OBIT: David BROWN, 1900, Altoona, Blair County, PA

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FUNERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.

  The funeral of the late David Brown will take place this afternoon.  
The cortege will leave the home of his parents, 2026 Sixth avenue, at 2 
o'clock, and proceed to St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal church, where 
at 2.30 o'clock services will be held.  Interment in Oak Ridge 
cemetery.

Altoona Tribune, June 6, 1900

DAVID BROWN INQUEST.
No Evidence Produced to Show the Man Was Poisoned.
JURY MET YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
A Number of Witnesses Heard, Among Whom Were the Physicians Who 
Conducted the Post Mortem Examination.
ADJOURNMENT FINALLY TAKEN

  The mystery, if there be one, surrounding the death of David Brown 
remains unsolved.  A report circulated that he was the victim of four 
play by poison led Coroner McCartney to make an investigation.  The 
jury impaneled to investigate into the causes leading to the death met 
in Alexander's hall from 4 until 6.15 o'clock yesterday afternoon and 
heard the testimony of a number of witnesses.  The evidence produced 
showed almost clearly that his death was due to natural causes. Drs. 
Crosthwaite and Horace R. Smith, who conducted a post-mortem 
examination of the remains, were present to testify before the jury.
  Dr. Crosthwaite was sworn.  He said he, in company with Dr. Horace R. 
Smith, on Tuesday after the death of Brown, went to the house and made 
an examination of the remains; examined the internal organs and found 
nothing that would lead to the belief that there had been any violence; 
examined the stomach and bowels, found no evidence of poison, but that 
the bowels were perforated in several places, which may have been due 
to ulcers; the perforations might have been the result of his 
occupation; there was a slight gangrenous substance in the bowels where 
they had been perforated; there was slight evidence of brass poisoning; 
found the liver almost twice its normal size and much lighter in color 
than the normal liver; didn't attribute the enlargement of the liver to 
any recent poison, and that in case of poisoning it would have to grow 
gradually; did not think that it would cause instant death; there was 
no positive evidence to the cause of death; there were no marked 
evidences of alcoholism; it might be possible for a man to take an 
overdose of poison, part entering the bowels and the rest be vomited 
out before making an impression on the stomach.  The doctor stated that 
part of the contents as well as part of the stomach and part of the 
bowels, showing the perforations, had been taken out for analysis.
  Dr. Smith was sworn.  He said he was at the post-mortem examination; 
found no signs of injury about the body looking toward violence; opened 
the body at the chest; found the lungs in their natural condition; the 
heart normal; the liver was much larger; half again as large as the 
normal liver; examined the stomach and found it empty with the 
exception of a mucous fluid; found no signs of inflammation about it; 
examined the intestines and found them normal; found the lower small 
intestines full of perforations; several were due to the undertaker's 
trocar; saved some of the stomach and a section of the bowels and 
handed them over to the coroner; the perforations were due to 
ulcerations of the bowels; they would cause certain death but how soon 
one cannot say; I didn't see any evidence of poison; there may have 
been some in the fluid taken from the stomach; it would be a hard 
matter to decide there was or not, an analysis might prove something 
and might not; it may be that some of the embalming fluid which is 
poisonous, got in the stomach and this would make an analysis 
difficult; the postmortem should have been held before the body was 
embalmed; the coloring of the body after death would not signify 
anything; no living person could give an opinion from the postmortem as 
to what caused death.
  Mrs. Margaret Brown, of 2020 Sixth avenue, mother of the deceased was 
sworn.  She said David came home Thursday evening about 6 o'clock 
feeling sick and did not go to work Friday.  He got up about 5 o'clock 
and complained of pains in his stomach.  "I was preparing his father's 
dinner and he threw himself down on the sofa until I was through.  
While I was bathing his feet in hot mustard water he said, 'I will 
never see the brass foundry again.'  I wanted to send for a doctor and 
he replied, 'There is no use, there is no doctor that can do me any 
good.'  He didn't say what caused the pain.  He didn't eat anything for 
three days.  All he wanted was ice water and said his insides were 
burning like fire."
  She then told where he had been from Decoration Day until the day of 
his death and that the doctor had pronounced the cause neuralgia of the 
heart and rheumatism.
  Thomas Brown, brother of the deceased, said his brother complained of 
feeling badly Friday morning when he got up.  Saw him different times 
after that, but never talked to him.  He said he came home Wednesday 
morning minus his coat, vest, gold watch and $5, but didn't tell him 
what had become of them.  He said he never heard a direct threat 
against his brother.  When questioned he stated that about two months 
ago his brother and a Mrs. Emfield were up stairs; heard them talking 
loud; it sounded more in fun than in earnest and one of them was 
laughing; it was my brother that was laughing; my brother's life was 
threatened and Mrs. Emfield said, "I will kill you sometime;" Mrs. 
Emfield was living at the house; had lived there about eight months; 
she left about three weeks ago; it was the impression she was my 
brother's wife; they were living as man and wife.
  William . . . . [unreadable] street, was the next witness.  He said 
he knew David Brown; that they worked together in the shops; he was at 
my house on Decoration day; saw him on Wednesday morning in the barber 
shop.  "He came to my house Wednesday night before I went home; it was 
between 9 and 10 o'clock when I got home; we sat and talked together 
and I said I was going to bed and he remarked: "Woody, I am not feeling 
well; I am going to stay with you."  We got up about 9 o'clock and he 
went out and stood on the corner talking to Mr. Pietsch for a couple of 
hours; he came back and went in the room and laid down on the sofa 
until about 5.30 o'clock when he ate some toast and went home.
  "When I saw him he complained of his feet and legs; didn't complain 
of his stomach; he told Thursday afternoon he had received a note from 
the kid to meet him on Margaret avenue; I told him not to go; I 
understood who it was; he said he wouldn't go and I was to meet him 
that night.  I had my finger hurt and didn't go out of the house.  I 
met him Wednesday morning at Ormes's barber shop, on Seventeenth 
street, and asked him where his light coat and vest were.  He dropped 
his head and said he had lost them during the night, and that he was at 
the Arcade building when they were stolen.  He said he had had a note 
from the kid - Mrs. Emfield - and I said, 'you were over there?' and he 
said, 'yes.'"
   Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Emfield was called and sworn.  She said she 
lived at her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Moses Crum, 2212 Ninth avenue; 
knew David Brown; knew he was sick; that she had received a note from 
him at 9 o'clock Saturday night to come to see him and went; he didn't 
tell her what was wrong.  "I lived at Brown's house eighteen months; 
left there about three weeks ago; wasn't married to him; had frequent 
quarrels with him, and both had threatened each other's life; didn't 
mean anything, as we were angry at the time."  She was asked if she had 
written Brown on Tuesday afternoon.  She answered that she did not 
remember.  She said that she met Brown at Margaret avenue and 
Seventeenth street, walked down to Nineteenth street and went across 
through the culvert and to Mrs. Mull's in the Arcade building.  Brown 
stopped at Crum's hotel and got a drink; reached the Arcade between 10 
and 11 o'clock; Brown remained there all night; he had a half pint of 
whisky; he gave Mrs. Mull a drink and took one himself, he kept the 
bottle in his pocket.  "I poured the drinks out into a glass I got from 
the cupboard; he left about 6:30 Wednesday morning minus his coat, 
vest, watch and $5; I don't know who took them; I notified the police 
in the morning."
  She was asked concerning the rumors about her attempting suicide, but 
avoided the questions and then suddenly exclaimed, "Well, what if I 
did, Dave was everything to me; after he was gone I had nothing more to 
live for!"  She also stated that she had given him the watch or rather 
the cases, and wouldn't have taken them back.
  Mrs. Caroline Mull, of the Arcade block, was sworn.  She said David 
Brown was never in her place until the Tuesday; he came in between 10 
and 11 o'clock; he had a bottle of whisky; he asked me to take a drink 
and Mrs. Emfield poured out the whisky; Brown took the first drink; I 
had just washed out the glass and put it away in the evening; there was 
no poison around.
  Dr. F. H. Bloomhardt was sworn.  His testimony was in regard to Mrs. 
Emfield.  He said he first saw her Tuesday morning about 11 o'clock; I 
found no symptoms of poison that rumor has it that she had taken; I did 
not find anything in her condition that would show that she had taken 
any or had been given poison; the symptoms were more of nervousness and 
grief just such as any woman is liable to suffer after a death of a 
friend; I wouldn't say she had taken poison; did not tell them she was 
suffering from poison; I never regarded her condition as serious.  
Neither at 11 o'clock Tuesday nor any time since then have I detected 
symptoms that she had taken laudanum, opium or morphine.
  The jury then adjourned to meet at the call of the coroner, to hear 
the evidence of Dr. E. S. Miller, who had attended Brown.

Morning Tribune, Friday, June 8, 1900