The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-26
is THE RICHEST INDIAN.
Lon Hill, a Choctaw Brave, Has For--
tune of S6,oOO,ooo.

irrigated. AT the rate which other
land i'm this section of the same char
acter is selling, $40 per acre for this
100000 acres would not be an excessive
figure Figured that basis this In
dian is worth 81, 900 000 He is not given
to overrating things and the first esti-
mate is his own.
Lon Hill is a full-blood Choctaw. He
| is proud of his Indian blood and :
stranger is not long in his presence be-
Hill that he is an Indian.
| This Indian has been able TO take
care of himself" he will say. 81 never
have received anything from the gov
eminent and / am not expecting any,
thing"
This is true. He has never shared
in any of the alotments in Indian Ter
ritory. He has been making his way
alone and unaided ever since he was a
boy
The marvellous thing about the great
fortune which Hill now possesses is
that he has accumulated il all during
the last six years. He located at
Brownsville. % miles below Harrington.
a little more than six years ago. That
was before a railroad had been built
into that region. 1t was then 100 miles
to the nearest railroad outlet TO the
outside world. Hill says that when he
arrived in Brownsville he was worse
than broke He did not have any
money and his debts amounted TO $500.
He had been practicing law at Bee
! Vile, Texas. He had made good
reputation as a lawyer in southwest
Texas, but he reached the conclusion
that the time was not far distant
when the valley of the lower Rio
Grande would be transformed from its
primitive wilderness of chaparral into
cultivated farms and gardens.
hn hoA ell in Ia
border town this progressive Indian be-
gan the work of interesting capital to
build a railroad TO the place. He en-
listed the efforts of wealthy land own
5 ers in the project and a party of them,
accompanied by Hill, went TO St Louis
to lay the scheme before men of means
| in that city. IL was the original inten-
ton to submit the proposition to the
chief officials of the Missouri. Kansas
[ & Texas Railroad company. which
S was at that time building into San An
y tonic and was headed in the direction
of the lower Rio Grande region.
1t happened that B. F. Yoakum, now
chairman of the executive committee of
the Rock Island and Frisco systems.
was personally known TO Hill and
s other members of his party, and they
! naturally thought ii would be a good
plan to get his advice before calling on
the Missouri, Kansas & Texas peo-
pie. IHey cdleu upon AT
the general offices of the Frisco in st.
Louis and laid their plans before him
J Mr.. Yoakum listened to what they had
: ! TO say. He then surprised the commit
+ tee by telling them that they need go
r no further; that he was perfectly IA
miliar with the resources and require
ments of the region which was so
badly needing transportation facilities.
and that he would enlist the necessary
- capital and build the road. The com
. mittee returned to Texas without TAX
= ing up the matter with the Missouri.
Kansas & Texas officials.
Possessed of this knowledge Of the
practical certainty of the building of
II the road the redskin lawyer began TO
n secure options upon the rich valley
!: land adjacent to Brownsville. This
wild land was covered with an almost
lie impenetrable growth of brush and
small trees. 1t was considered almost
unfit for grazing purposes, so thick was
the chaparral upon il. The value placed
upon the land ranged from 81 TO $50
De per acre, and some of the owners per
haps thought that they were robblnS
q, the prospective purchaser when they
fixed those prices in the options. Hill.
for his own purpose, was willing az
that time to concede that he was
agreeing to pay an exorbitant price for
the land. When the plans for building
% the railroad, had progressed sufficiently
far Mr. Yoakum and associates Sc
h. cured the services of Hill in getting
he options on other vast tracts of land for
them. He was well paid for this work
and was able to purchase outright the
many thousands of acres upon which
he had secured options to buy on his
Il own account.
ed The building of the railroad was be
of gun and as each mile of track was
at COMPLETED the land adjacent thereto
for "a q
came into demand for farming pur-
poses and its value doubled, treblec
and uuadrupled in a short time. In thf
or meantime Lou Hill was buying more
and land and loading himself up WITT
options to purchase still more rms
no land which he had bought Tor 81 ahe
. 81 so per acre went TO So per acre before
: the railroad had reached Brownsville
When the line was finished and the IN
fux of investors and home seekers be
gan land values mounted higher anC
ma higher.
- Mr.. Hill lust now IS completing
system of irrigating canals and dltchei
70 irrisate 40. 900 acres of his land. TIT
main canal is more than twenty-five
a miles long. and runs from the HI
Grande TO "A point a short distance cas-
eo of Harrington. More than tWenty-nV
h, miles of laterals are being built Al
of this land is to be planted IN sugd
cane Inree ldi &c suS'i iiii'-. - :,
erected TO care for the cane crop whel
the land is placed in cultivation. Suga
cane in the Rio Grande valley grow
to a height, of twelve feet. and test
show that each stalk yields one an
one-third pounds of sugar. One acr
of cane will make about 1000 pound
of sugar worth about cents pouns
In addition to his vast landed hold
;,as ain owns the townsite of Harline
ton. This place is situated at the juno
tion of the main line of the st. Louis
Rrawnsville & Mexico railroad and il
branch line, which runs to San Fol
dyce.
Hill is married. He Is devoted 10 n ,,
wife and children. Concerning his earl
life he says:
II punched cattle in Indian Terrific
nv when a young man. | saw tne nee
: Of an education and had acquired
fairly good start In that direction wne