Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1902-06-06
cAsHEp HER rRucK PATcH.
widow suIIivnn's Good Fortune ~
the P0sseasiOn of Piece
of oil Land.

In the early days of Beaumout'f
history as an oil city columns OF
stories were sent out in which this
person or that one had come into pos
session Of fortune in day or night
Some of these stories were without
founda tion, but, on the other hand,
many of them we're true, for this was
a boom in which the home people and
the original owners of the land
profted immensely, says a Beaumont
(Tex.) correspondent of the St.
Louis Republic. In some cases it was
q poor colored family owning little
patch of ground within two or three
miles of the magic Spindletop
Heights that sold out to same pros
pector who had come to "get in on
the ground floor" or a white family
trying to wrest precarious living
from the ground by means of truck
patch suddenly become the owner of
a comfortable bank account through
the sale of it's garden as "oil land"
Of all those who profted by the oil
strike, the "Widow" Sullivan, as she
is commonly known, was one of the
most fortunate.
For several years residents of Beau
mont have been familiar with the
pathetic figure of a woman, poorly
clad and seemingly half fed, who
drove a wagon drawn by a scrawny
team through the streets, going
from house to house In the wagon
she had three or four barrels, and
into these barrels she poured the
slops gathered from the various
kitchens she visited When she had
thus accumulated a load she would
drive her rickety vehicle to her little
farm, about three miles south of the
city, where she would feed the con
tents of her barrels to a number of
hogs that she kept. In this way, toll
ing through sun and rain, through
heat and cold, "Wdow" Sullivan has
managed for several years to earn
enough to satisfy her few wants,
though hers was life of the hardest
and meanest kind of labor, with no
vacations or cessation from toll. Her
story was a sad one, but no one ever
heard her complain. Her husband
died several years ago. She donned
black calico dress, and the next day
after the funeral she had taken up
the task which she has since pursued
so faithfully.
Widow Sullivan's little piece of
land was nearly two miles from the
gusher, but people thought that oil
was to be found all around the big
gusher, and the widow soon had an
offer for her land that would have
turned the head of most women in
her circumstances. But she refused
all offers until the wild rush after
land had reached its height. She
parted with her little "truek patch. -
and the same day she walked into one
Of the banks and deposited $4,000 to
her credit.
The next day the "Widow" Sullivan
was seen seatedaon her .ricketv wag-
on, making her old round of the
kitchens and carting her barrels off
to her hog pen, and, though she sold
her land five months ago, she is still
guiding her scrawny team back and
forth between her humble house and
the kitchens Of Beaumont. She still
makes her home on the land she sold,
for the man who bought it has not
even erected a derrick on IL.
While many Of the stories about
the sudden acquisition of wealth in
this field have been overdrawn. the
story of Widow" sulIivan's good for
tune is true, as her bank book viii
attest.