San Francisco Call, Volume 82, Number 44, 14 July 1897 — MINER CREEDE NOT A SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

MINER CREEDE NOT A SUICIDE

This the Verdict Given by a Coroner's Jury at Los Angeles. Does Not Alter the General Belief That His Death Was Premeditated. Known to Have Been Deeply Worried Over His Domestic Troubles.

LOS ANGELES, Cal., July 13.— A Coroner's jury to-night decided that Millionaire N. C. Creede, who died of too much morphine at his home here last night, had taken the overdose by accident. Though this verdict officially disposed of the suicide tlreory it does not settle the matter in the minds of many persons who have reason for having their own opinion on the subject. It was shown at the inquest that the wealthy founder of Creede, Colo., had been in the habit of occasionally taking a dose of morphine to quiet the pain caused by neuralgia of the stomach, to which he was subject, but he knew the nature of the drug, so that he could not well have taken an overdose in 'ignorance.

Some of Creede's most intimate acquaintances are firm in the belief tbat the wealthy miner, who was by nature frequently morose and melancholy, especially since breaking with his wife last December, deliberately took a fatal dose of morphine to relieve mm from the distress of mind into which he had fallen and from the fear of impending new trouble on account of his wife's return to the city.

Mrs. Creede, whose every movement after coming back from Alabama to Los Angeles was reported to her husband, disappeared suddenly on tne night the millionaire died and all attempts to locate her have failed. She has not given up her rooms at the Clarendon Hotel, but she is not there and no one will say where she is at present.

lt is known that Mrs. Creede is preparing for another campaign against her husband, though when she accepted $20,000 from l.im last December it was on condition that sbe abandon her divorce proceedings, agree to a separation, release Creede from all future claims and go away to stay. Creede paid her the cash, but she did not keep her part ot the campact.

That Creede was very much worried by the return of bis wife is admitted even by those friends of his who strive hardest to i maintain the theory of accidental death, and that he was particularly distressed on j his last day was developed at the inquest. I The principal points advanced to dis- j prove the suicide theory r-lated to the excellent financial condition of the de- ' ceased and his devotion for his adopted j child, little Dorothy Waters. Besides the elegant manor honse he bouzht on Figneroa street he owned some i valuable Broadway property, where the j Tally-Ho livery stables are situated, and I he had large cash deposits in sevtr.il of j lbs city banks. Toward the little child he had adopted | he displayed the fondness of a father. The i baby's mother was Edith Waters, who, j after attaining some notoriety from an i elopement, went on the stage and made a j little transient reputation. The actress j was willing to abandon her baby, and j Millionaire Creede and wife legally adopt- ! t d it. When the disagreements arose be- I tween Cr' % ede and his wife that resulted in I the separation the child, now about two '■ years and three months old, was sent to j Elsinore. Stories of the dead man's liberality are coming to light. He lelt no will so far as can be discovered, but it is known be had given $18,000 to his brother-in-law, W. M. Phifer, who for the past four months has made his home at the Creede house, and had given thousands of dollars to other relatives. His liberality is described as the kind attributed to lucky-strike miners, [ whose motto is "easy come, easy go." Though generous in his gifts of late, | Creede was not given to lavish expenditures of the money that came to him from j the Amethyst. When his income was j running $1000 a day he was living simply | and economically. Soon after "striking it rich," he built a neat but plain lop cabin at Creede, and the woman who afterward became his wife occupied the posi- ! tion of housekeeper in this cabin for sev- j eral month-. She was then getting a divorce from her husband, and when this was accomplished they were married and moved to Pueb o, Cjlo., where he Purchased a small cottage at a cost of $5000. He was not a drinking man. His tastes were simple and his habit* economical. During the first few years in which he enjoyed wealth lie was inclined to be mi erly. He received thousands of begging letters, not only from America ! but :rom European cities a- well, but the I sympathetic tales had no loosening effect I on the purse-strings of the new millionaire. His ielattves and old friends in lowa flocked to him, and although ho bad discarded them all twenty years ago and even changed his name to more fully I sever all connections with his family, he j received his brothers and distributed I among them a few thousands. One nephew, a boy 16 years old, who came to Creede with an attempt to wrest ' money from him by means of the secret of i his changed name, went away disgraced and empty-handed, and the day after com- j mitted suicide in a little town in Eastern Kansas. Ail attempts to blackmail him i were promptly rebuffed, and the new millionaire proved that he was competent to take CHre of his own. He invested the bulk of his fortune in bonds of the Rio Grande Southern Rail- I road and the Citizens' Water Company of j Denver. His wraith has never shrunk to j any considerable extent and it is even possible that he had when he died as much property as would represent the earnings of his mines. Of a naturally morbid disposition Creede was made more miserable by his money and the worries it brought him. When the necessity for him to go into the hills in search of veins was removed his occu-pa-ion in life ended, and he was not of sufficient intelligence to find a new interest in life. He read nothing except of the "blood and thunder" nickel library class of literature, and he often said he had exhausted the pleasures of travel in his trips through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California and trie Northwest. . The adopted name of N. ('. Creede waa

taken in 1872, after his «.rrival in Sunnyside Camp, a section that in lateryears became a part of ths more successful camo of Creede. His home- was in Leon, lowa, where a brother, Judge John W. Harvey, now live*, and another brother, Jerome L Harvey, was formerly Postmaster. Jerome L. now lives in Manitou, Colo., andsince the family reconciliation has Deen the favorite brother of Creede. These brothers may come in forthe estate if the contract of separation from his wife prevents her from inheritinc it. The remains of the miner will be placed in a vault to-morrow to await final disposition, as may be decided upon.