VOL.11
Richest, Indian
In the World.
Harlingen, Texas, Dispatch to the Philadel
phia Record.
The richest Indian in the world is
Lon Hill, of Harlingen, who owns more
than 300,000 acres of the best land . in
the Rio Grande Valley, every foot of
which can be irrigated. At the rate
which other land in this section of the
same character is selling $20 per acre
for this 300,000 acres would not be an
excessive figure. Figured on that basis,
Hill is worth $6,000,000, but he is not
given to overrating things, and esti
mates his wealth at $3,500,000. Hill is
a full-blooded .Choctaw and is proud of
his Indian blood.
'This Tndian has been able to take
care of himself," he says. "I have nev
er received anything, from the govern
ment and I t arc not expecting any
thing." This is true. Hill never shared
in any of the allotments in Indian Ter
ritory and has been making his way
alone and unaided ever since he was a
boy. The most marvelous thing about
his great fortune is that he has accumu-
NO. 12
lated all of it during the last six years.
He located at Brownsville, 25 miles
below here, a little more than six years
ago, at which time if was 160 miles from
the nearest railroad. He did not have any
monev, and was in debt. He had been
practicing law at Bee vi lie, Tex., and,
while he made a success of that profes
sion, it . did not ; bring him ,any great
amount of money.
He believed that the .time was not far
distant when the valley of the Lower
Rio Grande would be transformed from
its primitive wilderness of chaparral into
cultivated farms and gardens, and pre
pared to make his fortune when the in
evitable inrush of investors and home
seekers can. e.
Brownsville then was possessed of a
morbid drowsiness typical of Mexican
border places. Situated on one of the
main streets was a three-story brick
hotel building which for many years had
been an abiding place for- bats. When
Hill proposed to lease it for a term of
yearsTiis offer was quickly accepted and
the rental was fixed at a figure so low as
to be worse than ridiculous in the light1
of subsequent events. Hill secured
. (Continued on Page
SEPTEMBER 11, 1908.