The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-20
For Years He Has Been a Fa-
miIiar Figure in Topeka.
lie Always Wore a CarnatiOn
in His Button Hole.
|AADE AND LOST FORTUNES
,Ieaned Up 100000 on Chi
cagO Heights Addition.
..Ost 1t All in Lottery Venture
in Mexico.

Ill
Col. II. Decatur Booge. airship in
4 enfor and one of Topeka's most pic
iresaue characters. died at 1890
4 sclock this morning at his home, 12l1
vest sixth avenue. He has been con-
. ned to his bed for the greater part
4 two years and for several weeks had
cen seriously i'll of pneumonia.
Colonel Booge's plan to make 10
eka a union depot for argonauts
aade him famous. His frequent let
FRS TO the ruling powers of Russia
ermany. Italy. France. China. Japan
nd other nations about his invention
re characteristic of the activities of
is early life.
He was born on a farm near Pitts
Bro, Vt. and he attended school until
. was 10 years old. When he was
a years old he started out to carve his
icha in the hail of fame and for the
ext three quarters of century he ex-
erienced the ups and downs of high
"a nance. He was born in 1927 and
as SO years old at the time OF ms
cath.
.sDick" Booge's first job was in Al
anv. y. Y, as a market boy in
fishery. He worked for So month,
.noYn and board included. He spent
.,-eraI wears in Albany. Buffalo and
eST York City and drifted into the
eamboat transportation business on
be Erie Canal and Great Lakes IN
s54 Booge went to St LOUIS as
passenger and ticket agent OF the
tfchigan Southern railway and ne also
s,bbled a little in a steamboat service
n the Mississippi river
Became a Meat Packer
The colonel claimed that he estab-
shed the first packing house in SIOUX
itv. Ia, the city that now ranks
ourth in this country in its meat pro-
notion He also built the first steam
our mill in western Iowa
About the time of the civil war and
hortly after that Colonel Booge was
the height of his power in finance
. owned a string of large groceries
the northwest and was one OF the
uflders of a railroad in the Dakotas
mis- road went into the hands of re-
eivers and the hearing was held be-
ore the late Judge John F. Dillon,
Iowa. father of Hiram p Dillon OF
Topeka
When his railroad projects went up
the air. Colonel Booge was re-
uted to worth between $2.OO0,OOO
nd $4,000. 900. His business was
uined by the railways failure.
Started IA Lottery.
The Louisiana lottery, in the early
ighties was gaining wide notoriety
nd the colonel decided to try his
lck in the lottery game in Mexico.
zhere he became acquainted with
Porfirio Diaz He paid the president
200OO year for his official APP
roval of this lottery and for year
more il was a mint He went to
.Ta-r fG al Will
his pockets. most of it derived from
be sale of Chicago Heights addition
Topeka
II was unable to buck Mexico" he
'one time told friend, and Diaz
leaned me out He passed a law in
eri minutes throwing my lottery out
Il business because / did not give him
larger share of my profits"
Colonel BooEe has lived in Topeka
or many years and was a resident of
his city when he established the
sexican lottery. He engaged in the
Pal estate business and advertised
hicago Heights. an addition seven
liles northeast of Topeka. This adj
ition was widely advertised in Euro
can papers and the colonel said that
early every monarch of continental
Europe owned lots there
IN late years Colonel Booge's imag-
hary airship has been an attraction
MS ship was TO be propelled by mo-
I've power supplied by air currents
n elevator. several hundred feet high
rtS to he built at Sixth avenue anc
surbanan streets to take passenger:
) the airship. The craft was to have
glass flooring so that the passen
ers could sit in easy arm chairs anf
atch the scenery beneath them
oIonel Booge always appeared OF
obeka streets wearing a carnation IL
ne buttonhole of his coat
Wrote TO the Gar.
Of of n
efst to Car Nicholas of Russia:
~Dear Gar: l will call on you per
nnaIly very soon in my airship, whicl
50 powerful that eventually it vii
ule the earth. 1t will carry 100 pas
engers seated in arm chairs 1t cal
make speed of from 1 to 100 miles
minute This airship can be anchore'
the air at any height and will re
main stationary as long as desired j
an go up in any weather. 1 want t
ak to you so expect me at st. Peters
urg''
Colonel Booge is survived by hi
aughter. Mrs. Nell Ran,.in of West
cid. y. ]. The body will be taken t
b. Louis for burial