been
properly managed
With enough business for ten men
| to look after properly, Mr.. Cradle did
not yet have enough to do, so he start
| ed the construction of a smelter at
| Edgemont, which he believed was to be
| the beginning of one of the greatest
smelling plants in the West
The financial operations leading to
| the formation of the Union Hill Min
| ing Company were somewhat peculiar.
| 1t had a capital stock of $1,000, 900, and
| of this Mr.. Cradle received 81, 800 COO
in payment for the fifty claims which
| he decided over to the company. The
| remaining 100000 worth of stock was
held in the treasury, and was to be
sold and the proceeds devoted to the
opening of the mines. Mr.. Cradle
went out
TO SELL HIS STOCK.
| He gave away a percentage Of it to
get people interested in the company
and sold about s1,O00,0oO at prices
| ranging from so cents on the dollar
down After he had got this far along
he brought into being another COM
pany, which he called the Edgemont
| and Union Hill Smelling Company
which was given capital stock of
| $4,000, 900. Then gradually the prop
erty of the first company was trans
| ferred to the new corporation, and its
| capital stock increased to $4,000 900
| OF this amount Mr.. Cradle took 50, $780,
600 and 81 ,200000 was lett in the treas
| ury. The original plan was contin-
| ued by which the treasury stock was
| to be sold and the proceeds devoted to
the development of the property.
BY this time many people of prom
inence in the East had been brought
to a point where they were not only
interested in the company but permit
ted their names on the list of officers
and directors Mr. Cradle was en-
abled to go forth with the following
formidable list of capitalists, who
vouched for the prospectus of min
/, ing scheme. 1t was as follows: Pres
ident, Robert e. Pattison, president
Security Trust Company, Philadel-
phia; vice president, Gen. Benjamin
IT, Tracy, ex-secretary United States
Navy, New York; treasurer, Thomas
Bradley. director Security Trust Com
pany, Philadelphia, secretary, George
H. Fletcher, Philadelphia, merchant,
o,I l;,.cnt1, Ir,,;1r yI,.,.nt ,,-..