Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 225, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1914 — MADE ROCKY FORD MELON FAMOUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MADE ROCKY FORD MELON FAMOUS

Wonderful Career of Hiram Woods, the Nervy King of Cantaloupes. CREATED A GREAT INDUSTRY Trying To Save His Gambling Business, He Became Interested In “Netted Gems”—Grew Wealthy and Disappeared. By RICHARD SPILLANE. Of those who enter the port of missing men few emerge. The harbors are deep and dark. They hide the living .and shroud the dead. They draw in the rich and the poor, the clever and the dull. The port warden keeps no records, asks no questions, gives no information. Wonderful stories Some of those who wail into the port leave behind, tales of adventure, tales of tragedy, tales of passion and tales of disaster. Rarely has there entered the port a Voyageur with a stranger story than Hiram Woods. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the man is known. From ditch digger he rose to wealth and power. W’ith little education and burdened somewhat with a record as a gambler he promoted a small agricultural experiment into a great industry. Then, one. day, he asked his wife, with whom he was attending a theatrical performance In Chicago, to excuse him a few minutes. He arose, walked out with $500,000 in his pocket and entered the port of missing men. 1

-On a farm near Plattsburg, Mo., Hiram Woods was born about forty years ago. He might never have been heard from outside the Plattsburg neighborhood but for the fact that his lungs were weak and he had to go to Colorado. Leadville is high and dry and someone recommended that city as a good place to live ip. He had little moneys and could get no other work, so he took a job with pick and shovel working in the streets. It was frightfully hard for a youth who coughed a good deal and who weighed only 120 or 130 pounds, but what he lacked in strength he made up in determination. So he stuck to it, did his share of the labor and when he got his pay he held on to a portion of it In Leadville and Denver. Leadville always has been free and easy. The men are reckless. They were more reckless in the days when Woods was a ditch digger than they are in' these times. Occasionally they got embarrassed for money. Somehow it became known that the little “lunger” who was working in the ditch had cash. A man with a fair hole in the ground, one In sight and a reputation for honesty could borrow from Woods. The Missouri boy charged a stiff interest, but that did not matter. It was hot much that he had to lend, but he was able, after a time, through the interest and through his profits in buying ore from small miners or highgraders to stop the hard and backbreaking work of pick and shovel. He got tired of Leadville and moved on to Denver. He wanted- to be out in the open as much as possible to heal his lungs, so he started a littlq fruit stand in Curtis street. It was very small and the stock he carried represented less than SIOO, but he did a fair business. The profits of the fruit stand were not sufficient to satisfy him. He had a sporting streak through him. He liked good clothes and jewelry. He liked to drop into the gambling houses. v It was early in the ’9o’s when Woods floated into Denver. He had only about S6OO when he arrived, but within 6ix months, in addition to his fruit stand, he had an interest in a keno game. Interference With Keno Game. Woods' health improved, his two businesses prospered and life was getting to be reasonably easy for him when a most distressing thing happened. Some interfering persons started an agitation to put an end to open gambling in Colorado. Everything had been wide open, the gamblers had been in clover and, naturally, the keepers of the faro games, the stud establishments, the keno room and such were horrified. It meant a serious curtailment of their profits if a measure before the legislature happened to pass. They made a secret canvass of the legislature and found that the vote was going to be very close. One of the doubtful members was a farmer who had a bit of land down La Junta way. Woods was in the gamblers’ conference when this farmer’s name was mentioned. The keno man, who is a bundle of nerves, quick of speech and quick of thought, said he thought he could handle that member. “He’s got a.Ms on a new kind of melon,” he said. “I’ve been handling some of his melons. I’m the only one that has handled the stuff. If you fellows will stand the expense, I’ll go down there and talk melons to him and when I’ve got him all worked up It won’t be difficult to get him to vote ’right on our bill.” Swink and the “Netted Gem." Woods went down to Rocky Ford, one of the first places extensively irrigated in Colorado. That was the place the melon man hailed from. A man named Swink had been experimenting with various cantaloupes. He had

crossed all sorts of varieties In an effort to get what he called a “Netted Gem.” He had succeeded. He had sent some of his melons to Woods in Denver to dispose of. Swink was first class in experimenting, but below par in merchandising. He sent Ills melons In dry-goods boxes, tubs,-barrels or tfny old thing. Woods talked Cantaloupe to the gentleman he visited and then adroitly brought in the other topic, but he went away unsuccessful If not chagrined. He was more chagrined later when the legislature put an end to open gambling in the state. His keno game withered and his rather expensive habits began to flatten his bank roll. He had to make more money or there would be trouble, so he determined to pay more attention to his fruit stand. He liked the melons he lot from Rocky- Ford. He was a good salesman. He went to all the hotels in Denver and to all the restaurants and urged them to try the melons. Then he got after Mr. Swink and the others in the Rocky Ford neighborhood and urged them to pay more attention to the proper shipping of the stuff. He built up a fair trade in Denver and the big idea took possession of him that if enough of these melons could be grown to supply the country there would be a great fortune in the marketing of them. He got to work on Mr. Swink and his neighbors and madp a deal with them to handle all their produce. Then, he started Bast to introduce the fruit. Dumped In New York Bay. It is a fine thing to have enthusiasm, to make a great fortune in your mind and to have all the joys of triumph, but the road to sucess is a mighty bumpy one. Mr. Woods had lots of bumps. He talked Rocky Ford melons to fruit people in Chicago, and fruit people' in New York until he had them quite enthusiastic. The samples he

had to offer were real good. He arranged for a great shipment of thirtysix cars to be sent to New York. This was the first great shipment from Rocky Ford. It was the pride and the hope of Rocky Ford. But alas, something happened on the railroad, to cause delay, and when those 36 cars arrived in New York the stuff was taken out, shipped down the bay and dumped into the Atlantic ocean. It had spoiled en route. This experience was enough to dampen the ardor of the ordinary man, but it did not stop Woods and it did not stop the people in Rocky Ford. Woods had lots of common sense. He studied out the shipping question. It Was he who designed the box now the standard one throughout America in the shipping of melons. It was he who originated the wrapping of each piece of fruit in tissue paper. A lot of other things that lent class to the shipments were of his creation. After the Rocky Ford people had recovered from their sorrowful experience of the 36 car shipment Woods acted as their New York agent for quite a while. There are not many of the old produce men of New York who do not rentember him. He used to be on the piers when the melon trains arrived from the West and he sold to the best advantage. Not only that, but he did some clever advertising around the hotels and in the newspapers. He boosted the Rocky’ Ford melon as no other one man did. He made money, but not enough to satisfy him. He saw way beyond Rocky Ford and he started out to take advantage of his breadth of vision. Tried Various Localities. There was another man, too, who had the same foresight. That was NaL Ci Wetzel, president of the Western Came and Produce company of St Louis. The two men got Rocky Ford seed and began experiments with a view of raising the Rocky Ford melon in all parts of the coi/htry. Woods turned to the Imperial valley. He got farmers in that section interested and they had decided success. He stirred up agriculturists in Florida, In the Carolines, in Georgia, In Texas.

At the same time he did his very best to control the marketing of all the cantaloupe crop. He kept the price up and regulated supplies in a very clever way. As an organizer he demonstrated that he had rare ability. Made Money Very Fast. When the production end was In good shape Woods went to Chicago and established himself there at No. 121 South Water street. He worked up a tremendous business and he made money hand over fist. It is doubtful if any one produce man or fruit man In this eoufltry starting from meager basis ever made more rapid progress or larger profits. He was a lavish spender, He had a tin-horn gambler’s love for Jewelry and as wealth poured In upon him he sprinkled himself with diamonds. They used to call him the Ice trust in Chicago. He even rivaled "Diamond” Jim Brady. When he had all his gems aboard he was worth $50,000 just as he stood. But with his extravagance he had a cool head for business. His health was not any too good, but his nervous energy was great 'He talked the Rocky Ford melon morning, noon and flight. Although he wrote a letter like that of a schoolboy in the primary grade, he had a better grasp of essentials than most college men. Prosperity did not bring happiness to him. He had married while in the Rocky mountain country, and had' several children, but in 'Chicago he broke loose from wife and family, and there was a divorce. Woods was lavish. He gave $50,000 to his wife, settled $lO,000 a year on her and then be got married to another woman. Apparently the second marriage was happy. For two or three years everything went on swimmingly* Woods still prospered, loaded himself with more jewelry, spent as freely aB he desired, but suddenly he decided that he had done about as much business

as he should. He was only about 40. He weighed less than 130 pounds, and was a bit tired. So, he drew $600,000 out of his business, turned the management of his affairs over to one of his employes and, thereafter, gave more time to the pleasures of life. He did not sink this $500,000 away where he could not get hold of it readily, but put It In easily negotiable paper. He also was in the habit of carrying several thousand dollars in his pocket. He loved the theater, so did his wife. There was hardly a show that appeared in Chicago that they did not see.

Entered Port of Missing Men. One day in 1910 he took his wife to a matinee in a Madison street playhouse. At intermission time he asked her to excuse him for a few minutes as he wished to go out to see a man. He did not come back. Next morning Mrs. Woods received from him a check for $15,000 and a transfer to her of his entire interest in bis business. From that day to this she has not heard from Hiram Woods. Neither has anyone of the thousands of melon growers and thousands of produce men throughout America to whom he was a conspicuous figure. There never is a fruit or.produce convention in which the strange case of Hiram Woods is not discussed. AJI sorts of stories are circulated to e* plain his disappearance. There have been rumors that be' is living in North Africa, in a balmy land where his weak lungs will not distress him. There have been reports of a man a good deal like him who is cutting quite a dash in far-off Japan. Travelers tell of a lively little American who is the wonder of Valparaiso, Chili. And there even have been stories of a person much like Hiram Woods cutting quite a dash in “gay Paree,” but nothing has been'proved. Whether he is living or dead, no one seems to know, and his diamonds and his $500,000 in cash are gone. But he left some thing very tangible behind, afnd that Is a record of achievement. i per Syndicate)

He Asked Her to Excuse Him for a Few Minutes.