The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-12-14
Young Runaway Who Was
Left a Fortune.
LETTERS TRIP ROUND WORLD
This EpistIe Contained the Notifca.
ton That He Was the Heir
to a Nice Estate.

Denver, Dec. George Franklin
MacCreary, assistant manager of the st.
James hotel, has just received a letter
that was mailed in Angola, a small
town in Steuben county, Indiana, Jan.
IA, 1903 1t followed him to different
cities and towns in both hemispheres and
during its travels actually went around
the world, little matter of $4,000
miles, and covered on the side, separate
and apart from the trip around the
world something like 1880 miles, a to-
tai of 53,lOO miles.
The letter was from Charles Mayer,
an attorney in Angola, and contained
the news that ten days before the mail,
ing, Mr.. MacCreary's uncle, George
Franklin MacCreary, after whom he was
named, had died, leaving him sole heir
to 62O acres of land in the most fer
tile part of Indiana, adjoining the viii
lage of Angola, three Independent farm
ers' telephone lines, stock in the Dug
dale Can company, of Indianapolis, with
a valuation of $lOOO0 and $ll 900 in
cash.
Young Mr.. MacCreary is considerably
over 100000 richer today than he was
before his uncle's death.
The saying that truth is stranger
than fiction" was never more conclusive
ly proved than in the relation of Mr..
MacCreary's experience since July Is,
1888, when, lad of ten he ran away
from Angola, going to Indianapolis,
with the intention to see and join
circus.
But freights are slow, and seldom on
time, so the boy concluded to come west
and reduce the visible Indian supply. A
misunderstanding of information given
him by switchman in the Pennsyl-
yania yards in the Hoosier capital put
him on a stock train for Philadelphia,
instead of train for st. Louis and the
west. To facilitate his riding, the con
duetor put his name on one of the stock
bills as ''man in charge" The desti
nation of this particular consignment
happened to be Liverpool, which ex
plains hoy youny MacCreary made his
first trip across the Atlantic.
Rolling stones not only do not gather
moss, but as well they do not write let
tiers, and, not until his arrival in San
Francisco, three years ago, after four
years of deep sea travel as an American
blueiacket, did the runaway communi
cate with his parents, who are now in
Albert Lea, MINI. He celebrated the
event by going to sea, spending The next
two years before the mast, and remem-
bering now to mail his parents a note
or souvenir postal card from nearly ev-
cry port he touched.
This explains how the globe trotting
letter followed him to San Francisco,
Liverpool, New Aork, Wellington, New
Zealand; Hobart, Tasmania; Biserta,
Algeria; Boo Azar, Morocco; Accra and
Libreville, on the slave coast of Africa;
Mahanora, Madagascar; Sofia, Portu-
guese East Africa; Port Jackson, Aus
tralia; Srlccadana, Borneo; Bencoolen,
Sumatra; Takanabe, Japan, and scores
of other ports.
Albert Lea, Dec Quite romance
is attached to the young man known
as George Frank McCreary, of Denver,
as that is not his name, but the name
of his chum, whose parents, Mr. and
Mrs. A. J. McCreary, reside in this city.
The young mans real name is Charles
E. Frank, and he is a clerk in the st.
James hotel in Denver, while the gem
uine George Frank McCreary is clerk in
a hotel at hastings, Neb. The two
young men were great friends and, when
young Frank wanted a position, he Sc
cured it at one time by using young Nc
Creary's name. The fiction was kept up
so long that he is now generally known
by the name.
Mrs. McCreary conversed about the
matter today and looked upon the mat
ter as good joke and LAUNCHED heartily
when telling the particulars of the TO-
nance, as it might be called, that has
arisen over the common use by the two
young men of her sons name.