The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-12-28
POTASH KING WAS
STATE RESIDENT
pROSPECTED FOR OIL IN CAR
BON COUNTY-DID TIME in
COLORADO PEN.
Made Fortune After His Release;
Wooed Sheriff's Daughter While
Waiting for His Trial; Married
Her When He Had Served Out His
Term; An Adventurous Life.

Seven years ago Frank L. Hulen
spent the summer in southern Carbon
county, prospecting for oil. He even
filed on some likely looking land in
the now famous Elk Basin country,
just across the Wyoming line in Mon
tana and which has since become a
producing oil field. His Montana To-
cations lapsed and it remained for
others to develop this locality.
In the seven years that have passed
since his residence in Montana Hulen
has lived whole lifetime of adven-
ture. During the period he served out
a sentence in the Colorado peniten-
tiary. Now he is the potash king
of America and worth millions.
Met His Former Jailer.
Hulen went to Denver recently.
While there he met Tom lyman, war;
den of the Colorado pehitentiary, his
former jailer. Hullen has never for
gotten the warden's friendship, dis
played when parole was secured
through Tynan's efforts, and at n din
ner given lyman here the man who
once laid stones in prison garb re-
counted his experiences.
Hulen left Oklahoma in 1910,
treking up through Wyoming and
then on into Montana. While pros
pecting for oil in Wyoming he was
arrested on a charge of bigamy,
brought in Colorado by Bertha Fen
nell Hulen and Charlotte Richards
Hulen, both claiming him as their
husband.
Hulen was sentenced from Jeffer-
son county, Colorado, to two years in
the penitentiary. His faithfulness to
duty and the thoroughness with
which he performed the arduous
tasks around the "stone pile" attract
ed Warden lyman, who assigned him
to clerical work in the prison office.
Later lyman secured his parole.
Courts Sheriff's Daughter.
While waiting for trial in the coun-
ty Jail at Golden on the bigamy
charge Hulen had become infatuated
with the sheriff's daughter there,
who frequently alleviated the pining
of those in the custody of her father
by furnishing sweets and performing
small kindnesses for the unfortunate
inmates.
Following his release from the
Canon City institution Hulen went to
Golden. While attending lectures at
the Colorado School of Mines he was
deeply impressed with the declara-
ton of a professor in chemistry, who,
in describing sample of water sent
from a lake in Nebraska for analysis,
said that the sample showed traces
of potash that indicated the POSSIBLE
ity of immense wealth If the territory
that produced it were developed.
Visions Of Wealth.
Hulen quickly won the hand of
Miss Dennis, the sheriff's daughter,
and the couple started for Nebraska.
He built a hut on the edge of a vast
swamp, and for six months the new
lyweds underwent many privations.
To the bride it was a scene of DESC
lation, but Hulen saw visions of UNI
told wealth in the dreary surround
ings. He acquired as much of the
territory as possible, including a
large lake adjacent to the swamp
land, and evolved his plans for the
manufacture of potash.
When the British shipping block
ade cut off the supply of German
potash, Hulen was prepared to fur
nish Uncle Sam with sufficient pot
ash to offset the loss of the Teuton
supply. He had the potash, but was
handicapped by limited capital for
putting in into marketable condi-
ton.
Controls Potash Output.
Followed many legal entangle-
ments with Nebraska bankers, and
many months of litigation, but Hulen
won his fight with the capitalists and
now controls approximately S5 per
cent of the potash output of the
United States. He has an immense
plant at Antioch, Neb., and is rapid
ly accommodating a fortune that may
rival the wealth of a Carnegie or
Rockefeller.
Hulen in his affluence still keeps
in touch with Warden lyman and re-
plenishes the exchequer of many of
his former prison mates as they are
released from custody.
And then, again, short pocket
book often makes long face.