New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-05
MANY PUBLIC REQUESTS
IN GUCGENHE|M WILL
Document Was One of Those
Saved from the Equitable
Building Fire.
RELATIVES REMEMBERED
Two thirds of Estate To Be Dis
tributed Equally Among Three
Children-Guards Against
Disagreement.

The will of Benjamin Guggenheim,
member OF the mining firm of NJ. Gug-
renheirn e. Sons and brother Of Senator
Simon Guggenheim of Colorado, who lost
his life when the Titanic sank. was fled
Yesterday for probate.
Mr.. Guggenheim was quoted as saying
as he stood on the deck OF the sinking
White Star liner. Tell my wife that I
played the game to the end" His will
contains many requests to charitable
institutions. most OF which he was iden-
titled with during his lifetime.
An odd circumstance about the will,
which was executed on December 8. 1905,
was that II was one of the documents In
a box belonging to the testator which
was saved with its contents from the
fire that destroyed the building Of the
Equitable Life Assurance Society on
January 10.
The original will and codicil made
on February IS, 1906, in which the tes-
tator increased the amounts Of the pub
lie requests, were blurred almost on
every page. showing that water had
crept through the box in which they
were placed. However. the blurs we're
not so bad that any part of the valuable
document was illegible.
Another interesting circumstance about
the day before the Equitable fire. Mr..
Cuggenheim added another codicil, In
which he named his three Oldest broth
ers executors Of the will, instead of his
wife and his two brothers, Simon Gug-
genheim and William Guggenheim.
This codicil did not bear the water
marks shown in the others and evidently
had not been placed in Mr.. Guggenheim s
safe deposit box.
If the will had been destroyed IN the
Equitable fire it might have made a
great difference in the distribution OF the
largo estate of Mr.. Guggenheim. He
went abroad about three months before
the time Of his death, and he hardly
would have had time to make new will.
He left two-thirds OF the residuary of
his estate 10 his three daughters and
one third to his wife, Mrs. Floretta Gug-
genheim, who was Miss Seligman. daugh-
ter of James Seligman. the banker.
The charitable requests made by Mr..
Gugeenheim comprise gifts OF $4,000
each to the Manhattan Trade School for
Girls, the Mount Sinai Hospital, the
United Hebrew Charities, the Hebrew
Technical School the Emanu-El Sister
hood for Personal Service, and of $4,000
Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum,
the Montefiore Home, the New York AS
ISOLATION for Improving the Condition of
the Poor, the Charity Organization So
cjety, the Home for Aged and 1nirm
Hebrews, the Colored Orphan Asylum,
st. Johns Guild Floating Hospital, the
Home for Friendless Girls. the New York
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty TO
Children, the Society for the Prevention
of Vice and the Union Home and School
for Soldiers and Sailors Orphans.
Mr.. Guggenheim also was generous In
the matter OF caring for relatives who
were not in the same prosperous circum-
stances that he was. For these he left
$4,000 TO be distributed according 10 the
discretion of his wife. Then he left
$4,000 each to his two sisters. Mrs. Rose
Loeb. wife OF Albert Loeb, and Mrs. Cora
Rothschild. wife of Albert Rothschild,
and $4,000 more to Nettie Gerstle,
daughter Of the testator's dead sister,
Mrs. Nettie Gerstle. Two sisters in-law.
Mrs. Robert F. Nathan and Mrs. Albert
II. Gross, receive $4,000 each.
Mr. Guggenheim gave two-thlrds OF