The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-05-02
0BJECTLESSON INTHRIFT
WHAT A LIFE OF FRUCAllTY HAS
DONE FOR VICTOR WILLIAMS.

ne worth nearly S2OO, 900, and whose
mortgages, leases and contracts
blanket many farm in the towns of
Lyme, Lorraine and Cape Vincent,
walked into Watertown from Three
| Mile Bay, where he lives with
nephew and "does chores for his
board. ON recent Wednesday, says
the Syracuse Herald, carrying slung
across his arm a well-blacked pair of
cowhide boots, in which were slowed
| away big rolls of greenbacks, aggre-
eating many thousands of dollars. be-
sides other securities rivaling in value
the contents of many a country bank
vault.
The old capitalist had been on a
collecting tour among the farms of
the mentioned towns, gathering in
the interest on his mortgages and
stufiing 1T into his bootleg banks, and
coming to Watertown deposited his
gatherings in the vaults of certain of
the city banks, after which he started
out to walk back TO the farm, leaving
early that he might reach home in
time to take care of the farmers
stock.
In appearance the old man. who
must have passed his eightieth birth
day, is suggestive of anything but a
capitalist, as his cowhide boots, which
he always carries with him on his
trips, are suggestive of anything but
the repositories of money and secur.
tiles. lie wears, winter and summer,
a well-patched pair of brown denim
oVeralls stuffed into pair of long
legged rubber boots, while his faded
coat is belted around his stopped
and bent body by piece of clothes
line with an iron ring i'll lieu of n
buckle. His gray hair protrudes
from beneath a low drawn Scotch cap.
and his shrewd and wrinkled visage is
framed with fringe of gray beard.
His eyes, in spite of his eighty years,
are as keen as hawks, and lie never
for an instant allows his glance to
wander from his bootleg banks.
This little, bent and shabbily
dressed man hns made every cent of
his wealth by industry, frugality and
strict economy, and every penny of
his possessions has been honestly ac.
cumulated. He was born on a little,
rocky farm near the Burnt Rock
schoolhouse, in the town of Lyme.
some eighty years ago, and after at
tanning his majority worked for
neighboring farmers in summer and
taught district schools in winter for
several years, but evidently gave up
welding the birch and spent his life
up to few years ago asa farm hand
in unremitting toll, often working in
the field for the scant wages of the
hired man" on farms he could have
owned in his own name simply by
toreclosing the mortgage he held
thereon and which reposed in his cow
hide boots.
As he received his board and got
his washing and mending' done
gratuitously on the farms where he
toiled, no was able to save nearly
every cent of his wages. The first
dollar earned by him he still keeps,
and has kept ninety -nine out of every
one hundred, he says. earned since.
Like many another man, he found
that the hardest struggle was to save
the first $1,000. Since that was saved
aud it's interest commenced to pile up.
!
few years ago he gave working
among the farmers for wages, and has
since lived with his nephew near
Three-Mile Bay, but has by no means
been idle. Periodically he sings his
pair of cowhide boots across his arm
and starts out on collecting tour.
taking along his papers and making
new leases aud contracts as occasion
requires. He has never, it is said.
paid layer cent always securing
q compromise in any difference which
has arisen between himself and his
| tenants. As he owns no farms in his
own name, only holding mortgages,
etc, he is little bothered by the tax
getherer He is said to have very de-
cided opinions regarding the income
tax law aud the taxation Of mortgages.
Just what disposition Victor VIII
liams will make of his wealth when he
arrives at the end of his accommodating.
none Of his friends has the remotest
idea. He never married, his entire
attention having always been concen-
trated upon the accumulation of
wealth, and he has but few living rel
| atives. " is said by those most "a
miliar with the eccentric old man that
1t is his purpose to set apart the
greater part of his wealth for tho
building and endowing Of an agricul
tural college, to be located near
Watertown, while others maintain that
the building of an industrial school.
such as that erected by the b,nef-
cence of the late Thomas S. Clarkson
at Potsdam, is his cherished object.
To a kinsmau be is said to have once
stated that he would set aside GER
tain sum to erect monument. which
should be surmounted by a figure
copied after himself, bearing sunp
across the arm n pair of boots. To
another friend here he is alleged TO
have once said that more than 500.
600 has passed through his bootleg
banks during the years in which no
has used them for garnering and car
rying wealth