The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-19
ONE WOMAN SUCCEEDED
ENTERPRISE OF MRS. MARY
 MURRELL

l In Operating an Extensive Western Mining Property Difficulties Which
 She overcamo in Obtaining the Nee.
 essary Capital to Put Through Her
 Scheme,
 1 Though born and reared in the South where women are regarded by many as disgraced if they endeavor to earn a l living for themselves Mrs. Mary Belle
 Murrell is now in control of large min-
 ig interests in the West. Her parents Iwere we'll to-do and gave her an eX- 1 cellent education. She was graduated with honors from q well known young Wonan's school. When reyerses of for
 tune came to her family, she turned her education to account and engaged in , teaching art in Arkansas. She did not teach very long, notwithstanding she taught very well. A fine young doctor,
 MurreI by name, persuaded her to try
 the art of hOme-making before she was twenty
 His practice brought him in contact with all sorts and conditions of men possibly it was by the insight thus re- ceived as second hand that the wife be- came so eager to help every woman to a home of her own.
 From the helpful impulse sprang a
 Woman's Building and Loan Associa- tion, whose first capitalization of $150,- was in ten years "a sed to just ten times that sum. Under the management of Mary Belle Burrell it was the most sue cessful thing of the kind south of Mason and Dixon's line.
 The success, published in association journals resulted in an invitation to Mrs. Murrsll to address the Congress of Building Associations at Chicago's Worlds Fair, also to speak upon asSo- citation flances in New York.
 Along with the sweet came the great bitterness of Dr. Murrell's death. His widow was not by any means penniless there was plenty of unproductive property, which might mean millions if she could somehow avoid sacrificing it. Besides, she wanted occupation--and in- cidentally an income befitting a gentle woman.
 Now that she has both in full meas ure, she confesses that the hardest of all her fights was with herself, to force herself systematically to enter on business life.
 In Denver business life is likely to have ome touch with minng, and very shortly Mrs. Murrell went to one of the biggest of Denvers investment com panies and was at once put to we k,
 To do the work conscientiously she needed to know all that could be learn ed about mine S generally and certain particular properties, so there followed journeys up and down and round about ito Cripple Creek, to Central City, Boulder, the San Juan district.
 Once she ate dinner with 200 miners and not another woman in sight. This was at the famous Iowa mine, in be- tween the journeys and the questioning there were long and interested sessions with county records, maps, profiles, along with much study of titles, ab- stracts and legal-looking papers.
 In course of her journeyings and in vestigations she had discovered a which, unless all mine DOT tents went for naught, was full of both of the precious metals. The precious metals, indeed, cropped out at few places and at others had been reached by deep shafts, costly to sink and still more costly to ventilate and drain.
 The expenses of them were, in fact, so great that only a few of the richest were worked, The mountain itself was above 14,00O feet high. A tunnel through 1t would have to be five miles long, but once built would bring to light almost ia bulous riches.
 Mrs. Murrell resolved to buy the mines, clear the title, then build the tunnel-with other mems money.
 To a woman of her temperament that | meant much greater strain than | building it with her own, but she went | o work at it undaunted. To clear away | every cloud from the title and acquire | all outstanding interests was a tedious job