The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-02-10
''Y0U CANNOT TAKE
MONEY WITH YOU,
so SPEND IT NOW"
Advice of DIR. Pearsons, Who
Has Already Given Away
4,000,0 900.

1000, 900.
DR.. Daniel K. Pearsons is a Chicago
millionaire who has given away In the
last 20 years over $4,000, 00~0-practical-
ly his entire fortune. Malcolm Nc
Dowell, writing about DIR. P%earsons in
the December American Magazine, says
OF him:
Collins were never mad to carry
money in said Daniel X. Pearsons Just
90 years ago. Then he started in and
gave away o $4,000 900 to boards OF
trustees and presidents and regents of
colleges. academies and schools.
This great sum of money has gone
to nearly half a hundred institutions
of learning, well distributed over this
country. In most cases DR.. Pearsons
has had the habit Of saying. MIR. Col
lege President. I'll give your little
school $4,000 if you will raise another
$50. 000.' He tied this II string to his
made good. Since. and that was back
in 1890 or thereabouts. he has worked
thai proposition so effectively that, 1t
is estimated. his $4.000,0OO have drawn
at least $4,000, 900 to them. so that the
Pearsons gifts hav actually brought
$1,000, 900 to small colleges n semin-
aries where the money was most need
ed.
And a woman was at the bottom OF
all this. When Mary Lyon, who founded
the first college for women in this
country, was making coverlets II do
ing d chores to get honey to put her
through Ashfeld academy, she used to
and prospected the tongues OF the
farmers who bought her %bedclothes.
The medical man was DIR. D. K. Pear
son A few years ago, speaking of his
gifts to colleges, he said:
"NWhen I saw Mary Lyon begging
her school. I said to myself, IF ever I
get ahead in this world, the first thing
I will do will be something like what
Mary Lyon is doing" and l was poorer
than Jobs turkey them But the doctor
was scarcely in the pauper class, for
soon after he went to Chicago-that
was about 1s5S--with $4,000 in real
writing prescriptions and began the
more lucrative work OF writing war
ranty deeds for farm lands-prairie
acres owned by New England friends
which he sold on a 5 per cent commits
sion.
H was one of the original adver-
tisers. for he bought newspaper space
freely. and to such good purpose that
he soon became known as a most sue
cessful real estate dealer. In 10 years
he had bought and sold more than a
million acres of farm and timber land
and was getting rich. He was elected
an alderman from Chicago's First ward,
that ward now represented in the city
council by Bath HOUSE, John Coughlin
and 'Hinky Dink' Kenna, and as head
of the finance committee saved Chi
Cages credit during the dread times of
the early 1S70s by pledging his per-
n fortune toward the payment Of
city script.
When he was 10 years old-he will
be 80 next April-he n his wife laid
out a systematic scheme to help small
colleges. He early planned to be the
executor of his own will. and 1t was
arranged that the last s1.5 0 900 he
cent annuity so hat so long as he and
his wife lived they should be sure OF
an income of $50, 900 a year. AS their
ordinary living expenses seldom
reached $4,000 annually. he felt certain
of always having some surplus to give
away to the needy. His friends say he
intended to loan this out to Door stu
dents at a nominal interest rate. He
has had $150,Oo0 loaned out to students
at 8 per cent at n time.
DIR. Pearsons never endows a college
unless it has a religious denomination
back of it. He said once. I have usu-
ally hitched my car to a Congregational
AOll liz SLlS L RCOplC "
begin building colleges in this country.
But then any struggling Christian COL
lege in a suitable field appeals to me-
He himself is not a member of any re-
ligious sect, although his brother and
the latter's family are strong Evanston
Methodists.
81 don't pose as a benevolent man,
he nee said. I haven't a particle of
~benevolence in me. I am the most eco
nomical, hard-fisted man you ever saw.
1 don't think l ever spent 500 foolishly
in my life. I can't take my money with
me when I go. so what will l do with
it? l think the best plan Is to spend
it wisely before I die
DIR. Pearsons lives in Hinsdale, a
suburb of Chicago. and was born in
Bradford, VT, April IL, 1920. He was
educated in Bradford academy and
Woodstock Medical college, Vermont.
For IL years he was a practising physi-
clan, and for more than 90 years was
one Of Chicago's active business men,
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