Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1892 — JOHN THOMAS NORTH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JOHN THOMAS NORTH.

The Well-Known Owner of Peru’s Richest Nitrate Beds. Col. John Thomas North, tfye many times millionaire, commonly known as “'Are Nitrate King,” has lately had attention called to him again as being

the man owning those English interests in Chili of which we have lately heard so much. Fifty years ago he was one of the poorest of the poor boys in Leeds, England. His

father, a mechanic, apprenticed him at the age of 15, to a firm of engineers. In 1866, being then married, he emigrated to South America and found employment as railway engineer in Chili. Thence he went to Peru, where the nitrate beds had already begun to attract attention. His judicious purchases before the “boom” made him the largest owner of nitrate land in that territory, and his splendid business methods soon gave him the virtual monopoly of the buai ness of gathering and shipping nitrates from Peru. Since his obtaining complete and certain control of these rich South American properties, Col. North has lived' in England, where his money, and his sporting-bred friendship with the Prince of Wales have given him a certain kind of social vogue.

JOHN THOMAS NORTH.