Aprii. 14, 1010. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



J5 



OBITUARY. 



\ 



Mrs. W. J. Vesey. 



The entire membership of the florists' 

 profession will be startled and shocked 

 by the unexpected news of the death of 

 Mrs. W. J. Vesey, a former president of 

 the Ladies' S. A. F. and one of the best 

 known and most highly esteemed women 

 connected with the trade. She was the 

 wife of Judge William J. Vesey and one 

 of the most prominent women in Fort 

 Wayne, Ind., her home city. She was 

 stricken by an attack of heart disease 

 while riding on a Fort Wayne street car, 

 and died suddenly shortly before 8 

 o'clock Friday evening, April 8, a mo- 

 ment after she had been taken from the 

 car and assisted into a drug stor« at 

 Broadway and Taylor street. 



Dr. C. H. English, the family physi- 

 cian, stated that death had been due to 

 arteriosclerosis, combined with fatty de- 

 generation of the heart, from which Mrs. 

 Vesey had been suffering for some time, 

 and that in all probability the fact that 

 Mrs. Vesey had hastened in order to 

 catch the car may have contributed to 

 the crisis at this time. Close friends of 

 Mrs. Vesey were aware that she had been 

 subject to a heart weakness, but they 

 were wholly unprepared for the distress- 

 ing shock of news of her sudden death. 



During the afternoon Mrs. Vesey had 

 been a guest at a social affair, and in 

 company with her youngest daughter. 

 Miss Catherine, she was on her way down- 

 town to attend the performance of ' * The 

 Music Master" when she was stricken. 

 Mrs. Vesey and her daughter boarded the 

 northbound Broadway car at Maple ave- 

 nue, and a moment after she was seated 

 in the car Mrs. Vesey became ill and 

 stepped out upon the rear platform to 

 secure air. 



When the car neared Taylor street the 

 car was stopped, and a number of the 

 passengers assisted Mrs. Vesey into the 

 drug store. She was seated upon a chair 

 ' in the front portion of the store, and a 

 moment later collapsed as if in a faint. 

 She was then carried to the rear of the 

 store and attempts were made to revive 

 her, but a physician, who had been hur- 

 riedly summoued from his office next 

 door, found that death had intervened. 



Attorney A. J. Vesey, fi, brother-in-law, 

 was called from the Masonic Temple in 

 the belief that Jildge Vesey had not yet 

 arrived in the city from a trip to War- 

 saw. The husband was reached by tele- 

 phone at his office a little later and told 

 that his wife was very ill. He hastened 

 to the drug store, his brother meeting 

 him on the way there and breaking the 

 news to him that his wife had passed 

 away. The coroner had been notified, 

 and an ambulance at once removed the 

 remains to the Vesey home, at 2602 

 Thompson avenue. David Vesey, a son, 

 who is attending Michigan University, at 

 Ann- Arbor, reached the city the same 

 evening, bringing a number of college 

 friends to spend the vacation with him, 

 and news of his mother 's death was com- 

 municated to him as he alighted from the 

 train. 



Mrs. Vesey 's age was 47 years. She 

 was born in Decatur, Ind., a daughter of 

 the late Judge David Studebaker, was 

 educated at Decatur and in the Fort 

 Wayne M. E. College, «nd was united in 

 marriage to Judge Vesey July 25, 1882. 

 Six children were bom to this union, all 

 of them, with the husband and father 

 surviving. The children are Margaret 

 Sallie, Dick, William J., David S. and 



Catherine Vesey. Miss Sallie is a student 

 at DePauw and Dick at Ann Arbor, but 

 the latter had gone to Greencastle to 

 spend the vacation holidays. Miss Mar- 

 garet is one of the vice-presidents of the 

 Ladies' S. A. F. for the present year, 



Mrs. Vesey was widely known as a 

 florist and an authority on horticulture, 

 and her love of flowers had led her to 

 engage with her husband in business as 

 a florist, the flrm being W. J. & M. S. 

 Vesey. In the Vesey greenhouses, in Fort 

 Wayne, have in the last few years been 

 developed some of the notable advances 

 in the floriculture of America, and they 

 have won recognition at all the larger 

 horticultural exhibits of the country. 



Socially, Mrs. Vesey was one of the 

 most widely known and prominent women 

 of her~city. She was active in religious 



Mrs. W. J. Vesey. 



work, and was a member of Wayne Street 

 Methodist Episcopal Church and presi- 

 dent of its Ladies' Aid Society. In ad- 

 dition, Mrs. Vesey had been for several 

 years the president of the Young 

 Women's Christian Association. Her cul- 

 ture, her enthusiasm and her kindly 

 charm made her universally admired and 

 esteemed in a wide circle of acquaint- 

 ances. 



The following communication from A. 

 F. J. Baur, just received by the Keview, 

 expresses well the general feeling of be- 

 reavement caused by Mrs. Vesey 's death: 



"It is with profound sorrow that I 

 have heard of the untimely death of Mrs. 

 W. J. Vesey. A woman in the prime of 

 life, held in the highest esteem by a wide 

 circle of acquaintances in the trade, her 

 death will be a personal loss to a multi- 

 tude of friends. 



"Perhaps no woman in the trade had 

 a wider personal acquaintance than -Mrs. 

 Vesey, and her kindly smile and cheery 

 word will be missed at our conventions 

 and flower shows, where we enjoyed meet- 

 ing her. 



Those whom we can spare the least 

 we are required to give up first. 



" It is those of Mrs. Vesey 's type who 

 can sincerely repeat that beautiful pas- 

 sage of David's twenty-third psalm, 

 'Yea, though I walk through the valley 

 of the shadow of death, I will fear no 

 evil, etc' " 



Peter Warren. 



The death of Peter Warren last week 

 marked the passing of an old-timer from 



the gardeners' ranks at Newport, E. I., 

 where he had resided for nearly fifty 

 years. He was a gardener of more than 

 ordinary ability and was employed for 

 many years on the Jones estate, and was 

 a quiet, honest soul, who did his work 

 well, attended to his own business and 

 tried to do the things of this world as 

 they should be done. 



Peter Warren was born in Virginia 

 eighty-two years ago, a slave, -and as a 

 boy was employed about the gardens of 

 his master 's home. He earned his liberty 

 before the Civil war and came north, set- 

 tling in Newport, where he soon found 

 employment about the estates as a gar- 

 dener, and, until his death, he continued 

 at that work. He was the only colored 

 man in the district where he lived, but 

 despite his dark skin all his neighbors 

 considered him a "white man," and that 

 is what he was in the way the expression 

 is generally used. His funeral occurred 

 from his home, 113 Houston avenue, 

 April 7, and was largely attended, gar- 

 deners of Newport being present in good 

 numbers to pay their silent tribute to the 

 aged man. 



Alfred A. 'Williams. 



Alfred A. Williams, one of the oldest 

 florists and greenhouse vegetable gar- 

 deners of Cranston, R. I., died at his 

 home on Hartford Pike, April 1. Of 

 his sons, three are identified wittt the 

 florists' and gardeners' business. Mr. 

 Williams had been in failing health for 

 more than a year, death being due to 

 hardening of the arteries. He was a 

 son of Lamed Williams, a lineal descend- 

 ant of Roger Williams, the founder of 

 Rhode Island, and was born in Seekonk, 

 Mass., seventy-six years ago. He waa 

 educated in the public schools of that 

 district, completing his education at the 

 Lapham Institute at Scituate. 



About fifty years ago Mr. Williams 

 took up bis residence in the farmhouse 

 where he died and took a great iAterest 

 in everything pertaining to horticulture 

 and agriculture. He always held the con- 

 trolling interest in the range of green- 

 houses on his place, run successively by 

 his sons, Alfred H., Lamed, and for the 

 last eight years by Olney H. and the 

 latter 's sons. This range consists of 

 about 200,000 square feet of glass, and 

 carnations, roses, violets, chrysanthe- 

 mums, ferns, bedding stock, vegetable 

 plants, azaleas and bulbous stock were 

 grown in great quantities. 



Mr. Williams, in his younger days, was 

 prominent in the political affairs of the 

 town and was for several years a member 

 of the Johnston town council and of the 

 Rhode Island House of Representatives. 



Mrs. Thomas Thompson. 



Mrs. Thomas Thompson, wife of the 

 well-known florist of Santa Cruz, Cal., 

 died March 31, aged 63 years. Mrs. 

 Thompson was a generous, kindly lady, 

 with large sympathies, and her death is 

 mourned by a wide circle of friends. She 

 leaves two sons and two daughters, be- 

 sides her husband, all of whom have uni- 

 versal sympathy in their affliction. 



Springfield, Mass. — Work is progress- 

 ing rapidly on the new greenhouse of 

 Mark Aitken, on his recently purchased 

 land on the River road. 



Emaus, Pa. — Daniel B. Kroninger will 

 offer at pubUe sale. May 14, his green- 

 houses and other property on North Sixth 

 street, including four and a hs^f acres 

 of ground and a stock of tomato plants. 



y 



