Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-09-10
HAVEMEYER DIES
SUDDENLY IN BED
Prominent New York Financier
Victim of Course"
TRAGEDY NUMBER TWELVE
Grim Nemesis That Has Followed
Wealthy Family Since Sugar
Frauds Were Exposed by Gov
eminent Claims Another.

New York, Sept. S.-William F. Hav-
emeyer, for many years prominent in
financial and industrial circles here,
was found dead in bed at his home
Sunday. He complained of feeling i'll
at night and when found in the morn
ing had been dead apparently about
SIX hours.
He was the son of the late William
F. Havemeyer and, with his associates,
did much to build up the American
Sugar Refining company. He was a
director in more than score of corpo-
rations. He is survived by his widow
and three sons and one daughter, the
latter the wife of former Chairman
Wilcox of the public service commits
sion.
The sudden death of Hayemeyer
bears out the oft-asserted contention
that the wealth of the sugar million
aires has carried with it curse.
Wealth Has Brought Tragedies.
To the sudden deaths and suicides
have been added innumerable scandals
and divorces. Business success has fol-
lowed the Havemeyers, but the domes-
tic and private life of the majority
of the family's members has been tur-
bulent and unhappy. The immense for
tune founded by William, Frederick
and Frederick Christian shortly after
the close of the nineteenth century has
brought with it tragedies which have
caused much more misery than the in
vestigation and federal prosecution of
the sugar trust despite the public flu
rore which the latter created.
Founder Under Curse.
Henry o. Havemeyer of the second
generation, the real founder and con-
trolling genius of the sugar trust, was
the first to furnish example that a
curse went with his millions. He di-
vorced his wife and married her niece,
the first wife dying of broken heart.
Henry Havemeyer, Jr., his favorite
son, then ran through with his share
of the fortune and died in Paris in pow
erty and mystery. George, an older
and favorite brother of the trust found
er. fell into the machinery of refinery
and was crushed to death.
Wife Committed Suicide.
Then misfortune seems to have
switched to the other branch of the
family. William F. Havemeyer, father
of the man who died on Sunday, and
one of the heads of the great refneries,
eloped with Clara Sutton. Their mar
ried life was unhappy and finally the
wife obtained a divorce and quickly
married Jack" Bloodgood. She then
became Clara Bloodgood, the famous
actress, but the curse of the Havemey-
er millions followed her and she COM
mitted suicide.
Sugar Trust Prosecution Begun.
Then followed a long series of so
cial and political scandals and sudden
deaths and grief until the prosecution
of the sugar trust was taken up and
barred the methods employed by the
leaders of the family. The formation
and life of the trust had been marked
with unhappiness and death, just as
had been marked the private lives of
it's chiefs
Within the last five years, or since
the double exposure of the trusts vio-
lation of the anti-rebate law and its
bold swindling of the government out
of tariff duties, seven men prominently
identified with the two sets of scandals
have died suddenly or committed sui
eide