Allen County OhArchives Obituaries.....Brice, Calvin Stewart December 15, 1898 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Woerner judyw0113@yahoo.com January 13, 2006, 3:48 am Lima News, December 16, 1898 "VERY SUDDENLY Death Came to Senator Calvin S. Brice – Sincere Sorrow Felt by His Many Friends and Relatives in Lima. His Was a Life of Ceaseless Activity, by Hard Work and Native Shrewdness he Had Accumulated a Vast Fortune – Sketch of His Past Life – Remains Will Arrive in Lima Sunday Morning at 10 O’clock Over the C., M. & D. A dispatch from New York says: Calvin S. Brice, railroad financier from the State of Ohio, died at his city home, No. 693 Fifth avenue, at 3:15 o’clock this afternoon of pneumonia. His family had only a few hours’ warning that the end was near. He had been under the physicians’ care, but until yesterday his condition was not considered in the least alarming. Even then it was not thought that death was near. Not until last night was a message sent to the boy in Harvard urging him to hasten to his father’s bedside. He reached there 10 minutes BEFORE DEATH CAME. Only one member of former Senator Brice’s family was absent at the last. This was the second son, Lieutenant W. Kirkpatrick Brice who, after serving on General Merritt’s staff in Manila, went to China, where he now is in the interest of the vast railway concession obtained in that country by his big father. Senator Brice’s sudden death was a shock to the large and influential circles with which he was prominently associated. None had the least suspicion that his condition had become so grave within the last few hours, and to all his death was wholly unexpected. His fatal illness was traceable to the blizzard of the Thanksgiving season. Senator Brice was in Newport on Thanksgiving day. There was a family reunion of all save the son in China, at Beaulieu, William Waldorf Astor’s famous place on the cliffs, which Mr. Brice had leased for several seasons. Newport was shut off from the outer world by the storm of the next few days, but the ex-Senator DETERMINED TO BREAK THE BARRIER so far as he was concerned. He had an important engagement in this city on the following Monday, which no snow blockade was to prevent him from keeping. As there were no trains to carry him away by land he resolved to escape by water. Hiring a tug on that Monday morning he rounded Point Judith on the craft and steamed to Wickford. There he chartered a locomotive which he traveled to New London. The rest of the journey was by train, which brought him to this city at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It was a severe trip and Senator Brice made it fasting from breakfast time. On that trying journey it is supposed were sown the seeds of the fatal cold which developed a week later. Mrs. Brice closed the Newport house the next day and came to New York for the winter." Senator Brice was considered one of the best posted and one of the best equipped men for quick business transactions among the leaders of gigantic affairs in this now financial center of the world. It is told of him that when he first landed in New York he had but little more than $100, and that a pair of rubber overshoes covered a pair of not overly good shoes. He came to New York to dispose of rights to the construction of a railway that if constructed would have paralleled the Lake Shore road. He endeavored unsuccessfully for a time to interest financial men in his enterprise. At last he got an audience with the Vanderbilts, owners of the Lake Shore, and to them disposed of his rights to the Nickel Plate road. In a day almost from being a poor man he became three times millionaire. Everything he touched after that appeared to TURN TO GOLD. Senator Brice himself was not much given to display. Though it has generally been agreed that his family expenses would annually average $300,000. Senator Brice was a man most modest in his desires and strongly domestic in his tastes. Senator Brice, who had never succumbed to illness in his life, discovered a week ago last Monday that he had a slight cold. It was not a thing to cause him any uneasiness. The man who all his life had admonished his friends against taking too much care of themselves, arguing that more persons died from over care than not enough, was not to give great heed to a cold even though it daily became worse, as it did in his case. Still he daily attended to business matters, and last Friday went to the office of the Lake, Erie and Western railroad at No. 80 Broadway, of which he was president. It was his LAST TIME TO LEAVE HIS DOOR. His cold was so much more severe the next day that his family persuaded him to send for his physician, Dr. A. A. Smith, of No. 8 West Forty-seventh street. Stoutly maintaining that he could cure the cold himself, Senator Brice at length yielded to the solicitations of his wife and children, and allowed the doctor to be called. Then, at Dr. Smith’s urging he consented to go to bed and “take are of himself.” Fever was apparent even at that time, and his temperature was high. The fever steadily increased during Sunday and Monday, and on the latter day Senator Brice complained of severe pain in his right side. Pneumonia was feared on Tuesday. His case was not considered really serious yesterday, but last night he sank rapidly and became wildly delirious. Oxygen was used at 4 o’clock this morning, and at noon Dr. Smith called into consultation Dr. E. G. Janeway. The doctors found that the disease had progressed so far that it was their duty to tell the family that there was no longer any hope. Word was sent to the Lake Erie and Western Railroad offices, saying the president of the road was beyond recovery, and from that time frequent messages were communicated to Mr. Brice’s office associates until at 3 o’clock this afternoon the report was made that he had not an hour to live. AT THE DEATH BED At the dying man’s bedside, throughout the crucial hours, had been his wife, his eldest son, Captain Brice, who had been at home since his return from the Santiago campaign, and the three daughters, Helen, Olivia and Kate. They remained constantly in the room with the dying man. He was in silent unconsciousness, having sank into that state from the delirium which had been upon him the greater part of last night and to-day. John arrived at the home from Harvard at 3:05 o’clock, and at once joined the family beside the dying man. The end came 10 minutes later. He passed away without having gained consciousness. The report of Senator Brice’s death was soon in circulation, and at once messages of condolence began arriving for the bereaved family. Hardly a prominent official in Washington but what sent words of sympathy. It is quite probable that the funeral service will take place at the Brice residence Saturday morning. They will be private. As the family worship at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, a minister of that denomination will officiate at the services. The body will be taken to Lima, Ohio, for interment, the Brice family plot being in Woodlawn cemetery there.” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/allen/obits/b/brice108nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ohfiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb