The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-12
NOW SIRAHON
FOUND FORTUNE
For Years, the Carpenter
Hunted in Mountain.
HIS WIFE DESERTED HIM
And Made His Fortune Seem
Like 80 Cents.
HIS WIFE DESERTED HIM

Fifty thousand dollars is enough for
any man 10 live on" So declares the
mining millionaire Winfield S. Stratton.
tie discoverer OF the great Independence
mine and the founder of Cripple Creek
says the correspondent for the New
York World.
In his belief Mr.. Stratton died, leaving
behind him a fortune OF more than SD
ece,eoe. True TO his theory the lifelong
dreamer cut Of his son Harry 1. Stratton
with $4,000, leaving the balance of his
vast estate to charity
A few moments for mourning and re-
fection, brief period for preparation,
and Harry Stratton came forward to
break his fathers viii and he did so.
No more notable case has ever been
tried in the courts of the state of Colo
RADIO The state for which the son is
playing is a fortune worthy of the Van
derbnts. What the world gave me /
shall give back to the world" was the
elder STATIONS theory and his practice.
The life Of Winfield Stratton was a
romance from his boyhood to his death
That he succeeded near the close of his
days in realizing all the dreams of his
life is due to one of those remarkable
recompenses which nature sometimes
deals out 70 the visionary and impracti-
cal.
When the gold rush for California be-
gan In 1s4s Winfield Stratton was in his
babyhood. He was the only son in a
family of n.ne children, which was in it.
self handicap in many ways.
Born in Jerersonville Ind. he grew up
IN that town and was educated in the
public schools. At the age of seventeen
Stratton was apprenticed 10 a carpenter
That boy won't amount to much. I
reckon" said his employer; he amt
triflin or>anything of that kind, but he's
always pickin round over rocks and
things. Hes got the gold fever
1t was several years. however, before
he had a chance TO crafty his tastes.
When he was twenty years old he went
70 EddysviIle, where he clerked in a drug
store for six months.
Mixing drugs was not TO his taste. He
had dreams of the clear crystal skies. the
clear srystal skies. the wine-like winds
and the snowy ninarets OF the Rocky
Mountains. One day he boarded an emf
grant train for the west. buying a ticket
to q point as far as his money would
take him
This was Sioux Falls. Another period
OF work and of saving, and he drifted,
ever westward. to Omaha, Lincoln and
finally ID Colorado Springs.
In speaking OF his first view of the
mountains Stratton once said:
There they were, high and white
against the skyline, spotless and fresh
from the hand of God. just as they Ilai
stood since the cooling of the world l
knew that In the fiery cruc.ble Of their
birth veins of gold and silver filtered
and flowed from summit to base, and 1
believed that 1 could find them Not
that I wanted the money particularly,
but I liked the work" Herein lay the
keynote of his life, a passion for dis
covery.
In Colorado the real romance of STRAIT
ton began. He had $500 in his pocket and
was possessed OF good trade, but he
wanted $4,000 to start prospecting with.
Before he could accumulate it he met
a Miss Stewart. and after a brief court
ship and was married His wife was
most practical woman, and when STRAIT
TON had saved I'D his 5000 and proposed
woman's careful foresight she opposed it
bitterly.
Nevertheless the craze grew upon him
day by day, and finally he Invested nls
money with some associates in the Yrs-
taba mine. near Silverton, Col, in the San
Juan country.
He went to that region on the backs Of
burros. but the mine proved fail1r
Mrs Stratton. patient under the loss,
said nothing.
Several years followed. during which
the dreamer OF great dreams earned mote
money as a carpenter during the winter
and spent it in the summer wandering
veins.
Gold gold. gold. was the subject q
his thoughts night and day. And with
each day Of tramping and bordering over
the foothills his circumstances were oe-
coming more Strengthened.
When the prospecting project was new
70 Mrs Stratton she rather smiled upon
It as a healrhful sort OF outing for her
husband. which might some day make
her a rich mans wife But as time went
on and his absence grew more frequent
ard more extended and her own priva-
tions correspondinsly harder 70 endure,
SFa day-alorad an aversion u gold-seeiS-