| 1909 - Big Pool, MD. RJF buys his father's general store and railroad crosstie business for $1,600 in savings and a loan of $500. Over the next two years he increases his annual gross revenue from $20,000 to $60,000. He buys farmer's timber and sells it as crossties, using his own sawmills. (American Cyclopedia. P. 323, SAT. EVE. POST,) |  |
| RJF develops ulcers. "He also hustled himself into stomach ulcers which specialists at Johns Hopkins University diagnosed as fatal. Expecting to go over Jordan, he sold out for $10,000 profit, but bought a two-cylinder Maxwell as a hedge on this world. (SAT. EVE. POST) "I drove him like a slave . . ." "I was condemned to die in a short time . . ." "When a local cross-tie dealer failed, young Ray rushed to the scene and acquired another enterprise, despite the fact that by now he was principally skin and bones. One day a farmer who was delivering some ties handed him a soda mint. Ray took to chewing mints, got well and ever since has carried a small bottle of the tablets in his pocket." (SAT. EVE. POST) | |