Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-02-26
WANTS TO
ADOPT 1000 KIDDIES
Charles Page, Multi Millionaire Oil Operator, Spending His
Fortune LavishIy to Relieve Poor Children
and Worthy Widows.

Charles Page, multi-millionaire oil
man Of Tulsa. Okla, has 70 adopted
children and wants to adopt 1000.
In addition to 1000 Door boys and
girls he is preparing to care for lot
poor widows.
For the care Of the 70 children be has
built a large home on a wooded hill. II
is crowded to its capacity with boys
and girls. He is getting ready to bullo
another home that will house 200 chill,
dren, and when that is finished he viii
begin building more homes until he has
accommodations for 1,00e.
He has already built eight houses fol
poor widows, has four more under con
struction n will have 100 built this
winter. Each house will have two
rooms, furnished, with free gas fol
heating and cooking, free water, free
electric light and a garden plot.
park for a playground. a lake Of IA
acres for swimming and boating, a
Wadlng pool for the smaller ones, lawr
swings and all sorts of contrivances fol
thelr amusement, a hospital, a zoologi-
Cal garden, a kindergarten and a grade
school, n a $4,000 high school, In
Which they will finish their education
when they are old enough to attend it
IN addition to this Mr.. Page has the
plans drawn and will build this white,
a hospital that will be in charge OF
some of the greatest surgeons and spe.
clallsts In this country. He plans this
hospital to be as good in every way
hna as FAMOUS as that Of the Mayo
pTothers In Rochester, MINI. Those
VINO are able to pay will do so; but any
person n America who is too poor te
pay may come to this hospital and be
operated upon by the greatest sur.
geons IN the world, and nursed back te
Health free of n cost whatever.
10 MAINTAIN these institutions and
created a great endowment fund. the
~loundatIon of which Is nearly all of his
vast holdings of cal estate, gas lands
OH wells, railroad and other properties
aggresatins several million dollars ir
value. -
Who Is Pager
ana who is this mar Page who has
non aoopt children than any other
MAJ In the world?
~Forty-five years ago when rb,r1ee
iase was a boy Of 10, his father died
leaving a widow and seven chirdren
i1lS father had been in the teamine
business In Stevens Point, wis. He
was SICK for a year before he died and
~ dao ttal year his teams We're sold to pay
doctors and buy medicine. p
The widow, with the house full .,
silall children, had a hard time of it.
one day while she was doing the
for a neighboring family and
had stoPNed a minute to rest. the how
har is A9y a millionaire stood before
down her cheeks. iit
You jusE wait, mamma, till 7 get r.
pc a Dig man, and rich, and Won won,t
nave TO wash any more, nor anv otha,
woman WON'T either. I'll take care NJ
AZ the poor widows n orphans" the
little fellow said.
edward Page, brother of Charles
and OF how his mother grabbed Charles
In her arms and Rugged him to her and
Wept all the more. 49,
When he had grown bis enough
CHARLES became a messenger how "a,
the Wisconsin Central railway. anG
men he became a brakeman, and later
on a rallroad fireman. Every dollar he
earned, above living expenses. in those
days wen@ to his widowed mother anC
her fatherless children.
Charles drifted west to the Pacific
coast, worked in the gold mines ir
Idaho: was hungry many a time, an6
penniless for weeks. He drifted east.
seven years ago, came to Chandler
Okla. with $4,000 in cash. which he soor
lost in the oil fields near Chandler.
Each Chua of a Drill Meant a Dollar
Then oil was discovered In the ia
nous Glenn Pool field, south of Tulsa
and Page went to a spot near there
with $4,000 he raised by m~ortgaging q
piece of property in Colorado. He go1
an oil lease on a small tract of Indian
land in what is known now as the
Taneha field. and put down a we'll. The
drill sank day after day through the
different layers of rock and shale anG
sand, n almost every chug of the
drill meant a dollar Of Pages small
hoard gone. If his we'll should turr
out to be a dry hole" he would be
broke again. But one day, when he