The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-25
Fairnounts Friend
DR.. D. X. Pearson Was a
Poor Man at Forty.

The man who has given Fairmoun
College in Wichita $4,000 and other col
leges over the country s2,5OO,0O0 d. K
Pearsons, was worth only 5000 at tbs
age of forty. A brief history Of his
unusual career is taken from the Chicago
Tribune:
This is a true account of a man who, a.
40 years of age, brought 5000 TO Chicago
who in the forty years since that time
has made and given away in charity
50, 500 600, and who still has left a fortune
Of s., 500 900 which he intends TO bestow II
the same way, keeping none for himself
DR.. D. K Pearsons came to Chicago to
| reside in April, 1860. 1t was rainy, dis
| greeable day when he arrived, and he and
| his wife left the old Galena railroad
! depot in West Van Buren, street and
walked over the bridge into the city
| They thought Chicago looked like any
thing bur a good place TO live in just
then
In his satchel DR.. Pearsons carried
g, 90, which he had saved up in ten years
| medical practice in Chicopee, Mass. He
and his wife had some distant relatives
in Chicago, but they had made UP thel1
! minds not to go TO them, although they
knew practically no one else here. Their
! relatives had discouraged the doctor from
coming West. They did not think he
was fitted to get along in the hustle and
scramble of a growing city and advised
! him to stick to his country practice.
| DR.. Pearsons had made up his mind
to quit medicine altogether and 10 devote
himself to getting rich. William H
| Carter whom he had known years ago
| in the East, was then living at 46 Van
Buren, street, and DR.. Pearsons and his
wife went there first Mr.. Carter agreed
TO board them for $ a week apiece, and
DR. Pearsons unpacked his valise, put his
So 900 capital in his wallet, and began 10
look about for a way to make money.
After he had found boarding place he
hunted up an Office. He induced Harvey
&. Hurd and Henry Booth to rent him a
desk in their law office at 116 Randolph
street, and as Mr.. Booth and Mr.. Hurd
were pust getting started they agreed on
a rental Of $25 a year.
DR.. PearsonS had a letter from friend
in the East authorizing him to sell 1900
put an advertisement in the Chicago
papers, Offering his friends farm lands
for sale in tracts of 120 and 140 acres, and
began to hustle about for customers.
On every farm he sold he received
commission of per cent. The terms of
sale were one-fourth cash and the bal
ance on security, running from on to
four years.
At that time it was considered almost
impossible to sell an Illinois farm. Hun
dreds of settlers had taken up 150-acre
tracts along the new railroad lines, and
had been forced to give them up. Corn
was worth only ten cents bushel, and
oats could be had for 12la cents, and
other farm products were ruinously
cheap. Hay, cut and delivered, was
worth only $50 ton, and many settlers
who had bought lands on time, expecting
to pay for them by the sale of their
crops, were being forced to give them up
Dr. Pearsons however, believed that
these bad times would not last long.
Every Monday morning he packed his
papers and money into small valise,
and started out through the state to sell
farms. He made it a strict point to tell
things just as they were, but he talked
prosperity to the settlers harder than
they ever heard ii talked before. On Sat
urday night he returned to Chicago, and
spent Sunday at his boarding place at IS
Van Buren, street.
Before longs the 14.OO-acre tract was
sold. Mr.. Booth and Mr.. Hurd, seeing
that DR. Pearsons was settled in bust
ness. raised his desk rent to $50 year.
Other friends in the east wrote to him
to sell their lands in the East also, and
he disposed of these at the same per
cent commission, always being careful TO
represent them to the purchasers just as
they were and to get hold only of the
choicest lands.
At the end Of the first two years DR..
Pearsons' farm land sales had become
famous, and Mr.. Hurd and Mr.. Booth
raised the price of his desk rent TO $I5 a
year This was more than DR.. PearsOns
would pay, and he packed up his papers
and moved his office to the old Methodist
Church Block. where he took whole
suite. He did all the Office work himself,
however.
Settlers in the East began TO write to
DR.. PearsOns then to pick out tracts Of
100 and $50 acres for them, from among
the farm lands he had for sale. Michael
Sullivan, the Illinois farm land king.
turned over thousands of acres of his
prairie lands for him to cut into farms.
DR.. Pearsons continued to dispose Of
these as he had of the first 14,00-acre
tract He advertised in the newspapers !
for CUSTOMERS, got in correspondence |
with them, and then met them on his
weekly trips He drove from town TO
town in a buggy, and looked after each
sale personally On every sale he re-
ceived a per cent commission in cash,
which he reinvested in farm land OF his
own. Sometimes his sales amounted TO !
500 900 week. Of which his cash commits !
sion was $1,000
Finally Or. Pearsons' business became /
SO prosperous that Mr.. Carter raised the !
price Of his board TO $40 week. This I
was more than the doctor considered It I
worth. so ne traded of the 4b0-acre farm /
near Rochelle. which he had tried unsuc- /
for three years to farm before 4
coming to Chicago, for the house next /
door. at As Van Buren, street. This was 1
Dr. Pearsons' home for several years.
DR. Pearsons never went to the theater F.!
and gave up all of his time on week days /
10 business. During his busiest times he /
never employed a clerk He had an over I
whelming ambition 10 get rich, but from /
the start he made up his mind TO give /
whatever he might accumulate 10 charity. /
He and his wife lived in the most modest /
way. and his wife planned with him the
ways in which TO dispose q their wealth 4
when they should have accumulated
enough.