MOW A NEWSBOY BECAME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 311, 27 October 1888, Page 5

MOW A NEWSBOY BECAME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE.

Tin: story of the lifo of Charles Crocker, the California railway king, who died tteh c other day, reads like a romance, lie was born in Troy, New York, in 1822, and received bul a meagre education. 'ihe fuse money he earned waa by selling newspapers. When fourteen years old the family removed to Northern Indiana, and in a few years his mother died, and the boy left home, after a disagreement with his lather, to seek his ioi tune. All that he had were the clothes, on his back. Alter wandeiing about fiom place to place he secured employment ut a saw-mill at Mishawaka, on the St. Joseph River, in Indiana, wlieie ho tell in love with the daughter of his employer. The gold fever of 1849 seized him, and he joined a party of young men woo crossed the plains lor California. Alining not proving remunerative, ho opened a store in Sacramento with his brother, and then he went back to Indiana and married the daughter of his old employer, Miss Deming. A week later a fire swept away his Sacramento btore, involving a loss of ; but he soon rebuilt it, and in the next half-dozen years accumulated a fortune ot i>200,000. He d lifted intu politics, and in that way met Governor Stanford and Messrs Huntincjton and Hopkins. It was in 1862 Avhen these tour men began the work ol building the Central Pacific Railway, which eventually enabled them, through (Government subsidies, to divide among them 52,000,000 dols. in stock and 12,000,C00 dols. in bonds. The recent report or (Joverner Pattison, chairman of the United States Pacilic Railway Commission, shows that this combination divided 142,000,000 dol&. in cash and securities by rca&on of their connection with the Central Pacific and its adjunct corpoiationp. Within a year alter the completion of the railway suits were brought against the management in order to recover on stock of the road. Charges wore made against the directors that immenso sums of money had been made but misapplied. As Crocker, Huntington, Stanford, and Hopkins were then anxious to iloat some $25,000,000 of bonds of the Southern Pacific Railroad, they were anxious to acquire the stock held by the parties who instituted the suits, and it is in evi- \ dence that they paid from $250 to | 2,750d015. a share for this stock. The capital stock of the Central Pacific was first placed at §8,600,000; then it was raised to $20,000,000, and finally was shoved up to $100,000,000. In 1871 Mr Crocker's only brother became aiUicbed with softening of the brain, and as the doctor '. told Charles he would meet the same fate if he did not retire from business, he took a two-years' trip to Europe Upon his re turn lie again embarked in the railway business, and becamo deeply interested in everything thab his old associates hud taken up. Good judges of real esbato say to-day that the estimate of Crocker's wealth at $20,000,000 or $30,000,000 is too low. They pub his fortune at from $40,000,000 to $50,000,000, ranking him second only to Senator Stanford among Pacific coast millionaires in wealth. Uis share in the Central and Southern -Pacific Railway and the Californian and Oregon is estimated at $20,000,000, To this must be added property iv Chicago worth $5,000,000, and lands inShasta, Sacramento, Santaßarbara, Merced, and 1 Kern counties valued at .$"10,000,000. • '