Show BEN IIOLLADAY Ben Holladay one of the best known of Western characters who made reputation reputa-tion and fortune in the development of this new country died in Portland Oregon Ore-gon on Friday evening last Utah knew Holluday well in her earlier das but of late years he had almost passed out of mind but with the recollection of all he did for the newlysettled Territories all will take pleasure in reading a brief sketch of his eventful life Ben Holladay was born in Kentucky 1818 and was therefore nearly sixtynine years of age at the time of his death When but seventeen years of age he left his native State and went to Missouri Here he was engaged in several different ent ° rprises and finally in 1850 he came to Salt Lake City at the head of a big wagon train He was backed in this undertaking un-dertaking by General Hughes president of the Bank of Missouri and out of it he made enough to start out for himself He did not stay long in Utah at that time His restless nature carried him further west until finally in 1852 he landed in San Francisco His first big scheme on the Coast was the organization organi-zation of the Oregon Mexico Steamship Company whose boats plied between Portland and San Francisco and sailed south to points in Mexico At this time Holliday was said to be worth about 7000000 But even this did not satisfy his ambition ambi-tion and in 18556 ho organized and put in successful operation the overland stage and the pony express two of the most remarkable common carriers that the world has ever patronized The overland over-land stage route extended from the Missouri Mis-souri River to Portland by way of Salt Lake and Butte and was successfully success-fully operated up to the time of the completion of the Pacific Railway Shortly before this however Holladay sold out his system for an enormous sum and devoted his time to other enterprises enter-prises A little later he purchased a thousand acres of land in Westchester county New York and here commenced tho erection of a magnificent residence the unroofed walls of which alone cost a million dollars Only one wing of it was ever finished and here Mrs Holladay spent the rest of her life and was buried in the little private chapel not far from the house Two of Holladays daughters married foreign noblemen The first was the Baroness de Bussies unH the second the Countess de Pourtalcs both of whom are now dead His second wife who was a Portland girl is still > living in that city and has two children His son Ben Holladay Jr died a short time ago In the later years of his life Ben was involved in serious lawsuits with his brother Joe and his success began to wane He died comparatively poor Thus ends the life of one of those brave men who worked to open up the New West and who gave to civilization one of the grandest countries on the face of Gods fair earth |