The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1922-01-10
OKLAHOMA OIL MAGNATE
FATHERS" 400 ORPHANS
A REAL HOME is PROVIDED
PARENTLESS CHILDREN BY
WEALTHY BENEFAcTOR.
ALL ARE LEGALLY ADOPTED

lions to Make Life Happy for Little
Ones Who Lose Protectors.
At Sand Springs, seven miles from
Tulsa, Okla. lives the worlds largest
family. Only about 100 of the children
are at home now. The older ones, well
educated and with millionaire father
to help them in emergencies, have
gone away and are making their own
way in the world But a family re-
union would bring back home 800
more young persons to the comforta-
Bile group of buildings at Sand Springs,
where they spent part of their chill
hood. The family totals about 400, in
Guiding little tots, boys and girls,
young men and women.
All of them, from the youngest to
the oldest, are legally the children OF
Charles Page, nulti-millionaire oil
man, because they were legally adopt
ed by Page. They do not assume his
name, but become his wards for as
long time as they care to remain
such.
Not an Orphan Asylum.
One fact should be clearly borne in
mind the buildings at Sand Springs
do not comprise an orphan asylum. 1t
is real family and, although the
youngsters were originally orphans,
they became and remain the children
of Page, in the eyes of the law, and
the conduct of the home is very diff
ferent from that of the typical orphan
asylum.
Besides the different status of the
children, under the supervision OF
legal father instead of guardian or
board of trustees, the home atmos-
phere is preserved as far as plenty of
money makes it possible, and money
will do lot. For one thing, the chill
dren enjoy the same freedom in choos-
ing their own clothes as children in any
family do, and probably little more,
considering the well-flled purse of
their father,
The older children occupy separate
rooms, the smaller ones sleep two or
three in a room, but each one has his
or her own little brass bed. The big,
cherries dormitories which give the
institutional flavor are unknown at the
Sand Springs home.
Then there is private school, OF
grammar grade, for the boys and girls
at the home, conducted by first class
teachers and very modern in its text
books and methods The Page home
also maintains what is considered to
be the finest manual training school
in Oklahoma, and a special school for
the deaf and dumb with Is pupils, in
structed according to the Helen Keller
system.
After the children have finished the
grammar grades they attend high
school in Sand Springs. Then children
who show. some special aptitude, as
for music, may continue their studies
at the finest schools in the land, still
at Pages expense.
And at the home they live upon the
fat of the land Nearly everything used
in the big kitchen comes from the
home farm.
Discipline Is Firm.
AT home the discipline is kind, but
firm. The children march in a body
into the big dining room for their
meals, singing a hymn and repeat
verse of scripture before sitting down
to eat. Before retiring at night they
say their prayers. There is a Sunday
school, some, of the older boys and
girls serving as teachers. Each child
as soon as he is able to read, IS given
a Bible but there is no discrimina-
ton as to church or creed.
Pages charity has pot been confin-
ed to children, DESPITE the gigantic
scale of his legal fatherhood. From
the early days ne gave home to sew
eral poor old women and to some
pennies widows Now there is a
widows colony" of neat, comfortable
in Sand Springs, and at pres
ent 100 such women live rent free in
homes built by Page, with free gas
milk and water, besides Transports
ton on the little railway, owned by
Page, between Sand Springs and Tul-
sd.
Childhood of Poverty.
Pages own childhood was one of
poverty and hard work. For several
years he was a railroader and then he
drifted to the Pacific coast, and made
and lost fortune in the gold mines.
Then he went to the Colorado gold
fields. made another rich strike, and
this time managed to keep it.
About 20 years ago he decided to
quit gold mining and go to Oklaho
ma to try his hand at the oil game.
He located near Tulsa and from the
first he was successful, even more so
than at gold mining. He became one
of the richest of the Oklahoma oil
men.
A few years ago all the Page enter
prises and holdings were put in trust
for the chi1dren's home at Sand
Springs, which will enter upon the full
possession of them at his death. These
properties include the 10,000-acre
farm on which the home is located,
the interurban railway to Tulsa, an
electric plant and power plant, nat
ural gas system, with leases. on l05,
600 acres in Usage county, a splendid
hospital at Sand Springs, and the Shell
creek water system, which IS nearing
completion.
In addition Page owns several in
dustria1 concerns in Sand Springs,
and large real estate hold
ings. Sand Springs is now a thriving
city of 10000 inhabitants, built up en-
tirely by Page, who purchased the
land when it was trackless wilder
ness.
The endowment OF the home estab-