The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-07-22
How A Florida
Woman Got Rich
! On Small Start

The departure of Mrs. Abba Mil
| Ter Ostott this week for Indian
apolis to consult with capitalists
concerning a development project
shehas under consideration, recalls
what one woman has accomplished
in Miami with an original outlay
OF six hundred dollars, backed by
business ability and the courage of
her convictions.
However, the accumulation of
over two hundred thousand dollars
worth of property upon a very small
investment was not the first big
thing that Mrs. Ostott has accom-
plished, for she built up a lucera-
tive business in Chicago before COM
ing to Miami, and left there only
because of the extremely bad health
of her husband, E. w. Ostott. And
although the panic of 1907 caused
Mrs. Ostott a loss of one hundred
thousand dollars, she still retained
in Chicago property worth a similar
amount.
When Mr.. and Mrs. Ostott came
to Florida in November, 1909, they
bought seventy acres of land in the
northern part of tht county, and
built twelve room house, but their
farming operations were not salts
factory and they came to Miami in
January, 1911 and began life with
six hundred dollars in cash. Mrs
Ostott still retained some of her
Chicago property, which she now
owns Had she sold this before she
came to Miami she believes she
would have accumulated a million
dollars in the four years she has
been here, as she believed in Miami
and has invested every dollar she
possessed in Miami property.
With her six hundred dollars
Mrs. Ostott bought six lots from Mrs
Mary Brickell, paying for them two
hundred dollars in cash and con
tracing to pay the remaining sun
later. An eight room house wa!
built on one of the lots, and wal
partly paid for with the remaining
four hundred dollars, and will
money Mrs. Ostott borrowed.
Since this venture Mrs. Ostott ha
bought one hundrede and thirteel
lots, all in Riverside, fifty of which
have been re-sold unimproved OF
contract for $4,000.
On forty lots Mrs. Ostott bull
forty houses, mostly two stor
, structures, ranging in price from
two thousand to seventy-hundre
dollars and averaging $2,75O. TIL
total value of the houses and lot
was one hundred and ten THOUSAND
dollars. the twenty-one lots still re
tanned, $4,000, and 4S5 acres o
land at Redland valued at forty-fiv
] thousand dollars, remaining unsol
from tract of four hundred an
eighty-five acres bought by Mrs
Ostott in the past four years, max
ing with her other property al
ready enumerated and some nc
mentioned, approximately two hun
dred thousand dollars In houses an
land.
Mrs. Ostott has built ten house
a year since beginning operations i
Riverside, which at the time sh
- bought her first lot was a pine fol
est, SO that the increase in the wort
'. Of her property was due to some e,
:. tent to the increase of valuation q
the town expanded and houses b.
y gan to be erected in that section.
70 The houses which were built wit
view of providing for the worl
man a home on which he coul
- make a small payment down and
- much smaller payment per mont
!. until ultimately he would own h
10 own residence. From three to fl,
. hundred dollars was the initi
payment, and from twenty
;. twenty-five dollars the monthly pa
ment on the houses.
" Mrs. Ostott will 60 north tn
- week to confer with capitalists r
= garding a loan which will enab
:. her to buy several we'll locate
~ blocks and SO conduct her busine
- on larger scale.-Miami Herald.