In 1899, at the home of his employee John Neville, Sam Strong met John’s charming daughter, Regina. She turned his head and his heart, and he soon proposed. Despite her parent’s protests, they wed in Altman, Colo., on February 5, 1900. He was 36; she was 18. As the newlyweds boarded the train on their way to catch a ship for their European honeymoon, the sheriff served Strong with papers for two breach-of-promise suits–one by Luella Vance, the other by Nellie Lewis. In their minds, the millionaire had apparently married the wrong woman.

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Attorney J. Reid Crowell took Miss Lewis’ case. In an attempt to discredit her, Sam Strong and his attorneys set out to find men in Colorado Springs who had been intimate with Nellie Lewis. The newspapers compounded the situation by publishing the details. The public was scandalized and Lewis embarrassed.

In retaliation, Nellie Lewis testified that Sam Strong himself had paid to have the Strong mine blown up during the 1894 strike. Also, love letters he had written to her were read in open court. Strong’s own behavior helped doom the case. He had to be ordered to answer questions and at times contradicted himself.

On April 17, 1900, the jury awarded Nellie Lewis $50,000 in damages. Strong’s attorneys immediately appealed the decision. Meanwhile, Luella Vance’s case was settled out of court, also for $50,000.

The matter of the mine explosion was not so easily swept aside. The syndicate that had leased the mine from Strong grew angry upon hearing the details of Nellie Lewis’ testimony. This was the first these rich men had heard that Strong had been involved in the blowup. Nicholas Tully, one of the men who had been convicted of the crime, saw an opportunity to clear his name. He teamed up with attorney Crowell, and together with various miners and the rich men of the syndicate, they built a strong case against Strong. They said that Strong had ordered the high-production mine blown up in hope that the syndicate would quit the lease–which would have given control of the mine back to him.

The notoriety of the Nellie Lewis trial earlier that year and Strong’s lack of popularity in conservative, alcohol-free Colorado Springs helped convince the court that Strong could not receive a fair trial there. The proceedings were moved to Denver, which was also more convenient for Sam, since he was now living in the capital city with Regina.

The Denver papers carried a day-to-day account of what they dubbed the ‘War of the Millionaires.’ The trial began on April 23, 1901. An entire day was spent examining the fortunes of the syndicate members and Strong. According to their own testimony, William Lennox was worth $3 million; Ernest Colburn, $2.5 million; and Edwin Giddings, $4 million. Strong’s worth was argued over. His attorney hoped to show that he didn’t need the money from the Strong mine and therefore had no motivation for having it blown up. They finally agreed that Strong was worth a mere $1 million, though his estate was settled less than six months later at more than twice that amount.

A parade of witnesses filed in and out of the courtroom for six weeks. Multimillionaire Winfield S. Stratton, who had become the ‘Midas of the Rockies,’ testified to the details of the strike. William Bell, the state militia officer in charge at the time of the strike, also testified. Their testimony was favorable for Sam. Nicholas Tully and Strong’s spurned lover, Nellie Lewis, offered unfavorable testimony against Sam.

The most damaging testimony of all, though, came from the affidavit of a miner named John Edmund ‘Kid’ Allen. The Kid refused to return to Colorado for fear he would be arrested and sentenced for the crimes he claimed Strong had paid him to commit. His accomplice, Henry Munford, had conveniently died in a mining accident in Nevada some time before. Kid Allen described in detail how Sam paid him. Other witnesses corroborated his story, but each of those men had done time in Cañon City with Lyons and Tully. Strong’s attorneys attacked their credibility.

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