The Creede Suicide
Nicholas C. Creede
 Frank Creede Harvey, nephew |
 Mack Creede Harvey, Frank's son |
 Chris Creede, Mack's wife |
Remarkable Features Came To Light.
Strange and Eventful Career of the Wealthy Californian -- History of the Man Who, Like Barney Barnato, Caused His Own End.
Nicholas C. Creed, the millionaire mine owner and founder of the town of Creede, Col., who committed suicide at this home in Los Angles, Cal., recently, it now appears, by taking morphine, took his life because his wife, from whom he had separated, insisted on living with him. Creede and his wife, on Jan 4 last, decided to forever separate, but neither of them was in favor of commencing divorce proceedings at that time. It was decided, however, that after the necessary legal time had elapsed, Creede should sue his wife for divorce on the grounds of desertion. Mr. Creede gave his wife $20,000, and she surrendered all claim on his estate and left his house. Mrs. Creede appeared to be perfectly satisfied with the arrangement, and, taking her $20,000, she went to the home of her parents, in Alabama. She grew tired of living in the South, however, and yearned to be united with her husband. She returned to Los Angles nearly a month ago, and proposed to her husband that they live together again. Mr. Creede was very much disturbed by the proposal, and rejected it. He also made efforts to avoid his wife, but was unsuccessful. This made him determined to commit suicide, and, as told in the news columns, he swallowed a large dose of morphine and went to the garden. A servant discovered Mr. Creede after he had become unconscious. He was carried into the house, and physicians were summoned. They were unable to save him, however. Mrs. Creede was notified of her husband's suicide, but refused to say anything about the matter. The couple had no children of their own, and a year ago they adopted a girl, who is now at Escondido.
Mr. Creede was born near Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1842, and his real name was William Harvey. His parents moved to Leon, Iowa, and there, when very young, he fell in love with a woman who preferred his brother. He quit home in disgust, and changed his name, because he would not bear the name of his successful rival. He joined the Union army in 1861, first the quartermaster's department and then as a scout. As a scout he served with the Pawnee Indians against the Sioux, campaigning all over Nebraska and the plains of Wyoming, Dakota and Colorado. Major Frank North was his commander, and he passed seven years of as hard campaigning as can be imagined. Mr. Creede settled in Colorado in 1879 as a prospector. His failures in this pursuit were due to his craving for wandering from place to place, not staying long enough anywhere to make a real "strike." Although he was modest in locating claims, he once stated that he had stakes all over Colorado and part of New Mexico. His first strike of any importance was made in 1879 in a totally unknown district north of Salida, which he named Monarch. There he remained for two years after the boom struck it, and finally sold out for $5,000. "Had I known then what I know now about mining," he said afterward, "I would have an independent fortune." This money he expended in studying mining and visiting other mining camps as a capitalist. The next camp he started was Bonanza, in Saguache County, Colorado. It flourished until the fall in silver, when it was deserted. There were ten years of failures and discouragement between Monarch and Creede camp. His wanderings far from the routes of the ordinary prospector led him to the place where he struck it rich, one of the wildest regions in the Rockies. "Holy Moses," exclaimed George Smith, a prospector, to whom he showed some rock from his first claim. "That's as good a name as any," remarked Creede, and the mine was named Holy Moses. Creede was never a very popular man with his associates. His wealth was large. While the Amethyst mine in Colorado was paying $10.000 he amassed a considerable fortune. In 1893 he sold out his remaining interests in the Creede camp to D.H. Moffat and L.E. Campbell.
The marriage that caused Creede's death was the result of a late-in-life love affair. The present Mrs. Creede was the proprietor of a boarding house in Del Norte, where Creede had stopped in his early prospecting days. After "striking" it he induced her to quit her husband, get a divorce and marry him. Results proved it to be the worst of many poor investments. Creede was a vain man, and when he became rich a tramp printer convinced him he ought to have his biography written. Creede swallowed the bait, and the printer lived with him for six months on the pretense of collecting data. Then Creede threw him out, but the poison was in the new millionaire's veins, and he employed Cy Warman to write his life. Warman did it up artistically, throwing in an occasional poem of daredevil adventure built on a slender basis, and generally lauding the scout of the plains. The book was named "The Prospector of Silver Creek." Only a few copies were ever issued. When the fame of his wealth got abroad Creede was the mark of all sorts of blackmailers, but when it came to his pocket he was never weak-minded. A distant relative of his, a mere boy, knowing that the celebrated N.C. Creede was William Harvey, visited him at Pueblo, and indiscreetly endeavored to use his knowledge as a means of obtaining money. Creede kicked him out, and the boy started back home, but committed suicide near Manhattan, Kan., on the way. Creede's Iowa relatives are spoken of as people of the best class, a brother, John W. Harvey, being circuit judge of Decatur county. Creede's personal bravery was never questioned. This story of his prowess as a hunter is narrated: When prospecting in the Creede country he saw a bear, and, dropping his tools, rushed back to his cabin and got his Winchester. Catching up with the bear he wounded it, and bruin made a dash at him. He kept on firing without moving, and the bear got within ten feet of him before it dropped. At that moment Creede saw two more bears approaching, and, hastily reloading his rifle, he attached them and killed them also. His companions in the cabin, hearing the continuous firing, rushed out to help him, but arrived too late to share in the killing. Creede's principal employment as scout and lieutenant of the Pawnees was to clear hostile Indians from the line of the Union Pacific as it was building westward. His work was thorough for he never quit the trail of the Indians who committed any depredations in his territory, following them with his Pawnees until every one was killed. After Creede became rich he took to drink, and in 1893 his friends induced him to try a cure for drunkenness. Morphine was the principal ingredient of this cure, and when his appetite for liquor vanished it was replaced by a fiercer one for the drug. On several occasions he nearly died from an overdose of morphine, notably once at Galveston, Texas, when he was unconscious for two days from the effects of it. It is learned that the fortune left by Mr. Creede will go to the girl ward. He left a will, and the half million he had will go to little Dorothy Waters, whose short life has been no less strange than her benefactor's. Dorothy's mother was the daughter of the owner of one of the Santa Barbara islands. The mother was brought up in absolute seclusion until she was about 15 years old, when she made her escape from her home in an open boat, and against the odds of wind and wave made her way to the mainland. She met a young man and before she could be returned to her father's home plighted him her love and insisted on marrying him. Her family cast her off and her husband soon deserted her, leaving her penniless with little Dorothy. The poor woman joined an opera company, but met with ill success, and sought shelter in the hospital. Her story was published, and Mr. Creede went to see her, extended her help and adopted her little girl. The mother went away, and no one knows where she is. It is possible that Mrs. Creede, who has never been divorced, but only agreed to leave her husband, may contest the inheritance of little Dorothy, though it is claimed that the dead man's will was drawn carefully so as to leave no room for a legal fight over his money.
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A Quick History of Creede Colorado Boom Town by Leland Feitz is also a very good tale of the town. Enjoy!