This article appeared in The Horseshoer’s Journal 39(12):578. It is by E. G. Myers and was published in Dec 1919.

It has taken a man of iron to prove who is the richest individual and the particular person who rose to the question so often asked is a Nebraska blacksmith named E. G. Myers, whose home is at Pierce. It was The Norfolk Nebraska News that Mr. Myers appeared with his answer to this question and he did so well that several of the leading dailies of the country published his letter, thus going to prove the truth of the old adage, “All that glitters is not gold,” when a life worth living is considered. Here is Mr. Myers letter:

“I wonder if you knew that one of the richest men in the world lives fourteen miles north of Norfolk, right here in Pierce, Nebraska? That man is the writer. I’m just a common plug blacksmith, but, oh, how rich! I go to my labors each morning, work until noon, go to dinner, return at 1 P. M., and work until 6 o’clock. I enjoy the greatest of all blessings – good health. Rockefeller would give all he possesses in money or holdings for my stomach, but he can’t have it.

“Each day sees something accomplished and every job of work I turn out I feel I have done my customer a service worthy of his hire.

“I have a most wonderful little wife. She has stuck to me for twenty-two years now, so I know she must be a dandy to accomplish that. I have a little home, a beautiful little daughter, a son grown to maturity, and now in life’s game for himself. Rich? Why, man alive, who can possibly be richer?

“Then, to add to all the above riches, I take down my old shotgun in season and ramble through the fields, woods, and tangle in search of the elusive cottontail, teal, and mallard, with my favorite pointer at heel (now past eleven years old), and he is just as happy as I when we are on the hunt. Then, when I get back, oh, how good does everything taste! Then when night has spread its mantle over this good old universe, I settle down in a good old easy chair, and then roll into bed, and never hear a sound until the beautiful break of day. Rich did you say? Well, I guess. Dollars? No, not many. You inquired about riches, not material wealth.

“The height of my ambition is to so live that I may have no regrets for having lived when the time comes for me to shuffle off this mortal coil, and I hope by that time to have accumulated just enough dollars that myself and mine may not be objects of charity. This, then, is my idea of a rich man. If anyone enjoys life more than I do he is to be envied for his riches.”