New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-11
Organizer of Shipbuilding
Trust Dies Alone in
Delta Psi House.
UNCLE OF RICHEST
BABY IN WORLD"
Wife Divorced Him After Huge
Financial Crash and He
Welded an Actress.

John Nicholas Brown, the mother of
N. "riehest baby in the world" shot
N;rself in the temple with revolver
last night in the library Of the Delta
Psi fraternity house, at 10th Street
and Riverside Drive. He died instantly.
a0ne Of the men that Wall Street
vo,' is the term most often applied to
M Dresser in the last few years. A.
An, time he was active in finance. He
WAS one Of the organizers Of the Ship
huildinc Trust and the president of
N. Trust Company of the Republic, as
vel as running the firm of Dresser &
Co.. wholesale drygoods house. Then
"A, collapse Of the trust brought on
he downfall of the Dresser fortune.
He was practically ruined, and of late
years had lived quietly.
No one was in the fraternity house
vhsn Mr.. Dresser took his life. 1t was
his lawyer, c. W. Gould, Of ia West
Seventy-ninth Street, who first learned
Of his death. Later yesterday after
noon Mr.. Gould received a registered
letter from his client which said: 81
an under a nervous strain so great
that cannot stand it any longer"
Lawyer Arrives Too Late.
Mr. Gould at once took a cab to the
Delta Psi house, where he knew that
Mr.. Dresser was staying. The place
was empty, but with William Balm
bridge, the steward, he forced an en-
trance. In the middle of the library
Hcor, fully dressed and with the re-
volver in his hand, lay the body of his
client. He had been dead several hours.
The members of the fraternity had all
gone home TO spend the summer vaca-
ton. Mr.. Dresser had been living there
several weeks. alone except for friend
or two, who came TO see him in the
evenings. No one had seen him all yes
terdsy.
Bsinbridge was the last person to
whom Dresser spoke. At yesterday
afternoon, when the steward was going
cut, Dresser followed him to the door
and inquired particularly when he
would return. Bainbridge says he re-
Piled that he would be back at 8 o'clock,
and Dresser stood at the door and
watched him for a minute or so.
Coroner Feinberg, after viewing the
body last night, said it had been life
less for from two to three hours. He
told the newspaper men afterward that
Dresser's lawyer had asserted there
we're no family troubles which led to
the suicide. but that the dead man had
been involved financially ANY one who
has known Dresser for the last SIX
months" the Coroner says Mr.. Gould
remarked. "will understand why he took
his own life 1t was purely case OF
money troubles"
Sued for 100000.
April q the silk importing firm OF
Nszswaya & Co., New York, brought
suit against Mr.. Dresser for the non
payment of six promissory notes given
them by him. The notes totalled $780,
600, the silk firm claimed.
Divorced by his first wife, who was
Miss Elsie Burnham, when his imam
cisl crash came. Mr.. Dresser, who was
in his ffty-seventh year, married
secretly on December p last Marcia
Walther. an actress, who had been pre-
vionsly the wife of Spencer BALDWIN.
The couple lived for time in Newport
and then came to New York to open
an apartment. While it was being
furnished Mrs Dresser stayed with
friends in Brooklyn. and her husband
lived AZ the house of the fraternity
into which he had been initiated before
he was graduated from Columbia, IN
1882 Mr. Gould said last night that
he did not know Mrs. Dresser's ad-
dress.
Mr. Dresser is survived by, besides
the two sisters already mentioned, his
trst wife, who lives at A West Fltueth
Street with his two children, MISS
Susan Fish Dresser, twenty-three, ana
Daniel lie Roy Dresser, Jr.. who has
Just attained his majority. He had two
other. sisters, Mrs. George q. Merrill
o. Stockbridge. Mass, and the Countess
dOsmay, Of Paris.
Played for Big Stakes.
In his business career Mr.. Dresser
played for big stakes and lost. liz
was one Of the organizers Of the at
tempt 20 float the tremendous scheme
Tor smalgamatng all the shipouilding
concerns Of the country into a tre-
mendous trust
To further this scheme the financier
poured into il all of the money upon
which he could lay hand. he taxed the
resources Of Dresser & Co. in loans 70
the trust. He used his Office as presi-
deaf and director of the Trust Com
pany Of the Republic TO the advantage
Of the shipbuilding company. IL was
said he also persuaded his brother-in-
law, George w. Vanderbilt, to invest
more than 81 900, 900 in the project.
Then in 1903 the Shipbuilding Trust
collapsed, and with its downfall came
Ar. DreSser's. The directors Of the
Trust Company of the Republic discov-
cred that their president had made un-
authorized loans to the trust. He re-
signed, and the company was so greatly
weakened that it expired shortly after
ward
Dresser e. Co. also went into bank
,,aptcy, and the next few years Of Mr.
I Dresser's life were filed with suits
ana counter suits brought against him
BY his creditors.
First Wife Took Children.
In 1907 to his other embarrassments
was brought a suit for divorce by his
wife, who charged her husband with
having used all Of her personal prop
srty, totslling more than a quarter Of
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