The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-08
THREE FORTUNES SlEN
THE LATE FREDERICK N. MO0ERs
GAVE THEM AWAY In
FIVE YEARS
AT FIFTY HE WAS A POOR MAN
Five Years Later He Had Secured
and LavishIy Thrown Away
Many Thousands of
Dollars.

! money, died suddenly the other day at
the Fifth Avenue hotel, in New York. lie
Will be remembered because, like the
bllthesome prince Of old, he went about
tossing fortunes into the laps of all to
whom his fancy turned
The story of Frederick Mooers' rise
from poverty to wealth is an interesting
one Indeed, his whole life was one OF
unusually romantic vicissitudes
At the age of fifty Mr. Mooers was
without a dollar. At the age OF ffty-ffve
ne died, possessed of one-third of The
Yellow Aster mines. property for which
the Del Mars, of Utah, vainly offered
81. 200, &C.,
His father was a cobbler in Cambridge,
Mass. He went to New York at the
breaking out of the Civil war, and for
months was street arab. Then he be-
came compositor on the New York Sun.
later Joined an expedition to Brazil, and
before he was twenty-four made a for
tune of some $4,000 in the diamond fields
along the Amazon. Returning to New
York he married, and gayly spent his lit
tie fortune within two years. He went
back to the Brazilian diamond fields.
Meanwhile the governmental policy
toward the diamond miners had changed.
and aliens were no longer permitted to
mine there
He returned to his typcsetting, this
time on the Brooklyn Eagle. One day lie
contributed an article to the Eagle on
commercial affairs of Brazil, attracted
the attention of the proprietor, Thomas
Kinsella, who made him a boolkkeeper IN
the business office. Next Mooers was
cashier for the Eagle, at s., 600 year.
Those were palnIy days of journalism in
New York and Brooklyn-days when
| Tweedism put vast sums in the pockets
of favored publishers. But Tweed was
sent to prison. The Eagle changed hands
and Mooers was out of job.
Mooers next Joined fihbustering expe-
dition to Costa Rica, in Central Amerisa
and with his comrades lay in jail one
year, expecting almost any day to be led
out to execution. He was a sailor be-
fore the mast for the next year and a
half. Returning to New York in broken
health, he wrote an article for the Sun
about the hardships of common sailors,
which brought him to public notice. He
was called to Washington by commit
tee in congress to relate in detail how
American sailors were treated on ships
sailing under foreign flags.
In April, 1885, Mooers, John Singleton
and Austin Burcheon We're living in a
tent at GoIC-, earning a dollar a day,
and on particularly favorable days a
dollar and half. For weeks Mooers
had pondered over the problem of the
source of the gofden specks which they
were dry-washing in the brown dessert
sands. One day it flashed upon him
that the Goler camp was the center of
an enormous extinct crater; that the
golden particles in the sand were wash
ed there through countless ages from
the lodges formed by volcanic action,
and that if the rim of the volcano might
be found the original ledge would be
source of fabulous wealth. For days he
told and retoId his theory to his COM
paniOns. Finally Singleton and Bur
chem agreed to go and search for the
ledge. Two days of prospecting red
to the location of the seven mines
known as the Yellow Aster group, where
Randsberg has since grown up. So
rich were the specimens whacked from
the outcropping rock that the Yellow
Aster paid from the start. Mooers, Sim
gleton and Burchem had taken over
$7G0G00 in ore from the golden ledge up
to January, 1900
With the knowledge that the Yellow
Aster was to be Il source of thousands of
dollars every month as long as ne would
probably live, Moosrs set about having Il
gloriousiy good time with his suddenly
acquired fortune. II know too well
said he to friends, that my life has been
one of such hardships that I viii prob
ably live but few years more-ten or
twelve years at tire outSide-and | mean
to have fun and make some people re-
member me for personal kindness after
| am gone"
And he kept mis- word.
First he bought a magnificent mansion
owned by Thomas u Fitch. at S1S Bonnie
Brae st. eet, l. Ar ge es. He nj TO New
York and got his aged mother, his young
son, and his brothers, and brought them
a in TNrfNr fA
home was furnished supsFbly He bought
horses and carriages for the famiiy's use
provided his mother with servants to an
tlciBate here slightest wish. and made
sure that the home circle should have a
certain part of the dividends from the
Yellow Aster monthly.
All the rest he devoted to all sorts of
whtms of pleasure.
A. month later, In Buffalo. he found a
printer OF his own name dying of con-
sumption. The next day the printer, his
Wife and two children were travelling In
SumptuOUS style toward San Diego wneye
for over a year until the man died they
received from Mr. Meoers Los Ange. es
bankers certain monthly stipend.
A year ago q nIan fell down a shaft in
the Yellow ASter mine The Yellow A.
~ Mr.. MooeTS happened to be on the
cars few weeks later, and the widow
came forward ard introduced her9clf to
him. During their conversation sl7.. s.roiye.
of her three daughters and OF the plans
of their dead father to send them East
TO the paternal Zone. A day or 50 later
Mr.. M0oerS had bought round trip tick
cts fer the whole family to New Bedford
Mass. Net only that, but he secured
berths IN the Pullman cars for them and
gave $50 gold coin to each of the trio
While i'll Rev York last summer he
overheard coiored man in the hail Of
the Imperial hotel where he was stopping
tell another servant Of how the sweepIng
Of dusty carpets In the hotel was gradti-
inquired at the office about the man, had
a doctor examine him, ard found the case
genuine csc FOR charity Shortly after
the man, his wife and child were on their
way to California at Mr. Mooer's ex-
peEso. They are ROW in Phoenix, All
AID the man is the chief cook at the
Adams house
Two months ago Mr.. MoOers was in ..
blacksmith SHOP in Los Angeles to see
about shoes fer his PAGER. lie heard sew
eraf men discussing the prospect for get
ting gold at Cape Nome. More OF the
men knew him. He became Interested In
burning Ze;l to 60 to Nome. He invited
him to his house that day and several
days thereafter. On one of the FIRST
steamers from Seattle to Cape Nome.
early in May, Richard h. Judson sailed
north with supplies and capital enough
to last two years. Frederick NJ Mouers
was bis silent partner.
Bakers Premium Coffee pictures in
coiers-beautiful work of art-are given
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