Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-11
DANIEL LEROY DRESSER
ENDS LIFE BY SHOOTING
His Career Was Spectacular, In
Society, Finance and
Politics.
HAD PART IN GREAT SCHEMES
Note to Friend and Attorney Said
Nervous Strain Was So Great He
Could Stand It No Longer-Under
Care Of Physicians Many Years.
HAD PART IN GREAT SCHEMES
Especial to The Times-Dispatch.l ]

Especial to The Times Dispatch
NEW YORK. July 1o.-Daniel Leroy
Dresser, brother Of Mrs. George w.
Vanderbilt. one-time president of the
Trust Company of the Republic, and
promoter OF the shipbuilding trust, who
secretly married Miss Marcia Walther,
actress and pianist. last December,
killed himself to-day
His body was found at $50 o'clock
In the library on the third floor Of St.
Anthony Hall, the Delta Psi Fraternity
house of Columbia College, at One Hun
dred and Sixteenth Street and River
side Drive.
Dresser my on the floor with a bull
let hole in his right temple. A revolver,
one chamber Of which had been dis
charged. was near his right hand
He evidently had been dead only n
short time. and had died instantly.
No one heard the shot. The arriva;
OF c. W. Gould personal attorney and
friend of Mr.. Dresser. and best man
at his wedding, led TO the discovery of
the tragedy.
Mr.. Gould had fastened from his
home. No. ia West Seventy-ninth
Street, on receipt there half-hour be-
fore OF special delivery letter from
Dresser. which had been time stamped
at $3.50 o'clock. It read:
The nervous strain has become so
great I can't stand 1t longer.
UNDER CARE OF PHYSICIANS
FOR LAST DOZEN YEARS
"All OF his friends knew Mr.. Dress
er had been in state of nervous col
lapse and under the care OF physicians
for the last ten or twelve years, or ever
since the collapse OF ambitious finan-
cial adventures in which he lost n for
tune" said Mr.. Gould.
There Is not the slightest possibil-
ity that Mr.. Dresser's suicide was due
to estrangement OF himself and wife
or to any domestic unhappiness"
Mr. Gould added that on April 81
waya Company. OF New York, had
brought suit against Dresser on out
standing promissory notes amounting
to 100000 He did not believe, how
ever, this had been the direct cause
2fsf,is suicide.
Dresser was twice married. His
first wife was Miss Emma Louise Burn
ham, who obtained an absolute divorce
from him at Sioux Falls. S. D., August
10. 1905 There are two children by
this marriage. Miss Susan Lish Dresser,
who is well known In society, and
Daniel Leroy Dresser, Jr.
On March last Dresser surprised
friends by announcing he had been
married on December %, ito the dauCh-
ter of Mr.. and Mrs. Henry Alther, of
Brooklyn. in the Dutch Reformed
Church at Albany.
The new Mrs. Dresser had been mar
ried before. her first husband, Spencer
Baldwin. dying several years ago. She
had passed her childhood abroad, study
ing music and dramatic art in Berlin
and Frankfort. About nine years ago
she was engaged to play as piano So
loist here with the Russian Symphony
Orchestra. but two weeks before the
date set for the concert broke an arm.
SPECTACULAR CAREER
IN SOCIETY AND FINANCE
Dresser's career was spectacular
ono In society and finance and even in
politics. Through the marriage of his
sisters he found an easy entrance into
the most exclusive New York society.
\ third sister married Dr. Merrill. rec
tor Of st. Pauls. Stockbridge, Mass.
and another the Count dOsmoy, of
France.
Ambitious, however to move with
millionatres on an equala footing, Dres-
ser entered the financial world with
vigor and daring. and became identi-
fled with many great schemes. His
first wife shared his ambitions and put
large part of her own fortune into
his hands for investment.
Then came the crash. The shipbuild-
ing trust. of which he was chief pro-
motor. collapsed and caught him in
the ruins. His wife lost all she had.
She gave up her beautiful home at Oys-
Continued on Second Page.)