The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-05-13
FLOWER is DEAD.
Famous Politician and
Spectator Dies
Suddenly.
BUSINESS CAREER.
Governor Of New York and
a Lifelong Staunch
Democrat.

New York, May 12.-Ex- Gov. Roswell
P. Flower died tonight at 1890 at the
Eastport Country Club at Eastport, L.
I. Mr.. Flower was taken ill early in
the day with severe attacks of acute
Indigestion. In the afternoon symp-
toms of heart failure supervened and
he grew steadily worse until the time
of his death The attack of heart fail
ure was accompanied by a fainting
spell, and Mr. Flowers family in New
York city were quickly notified.
Mrs. Flower and the former govern
or's nephew, Frederick S. Flower, ac-
! companied by DR.. Thomas H. Allen,
Mr.. Flowers physician, left at once on
special train for PASSPORT. When
they arrived there Mr.. Flower had
somewhat recovered. but tonight the
attack of heart failure was marked,
and Mr. Flower became unconscious an
hour or more before his death. At the
club house all the reports early in the
evening regarding Mr.. Flowers serious
illness were emphatically denied, al
though at that time it was not be-
lieved he would recover. Mr.. Flower
has been a sufferer from gastritis for a
long time, with every now and then an
| acute attack.
For a month or two past he had been
| regular visitor at the PASSPORT Coun-
| try Club, in the hope that he would
find some relief in the outing. He APP
peared in robust health yesterday, and
this morning when he arrived at East
! port where he intended to remain I'M
til Monday his health was apparently
excellent The attack from which he
suffered today came on suddenly and
was of more severe type at the out
set than any he had previously suf-
fered from. Frederick S. Flower took
charge of the details after his uncle s
death, but no arrangement for the
| funeral has been made. The body will
probably be transferred to Manhattan
tomorrow morning.
| Roswell Pettibone Flower was born
in Theresa, Jefferson county, N. Y, Aug
In, 1886. His father was born in Greene
county, New York, and his ancestors
came from Connecticut. Roswell was
the sixth of nine children, and when
his father died he was eight years old
| He worked with his brothers on two
| 1dIItS HIS IllOll1bI OWllGus anu Sp6llL lie
time between school sessions in the
| hardest kind of labor. He became dep
uty postmaster of WATERFOWL, n Y, in
1853, and kept his place six years at a
salary of $50 a month. Then he became
a partner in the jewelry firm Of Hitch
cock & Flower, bought out his partner
at the end of two years. and continued
in the business until 1869.
Mr.. Flower came to New York in that
year to take charge of the estate OF
Henry Keep, whose widow was Mrs
Flowers sister Mr.. Keep owned
great many railroad and other stocks
and during the months before his death
spent much time instructing Mr.. Flower
about them. Having thus gained an in
sight into Wall street and its methods
Mr.. Flower formed in 1870 the firm OF
Benedict, Flower & Co., in which he
Joined e. C. Benedict and H. Fl. Tru-
man. This firm was dissolved in 1872
when Mr.. Flower was i'll for several
months.
Not long afterward he organized the
banking firm of Flower & Co., which
has since been a power in Wall street.
Mr.. Flower always was a democrat In
the early seventies he helped Samuel j.
Tilden develop the famous organization
which exposed Tweed, and enjoyed
many other triumphs. Mr. Flower was
chosen chairman of the democratic
state committee in 1877 and in 1881 de-
feated VIM. Waldorf Aston for congress
after a hot campaign in the eleventh
district. His majority was 310O, while
Levi P. Morton, republican, had car
ried the district at the last previous
election by more than 1000 votes. Mr..
Flower refused a denomination. He
was elected governor of the state in
1891
In the cholera epidemic. in the late
summer of 1892, thousands of passeng-
ers arriving from Europe were quar-
antined on shipboard down the bay. AS
an emergency MEASURE, Gov. Flower
bought, with his own money, the Fire
Island Hotel, in the name of the state
and ordered that the passengers be
sent there.
Mr.. Flower took UP Brooklyn rapid
transit less than two years ago, buy
ing from $1,000 to 10000 shares, at about
25, when the capital stock was only
$25 100000 He absorbed many subor-
dinate lines. among them the Nassau
Electric Company. and increased the
capital stock to $45, 600 900, and by his
extraordinary successful manipulation
put the price up to 1877. His holdings
in Brooklyn Rapid Transit alone, which
cost him two years ago little more than
19UufUUUt are W0lti dl lDucty MAJ fACt
price more than s3.00O,000.
Mr.. Flower was one of the founders
of the Federal Steel Trust, whose stock
already issued is 500, 737, 800. Good au-
thorities estimate that Mr.. Flowers
profits in the last is months in Wal
street have exceeded $40 OO0. 0OO He had
become in that time the acknowledged
speculative leader in the financial mar
kets of the United States.
Mr.. Flower married Sarah NJ. Wood
ruff, a daughter of Morris NJ. Wood
ruff of WATERFOWL. Dec. 26, 1859. Three
children were born, of whom only one
survives, Emma Gertrude, the wife OF
John B, Tyler. Mr.. Flower had been
for years one of the wardens of ST
Thomas Episcopal church, on Fifth
avenue.
It is a matter of general knowledge
that his Identification with the Fed
eral Steel company, the greatest of the
new industrial trusts. with a capital OF
5000 000, 900, has helped more than any
other individual, interest to make il
the potent factor that it is today. There
is no mistaking the fact that the wide
diversity in the nature Of that COM
pany.s properties and its immense ac-
cumulations were the results OF his
great genius. No monopoly Of modern
times. particularly OF such gigantic
proportions. have ever possessed SO elias
tic a charter. Under its terms it is per-
mitted not only to make steel pro-