Allen County OhArchives Obituaries.....Brice, Calvin Stewart December 15, 1898
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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 Oclock 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 oclock 
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 fathers bedside.  He reached there 10 minutes 
BEFORE DEATH CAME.

Only one member of former Senator Brices family was absent at the last.  This 
was the second son, Lieutenant W. Kirkpatrick Brice who, after serving on 
General Merritts 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 Brices 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 Astors 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 oclock 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. Smiths 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 oclock 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. Brices office associates until at 3 oclock 
this afternoon the report was made that he had not an hour to live.

AT THE DEATH BED

At the dying mans 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 oclock, 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 Brices 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.


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