September 7^th, 1902

Within the past ten days the sharp eyes of Wall Street have been raised for a few moments to contemplate a new figure in the world of control—John Cleveland Osgood of Redstone, Col., who enjoys the proud distinction of having whipped the celebrated Chicago plunger, John W. Gates, in a desperate battle for control of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

When New York and Chicago heard of the strategic move of the Osgood faction in having the election postponed, a general laugh went up in Wall and La Salle Streets, where Gates was best known. With them it was a case of ridiculing the shearer who went forth and returned shorn, but their glee was echoed in numerous Colorado cities and towns, and for an entirely different reason.

With the latter the discomfiture of the Gates contingent was the glow of pride in the victory of a local captain of industry over a man who was associated in their minds with the high plays at Saratoga gambling tables, the wrecking of a railroad for the purposes of personal gain, or the cornering of thousands of shorts in a cereal deal. A victory by Gates meant to them the transfer of the now immense business of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company to the United States Steel Corporation, or Steel Trust, and the word “trust” is still abhorrent in Colorado eyes, though Bryanism has almost disappeared.

In the views of the press of Colorado, irrespective of politics, backed Osgood in his conflict which led that gentleman to remark humorously to some of the Eastern invaders:

“In ordinary times, gentlemen, almost every newspaper in the State is attacking us. Let an outsider venture to attack us, and every paper in Colorado joins in repelling the invasion.”

Some Wall Street wiseacres say compassionately:

“A fine bit of strategy, but when the injunction was dissolved and the meeting is held, as it must be, Osgood will be swamped by Gates’s majority holdings.”

But Mr. Osgood is said to be worrying a little about that; his recent move in again opening the stock books in New York for transfers has largely solved that difficulty, and while small holders of Colorado Fuel stock have been unloading Osgood brokers have been absorbing much of it. A different phase is also put on the affair by the knowledge that many of Gates’s proxies were rented literally until after the transfer books had closed, and they are now nullified by the opening of the books. But that is another story.

Who is He?

Who is this Coloradoan who has so suddenly upset one of the most daring and persistent operators seen on the New York Stock Exchange? His fame in Colorado does not rest on his defeat of Hohn W. Gates, though that has added luster to his name, but to the manner in which he has built up an industry that excited the undisguised admiration of Gates, Lambert, Mitchell, and others when they carefully inspected the different plants and camps last December.

Even some of Osgood’s best friends in Colorado are under the impression that he is an Englishman by birth. But this is an error. He is an American of the true type for many generations back.

He was born in Brooklyn on March 6, 1831, and has consequently but recently passed his fifty-first birthday. His father was in the wholesale drug trade but became infected with Western fever and in 1857 removed to Iowa, settling with his son at Burlington. The death of his father two years later caused the boy to return to the East and he lived with relatives and Providence, R.I., where he attended school until he was fourteen.

It was at this age that young Osgood was thrown on the world to earn his own living, and he left the roof of his Quaker relatives to become an office boy in a Providence cotton mill. Business aptitude was not wanting, and two years later he went to New York City as a clerk for a Produce Exchange commission firm. Three years of this training, and then Iowa once more, and at nineteen he was the cashier of a coal mining company which is now in his control, the White Breast Fuel Company, with offices at Ottumwa. The upward path was plainly marked now, and his twenty-third year found young Osgood the cashier of the First National Bank of Burlington, Ia. Until 1876 he remained with the bank and then assumed the control of the White Breast Company.

First Visit to Colorado

It was not until February 1882, that John C. Osgood saw Colorado and investigated its possibilities. His trip was at the request of the officers of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Company to report on the coal resources of the State. Not a coal camp in the State escaped his searching investigation, and his knowledge of the business and his farsightedness caused a great influx of capital to Colorado.

Colorado was then in its infancy, and the rapidly developing humor of the Eugene Field in the Denver Tribune, and the marvelous poker playing of Senator “Tom” Brow were at that time of vastly more interest to the rest of the United States than the possibility of the Centennial State as a coal center. But Mr. Osgood, then about thirty-five years of age, saw what might be developed, and set about acquiring coal lands on an extensive scale. In 1887, the Colorado Coal Company was formed. Many of Colorado’s leading businessmen remember the incubus of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in a small room, the office force consisting of Mr. Osgood and a boy.

Mr. Osgood’s executive powers were here shown and the new company developed rapidly until, in 1892, it absorbed its rival, the Colorado Coal and Iron Company. This amalgamation brought under Mr. Osgood’s control the Bessemer iron plant near Pueblo, now known as the immense Minnequa steel plant.

A Giant Concern

The combination had a capital of $11,250,000. It has now $40,000,000. Eastern financial critics have asserted that the company is overcapitalized, that it cannot pay dividends on $25,000,000 common stock and $15,000,000 in bonds. But these critics overlook the fact that the Gates contingent advocated this action, and that just before the Easterners left Denver last December, after a thorough investigation of Colorado Fuel and Iron plants and camps, young Charles G. Gates, his father’s spokesman during the trip, said: “We were all surprised, I can tell you. If these people want any more money for development, we will furnish it.”

These same critics, not realizing the size of the Colorado plant, overlook the improvements that these $15,000,000 are to be [LOST TEXT] …

[NEW COLUMN] … Vast Minnequa plant, which already over taxes the hauling facilities of five railroads, the opening of new coal and iron lands in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, and the necessary construction of railroads, which is a part of the company’s plan of expansion.

Never was an employer more staunchly upheld than is John C. Osgood by the employees of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. He has not yet left them millions a la Carnegie, but he has done more, he has improved their condition of living, even in the coal camps high up in the mountains, at the coking plants and the iron works, and privileges are accorded them that few, if any, mining camps of the Pennsylvania region boast.

Care for His Men

There are schools for the children, libraries and clubs for the men, comfortable homes, and other little things that have appealed to the hearts of the miners. Magnificent hospitals, supported partly by the company and partly by the men, but erected at the company’s expense, are there for the injured, and everywhere the name of Osgood is talismanic.

The credit or all this as well as the corporation’s financial stability is due to Mr. Osgood. He has been the head of the concern since its inception. He has built it up from the little one-office affair to what it is, a commercial pearl coveted for many a crown, and it was this man’s brains that evolved the plan of campaign which proved the undoing of Gates and his army of adherents, “Peter Power” clerks, et al., which accompanied him to Denver recently.

The company hospital at Pueblo is probably the sociological triumph of Osgood. Costing many thousands of dollars, it is a thing of beauty as well as of usefulness. Built in the Spanish mission style, it embraces all the improved methods of medical science and comfort. But a hospital is an adjunct of every well-regulated large corporation, and the personal characteristics of John C. Osgood are better found in the little town of Redstone, his pet hobby.

Redstone, “the Ruby of the Rockies,” is a town to rave over from the standpoint of both beauty and philanthropy, and in it and his private estate, Crystal Park, half a mile above is centered the pride of Mr. Osgood. Fifteen months ago Redstone consisted of a little outside of some rude huts or “dug-outs,” to use the Western vernacular. Today, it is the most beautiful town in Colorado, a thriving little village of 250 to 300, connected with the outside world by the Crystal River Railroad, a company possession, with a hive of industry at its very doors, one of the company’s big coking plants, and with the source of supplies but twelve mils up in the mountains at Coal Basin.

Example Spreads

The standard set by Mr. Osgood in his construction of Redstone is being followed slowly in every other camp of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and the social condition of the miners is benefited accordingly. The situation of Redstone is beautiful. About 285 miles from Denver, on the Colorado Midland, lies the little town of Carbondale at the confluence of the Roaring Fork of the Grand and the Crystal Rivers. Here the Crystal River Railroad commences, connecting the Redstone country with the transcontinental lines, the Denver and Rio Grande having a branch past Carbondale, and furnishing the outlet for the big coal mines.  There are many beautiful valleys in Colorado, but the valley of the Crystal vies with any and all. Sixteen miles up the cañon lies Redstone.

A perfect picture of color it is, well built, harmonious with its surroundings, and prosperous, if not opulent, in appearance. On one side of the station are the coke ovens; across the river lies the town. There is practically but one thoroughfare. More than 100 frame cottages line the shaded street, and every one differs from the rest. A special architect is engaged in the work, and he is partial to the Swiss chalet effect, not inappropriate in a mountain town. But each residence is gayly though moderately painted in different colors, and the architectural style differs always in some manner.

In these cottages dwell the employees of the company at the coke ovens, the miners having a town of their own up in the hills. They are appreciative, too, these Italians, Huns, and Austrians, and decorate their homes according to their various tastes. What is of equal benefit, they are appreciative of the man who caused fine bath tubs, perfect sewerage connections, and electric lights to be put into the houses. “A waste of money,” say some people, but Mr. Osgood does not think so.

The Club

Then there is the Redstone Inn, a model little hostelry in the old English style, and the fine store of the Colorado Supply Company, a Colorado Fuel and Iron auxiliary, which supplies the employees with everything by the use of scrip. But the pride of the village is the new Redstone Club, also an idea of Mr. Osgood’s, which is now completed, at a cost of $25,000. This is the most pretentious of similar institutions of the company, and for completeness rivals many a city club.

There are plunge baths and shower baths for the men when they finish the day’s work, with lockers in which they may keep their working clothes, thus effecting a change, for the appearance of the men in the town streets in their grimy garb is not encountered. There are also the reading rooms, with papers in different languages, the best of the weeklies and magazines; the library, with standard works, and on the top floor a small theatre, with stage, curtain, scenes, and all accessories. Could any coal camp ask more?

To be sure, thereare some rules formulated by the management, but they are far from irksome. For instance, all gambling is barred in the club, but penny-ante poker is permitted, and 10 cents a cue for pool is lawfully indulged in. And there is the famous “No treating” rule of Mr. Osgood, which forbids a member from buying drinks for any one but himself. The club bar has never been the scene of drunkenness.

Half a mile above Redstone lies Crystal Park, the estate of Mr. Osgood, where he spends many months in the year, and little wonder.

Biltmore and Dr. Webb’s celebrated country residence may be more elaborate, but for charm of location and beauty of architecture it is doubtful if there are many places in the country that are superior to Crystal Park. There on the slope of the mountain, with the well-named Crystal flowing a few hundred yards away, is built the mansion with a pretty and carefully attended lawn in front and long drive leading to it from the tasteful little stone lodges.

“Oh it is only a small place,” say the Redstonians with perceptible pride, “it only cost about $50,000”

The Live Stock

The mansion, magnificent as it is, forms but a small part of the estate. There are the stables with accommodations for 25 horses, the blooded stock, horses, cattle, swine, chickens, and dogs, the miniature lake well stocked with fish and boats. Across the river lies the game preserve with elk, deer, and even the much sought mountain sheep or “big horns.” Any one could be content with a pastoral existence could it be spent at Crystal Park.

There are a few more features of Redstone life. There is the wash house, where the Redstone housewives cleanse the linen of their lords and masters. There are the garden tracts full irrigated, on which the residents may grown their own produce, each being allotted a few acres. If a family pays no attention to this agricultural experiment, its little patch is takenaway and given to more appreciate persons.

To show Mr. Osgood’s preciseness and interest in details, there is the Redstone band, the joy of Supt. T.M. Gibbs of the Crystal River Railroad, who but recently purchased full uniforms for the members, as a gift from Mr. Osgood. He it was also who presented the instruments to the band and fitted out the Redstone juveniles with the equipment for a most energetic drum corps.

Twelve miles up in the mountain lies Coal Basin. Which furnishes Redstone with its material for coke, and ships out thousands of tons for the world’s consumption. Coal Basin has the same neat cottages, artistically painted, a club on a smaller but equally comfortable scale, and this nearly two miles upon in the air. The railroad to Col Basin, known as the High Line, is a wonder, but that forms no great part of John C. Osgood’s personality. It is only an example of the way he has overcome the difficulties all his life.

The personality of the Colorado millionaire is striking, it personifies business sagacity. The shrewd eyes, the firm mouth, the neatly trimmed mustache, the high forehead and the concise manner of speaking all denote the leader.