He married his first wife, Lucy, in Duluth, Minnesota in 1881. She already had a son named Willie, whom Page adopted. The family moved to Ellensburg, Washington during the 1880s, on the east side of the state, where he became an agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Moving to Tacoma west of the Cascade Mountains, he tried and failed as a hotel owner and as a commodities trader. From 1888 to 1890, Page went to Canada searching for gold. During these years, he continued to send money to support his mother, until her death in 1891. During the 1890s, he worked in the mining industry in Washington, Idaho, Colorado, and Canada. He apparently made some money, but lost all his savings in the Panic of 1893. In 1900, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he got into real estate development, oil well drilling, and investing in power plants.