The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-06-23
OUR MANY MlLLIONAIRES
THEY'VE BECOME A NUMEROUS
BODY IN UNITED STATES.
There Are $4,000 of Them, and More
in Sight. How Some Great For
tunes Were Founded.

tunes Were Founded.
Writing for a magazine Morris
Bachelor says of American million
aires: The chief reason why Ameri-
ca was devoid of millionaires in
colonial times was that there were
no millions to accumulate. The
shrewd Yankees of New England, the
phlegmatic Dutch of Pennsylvania,
and the ready traders of New York
and Jersey were driven by necessity
to barter for those things thew want
ed and did not possess. This barter
was carried on extensively with the
colOnists of the south. Tins Cant
De Wolf of Rhode Island made his
fortune by fitting out ships which
sailed from Bristol, r. l., and which
he filled with negroes which cost
him practically nothing, as he could
buy them on the African coast for
a few glass beads a head, but which
he sold in Charleston, S. c., for 800.
The AstOrs.
He speaks of John Jacob Aston
as among our earliest milIionaires.
We presume that our readers know
how John Jacob Aston ACQUIRED his
wealth. He went among the Indians
and bought up their furs, paving for
them with glass beads and other
things which might be used for
wampum among these savages. And
he brought his furs to New York
and shipped them to London and
Paris, where they commanded good
prices a century ago. Then when
he could command more money than
any of his neighbors he proceeded
to invest it in real estate, which was
amazingly low in the years follow
ing the last war with Great Britain.
and which fell to almost nothing in
the financial panic of 1928.
Hence the Aston millions. Mr.. Bach
eller speaks of Stephen Girard, and
prints his portrait as that of the first
millionaire of America.
- The Vanderbilts.
1t was not until 1865 that we had
a financial system that was adapted
to the making of millionaires. Cor
nelius Vanderbilt, the old "Commo-
dore, and the sole founder of the
vanderbilt fortune, was a pioneer in
that line of industry. In 1865, the
year that our civil war closed, he
the railroad business with
a capital of $9,O00,00O which he had
accumulated out of his steamships.
his river craft, and other marine
ventures. In the II years that
elapsed before his death he converted
his S9,OO0,OOO into $90,000,OOO So
sklllfully did his son, William H.
vanderbilt, handle this vast sum that
1t was doubled in the ten years that
he handled it.
Then space is given to John D.
Rockefeller, William Rockefeller. H.
II. Rogers and other Standard Oil
who are all pictured out
in Mr.. Bachelors interesting recital.
And Andrew Carnegie is shown,
while brief mention is made of the
$500, 100000 he drew out of the
steel trust. Henry G. Frick is shown,
as is also Senator William A. Clarke,
the man who calls himself a,demo-
crat and who lifted 100000, 900 out
of copper in Montana.
And Frederick Weyerhauser. the
lumber king; and Henry NJ FIagler,
oil millionaire and owner of Florida
railroads and hotels; and J. Pier
pont Morgan, and Jay Gould; and
c. P Huntington, and D. o. Mills,
and Marshall Field-but not A. T.
Stewart. Mr.. Stewart never sat for
photograph and would permit no
one to draw or paint him. So when
he died, in 1877, he left 100000
900, but no photograph-not even
a snap shot. The number of mill
l1onaires in this country now exceeds
$4,000. At the present rate of ex-
pansion this may be doubled by
1920.