Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-21
EX-MAYOR GRACE DEAD
SUCCUMBS TO ATTACK OF PNEU-
MoNIA IN NEW YORK TODAY.
Once Prominent in City Politics = An
Fortune in Shipping.

NEW YORK. March 21.--Former Mayor
his residence in this city. He was in his
seyenty-second year.
Deceased contracted a severe cold on last
December Z, which was very stormy day.
When the ex-mayor reached his nome from
his office in Hanover Square he complained
of feeling ILL., DIR. Reyes found him suffer
ing from the grip and ordered him to keen
to his bed.
Pneumonia Develops.
Despite every precaution Mr.. Graces
condition continued to grow worse until
pneumonia developed.
The patients advanced age was against
him, however. and his strength was spent.
He failed TO respond to the treatment and
grew weaker, despite the fact that all trace
of pneumonia had left him.
Sketch of His Life.
When William r. Grace ran away from
school at the age of fourteen years under
the keen boyish impression that Queens
town. Ireland, was not the place to enlist
his growing capabilities, he was following
in a crude way the restless tendencies for
adventure inherited from his old Norman
ancestor Richard lie Gros. He was des-
tined, however. for more useful things in
life than the pursuit of arms for conquest
sake, as subsequent events in his life his
tory were to prove.
Having worked his passage On a vessel
bound for New York city, he took kindly
to every opportunity that offered to i'm
prove his condition, and at the end OF two
years returned to Ireland to visit his home.
In 1850 he went to Callao. Peru, and there
was taken into the employ of the shipping
firm Of Bryce & Co, and two years later
was made Junior partner, the firm title
being changed to Bryce. Grace & Co. At
that time the house was the only Ameri-
can firm of consequence at Callao. and it
had agencies in all the leading ports OF
Peru and Chill. and held active connections
in the United States and in England:
In 1865 Mr. Grace came to New York for
the second time. with the full intention of.
retiring from active business his health
having suffered from climatic association;
but here his energies were restored, and
he founded the house of w. r. Grace &
Co., shipping and commission merchants,
which rose steadily in commercial import
ance, until today it Is one of the factors
in calculating the far-reachlng Importance
of New York the center of trade irter-
ests.
The company has branches in London,
in San Francisco. in Peru and in Chill. In
fact representing agents for it are to be
found in all of the principal west coast
cities of South America. Its contracts for
the importation of guano are an important
feature of it's business scope. The bulk
of the nitrate of soda that comes to this
country comes through the hands of the
firm which, besides. has the exclusive con-
troll of many other South American prod
uCtS.
Vast quantities of American nanufac-
tured goods find their way to South Amer
lean hands through w. r. Grace & Co.
who stand so high in the esteem of the
Peruvian government that they were called
upon ct one time to aid that country in the
conversion of it's debt. amounting to some
S4OO00.OOO. In the business life of the
metropolis, Mr.. Grace personally was
conspicuous figure.
He twice elected mayor. IN 1850 and
in 1884. He was president or vice presi
dent of numerous corporations He was
director in the Lincoln National Bank, the
New York Life Insurance Company, the
New York and Pacific Steamship Company,
which line he established in 1881. in the
Brooklyn Warehouse and Storage Com
pany. and in the Lincoln Safe Deposit
Company.
With the accommodating years Mr.. Grace
seemed TO have completely risen above the
physical collapse that proved a menace to
his younger manhood, and he grasped ev-
cry detail of his far-reaching business with
the assured hrmness of thoroughly ripened
powers. If one characteristic was more
determinate than another in his nature, it
was determination in the pursuit of de-
cided policy.