D. LeRoy Dresser

Daniel LeRoy Dresser (December 13, 1862 – July 10, 1915) was a shipbuilder who took his own life on July 10, 1915.[1]

D. LeRoy Dresser
Portrait of Dresser, by Fredricks, c. 1904
Born
Daniel LeRoy Dresser

December 13, 1862
Newport, Rhode Island
DiedJuly 10, 1915(1915-07-10) (aged 52)
Providence, Rhode Island
Cause of deathSuicide
Alma materColumbia College (1889)
Spouse(s)
Emma L. Burnham
​
(
m. 1889; div. 1908)

Marcia Walther Baldwin
​
(
m. 1914; his death 1915)
Children2
RelativesEdith S. Dresser (sister)

Early life

Daniel was born in 1862 to Brevet Major George Warren Dresser and Elizabeth Stuyvesant LeRoy. His maternal grandparents were Susan Elizabeth (née Fish) LeRoy (the daughter of Nicholas Fish and Elizabeth Stuyvesant) and Daniel LeRoy.[1][2]

His sisters included Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, who married George Washington Vanderbilt II and Natalie Bayard Dresser Brown, who married John Nicholas Brown I.[3] Two other sisters married Mr. George D. Merrill of Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Viscount Romain D'Osmoy of Paris respectively.[1]

He was a graduate of Columbia College in 1889 and a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Seawanhawka-Corinthian Yacht Club.

Career

He was president of the Trust Company of the Republic which failed in 1903 due to the financial failure of United States Shipbuilding Company.[4][5][6][7][8] He was also president of the Merchants Association and of the silk commission house of Dresser & Co.[9]

In 1908, he was the leader of the Progressive Party in Rhode Island.

Near the end of his life he had patented a steam generator but was unable to attract investors to bring it to market.

Personal life

In November 1889, he married Emma Louise Burnham (1870–1933) at St. Luke's Church in Matteawan, near Newburgh, New York.[10][11] She was the daughter of Douglass Williams Burnham and the former Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett.[12] Together, they had two children:[1]

  • Susan Fish Dresser (1890–1929), who married financier Frederic Bull (1871–1948),[13] the eldest son of William L. Bull, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange. Frederic had previously been married to Mary Helen Robinson, whom he divorced six days before marrying Susan.[14]
  • Daniel LeRoy Dresser, Jr. (1894–1950), who married Olga Tenenoff Nairn (1895–1968) in 1938.[15][16]

In 1908, Emma divorced Dresser in the "divorce colony" of Sioux City, South Dakota, citing Mr. Dresser's mental instability, since the failure of the Trust Company of the Republic in 1903.[17][18]

On December 22, 1914, he married for the second time to Mrs. Marcia Walther Baldwin, an actress and pianist.[1] On July 10, 1915, less than seven months after his second marriage, Dresser shot and killed himself with a .38 caliber revolver at the Delta Psi fraternity house on Riverside Drive in New York City.[1][19][20]

gollark: It's kind of a combination of insanity, sandboxing and virality.
gollark: PotatOS breaks the mould.
gollark: Nobody respects *my* OS knowledge.
gollark: Or just, well, many non-Go things.
gollark: Rust is nice.

References
  1. "D. Leroy Dresser, Once Rich Banker, Commits Suicide. Brother of Mrs. G. W. Vanderbilt and Mrs. John Nicholas Brown Shoots Himself. Alone In Fraternity House. Married Seven Months Ago, After Being Divorced, and Was in Financial Straits. Prominent in Shipbuilding Trust, the Collapse of Which Ruined Him. D. Leroy Dresser Commits Suicide" (PDF). New York Times. July 11, 1915. Retrieved 2011-04-21. Mr. Dresser was a brother of Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt and of Mrs. John Nicholas Brown of Newport, whose son, John Nicholas Brown, 2d, was long known as ...
  2. "MEMORIAL OF SUSAN E. LEROY.; Tablet Unveiled in Trinity Church, Newport, Yesterday" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 June 1899. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  3. Times, Special to The New York (24 October 1901). "The News of Newport" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  4. "DRESSER & CO. FAIL FOR $1,250,000; Value of Nominal Assets Estimated at $700,000. Promotion of Shipbuilding Company by D. Leroy Dresser Said to Have Brought on the Crisis" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 March 1903. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  5. "HOW DRESSER RAISED CASH; Sold $1,000,000 of Shipyard Stock for $200,000 to Aid Firm. C.A. Reiss Testifies that He Was Underwriter to Extent of $126,000 on Trust Company Funds" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 November 1903. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  6. "DRESSER-WHITLOCK HEARING.; Argument at Bridgeport in Claim Against Bankrupt Estate" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 November 1903. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  7. "HIS SHIPBUILDING SUIT SURPRISE TO PLAINTIFF; Action Started Against D. Leroy Dresser Apparently by Young. CLAIM MAY HAVE BEEN SOLD Suit Is Against a Bankrupt for $926,100 -- Assignment and Judgment Enter the Case" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 March 1905. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  8. "REFEREE AGAINST DRESSER.; Kept in Bankruptcy -- Partner Out -- Liabilities Cut $800,000" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 January 1905. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  9. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University (1902-04-30). "Letter from D. LeRoy Dresser to Theodore Roosevelt". www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Theodore Roosevelt Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  10. "SOCIETY TOPICS OF THE WEEK" (PDF). The New York Times. 24 November 1889. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  11. "A DAY OF MANY WEDDINGS; PRETTY CEREMONIES IN THE CITY AND ITS SUBURBS. THE WEDDING OF MISS HOFFMAN AND MR. RODEWALD--JOHNSON-SCOTT, DRESSER-BURNHAM, PAGE-HAYES" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 November 1889. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  12. "The Burnham Family; Or, Genealogical Records of the Descendants of the Four Emigrants of the Name, who Were Among the Early Settlers in America". Press of Case, Lockwood & Brainard. 1 January 1869. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  13. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (2 October 1948). "Frederic Bull, 77, Mining Ex-Official" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  14. "SUSAN FISH DRESSER WEDS FREDERIC BULL; Quiet Ceremony at Home of Bride" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 December 1926. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  15. "IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF DANIEL LeROY DRESSER". Nevada State Journal. Reno, Nevada. May 5, 1950. p. 15. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  16. General, Nevada Office of the Attorney (1948). Official Opinions of the Attorney General. State Print. Office. p. 498. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  17. Times, Special To The New York (8 June 1908). "MRS. LE ROY DRESSER IN DIVORCE COLONY; Has Taken a Residence in Sioux Falls and Will Sue -- Says She Was Deserted. IS STUDYING STENOGRAPHY Didn't Separate from Her Husband Because of His Failure, In Which Her Money Was Lost, She Says" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  18. Times, Special To The New York (11 August 1908). "MRS. LEROY DRESSER OBTAINS A DIVORCE; Decree Granted in Sioux City, S.D., on Ground of Desertion. TESTIMONY NOT REVEALED Alimony Did Not Enter Into Case -- The Couple Had Been Separated for Some Years" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  19. "Daniel L. Dresser Commits Suicide in New York Club". The Chicago Sunday Tribune. July 11, 1915. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  20. "NO DRESSER FUNERAL PLANS; Body Lies in Undertaker's Mortuary in Lawyer's Possession" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 July 1915. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
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