The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-02

At One Time Was One Of the Riches,
Men u Kansas.

At One Time Was One Of the Richest
Man ~ KsnsaA
Kansas City. Mo-, Nov. 1.--charles J..
Devlin. who died at Chicago last night.
was before his failure in July last gem
orally credited with being one OF the
wealthiest men In Kansas. He was at
the head Of twenty-six different compa-
MES. coal mining enterprises. and mer-
camille establishments In Kansas, Mis-
souri,. Illinois and other States. For
many years he was one of the most act
i've business men In the Southwest.
His wealth consisted largely in coal
mining properties In Southern Kansas,
in the vicinity OF Marceline. Mo-. ana In
Illinois.
As the result Of overwork, Mr.. Devlin
collapsed last summer, and while papers
were being drawn up at Kansas City to
form a corporation intended to take
over and manage his vast enterprises,
the First National Bank ut Topeka,
Kas, of which he was the principal
stakeholder. failed owing depositors
over 100000 theState Of Kansas over
$500. 900. the city Of Topeka $4,000. and
various banks and concerns several
hundred thousand dollars additional.
The bank was found to hold close to
$1,000,000 of Devlin paper and its fall
ure caused runs on several Topeka
banks and caused the failure OF one
Kansas City bank that held his paper.
The failure of the First National
Bank of Topeka, put a stop to the in
corporation OF Devlin's properties and
instead Devlin went into bankruptcy.
The report of the Devlin receivers made
on Oct. 10, placed his liabilities at S.
e31, 600
C. J. Devlin was born Of Irish parent
age in st. Louis 81 years ago. Until a
few months ago he was q powerful man
physically, and mentally.
His rise in the financial world has
been phenomenal. He started in the
coal business as clerk in a coal ONCE
and soon became manager Of one OF the
small companies In Northern Illinois. In
1859 he was made manager OF fuel prop
critics of the Santa Fee System, with gem
eral control Of all the company's mines.
After the Santa Fe receivership ten
years ago, the railroad company stop
ped mining and leased Its coal proper
ties to Mr.. Dev1fn. He already owned
mines In Illinois and later bought 9TH
ers In Kansas and Missouri. He was a
big operator at the time Of the long
strike in 1897
The miners and the big local compa-
MES had a long battle over the recog-
milton OF the union, the United Mine
Workers of America. The men wanted
a small advance in pay. The other big
operators refused 1t. The worst trou-
BILE was In the Southeastern Kansas
field. Devlin sat around with the min
ers, talked things over, and then with [
some other operators. made contract |
with the mine workers.
While the Kansas and Texas Compa- |
ny and the Gould Mining Companies |
were bringing negro miners from Ala |
bama and the strikers were shooting at |
them, the Devlin miners were working |
two in a room. Each OF the miners |
took striker into partnership. Two |
men worked where one would work or |
dinariiy. The coal supply was short |
coal users would pay almost |
any price and soon Devlin made money |
SO fast that he hardly knew what he |
was making.
Then Mr.. Devlin spread out, purchas-
Ing other coal properties When the |