Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1899 — Got A Quarter Million. [ARTICLE]

Got A Quarter Million.

Rensselaer has, as yet no millionaire among her citizens, but it has one man who possesses a cool two hundred thousand, and soon will make it a full quarter million, not dollars, but pounds of old iron. B. S. Fendig, the greatest junk accumulator in northwest Indiana is the proud possessor of this mountain of old metal. Up to last Saturday, when the pile represented just six weeks’ accumalations he had 200,000 pounds. As so o n a s the quarter million is reached be will ship again, and it will require 7 or 8 cars to hold the iron. The iron is not piled in an indiscrimate heap, but arranged in several piles. The old stoves in one pile, other cast iron in another, malleable iron, steel s craps &c. The old wagon and buggy tires form a heap by themselves, and there are several wagon loads of them alone. It is almost melancholy to observe what vast quantities of once costly vehicles and farming implements have left their bones in these great heaps of old iron. Of binders only there are 20 or 30, possibly more, and mowers, planters, rakes, cultivators, and all other implements in proportion. Probably it would be a conservative estimate to say that the pile represents an original outlay of $50,000. And very likely half of these broken up machines and vehicles would still be in servicable condition had they been stabled under roofs instead of in fence corners.