Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

322
ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
business men free from the failures that are common, it speaks
well for both mother and sons.
After seven years our brother was married the second
time, and we felt that his choice of Mrs. Martha King was
a wise one. He had hoped in this connection to enjoy the
evening of his life on the little farm "by the marshy lakeside."
They were married in Baltimore, September 23, 191 1. Bright
plans were formed for a balmy winter in Jamaica, and they,
with Grace and Ernest and Mary Eleanor and Maude King,
started from Winona for that island on December 4th. Ten
days later they sailed from New York, arriving safely in
Kingston in due time. December 21st brother went for a
drive about the island, calling upon friends he had met on
former visits. That afternoon our dear brother was seized
with acute indigestion, and in the space of but one short hour
he was gone from all of hfe's joys and sorrows.
How the news struck us at the point of Christmas-time
last year! It sped to our doors by telegram, and we heard
that our relatives had taken a steamer for home at once; and
so it came about that we met in Winona on the last day of the
year, to see a casket borne forth to the burial chamber amid
a profusion of lovely flowers. From twenty states, twenty
perfect wreaths were sent by salesmen of his company; and
we felt that those who had been connected with him in affairs
of business, as well as more personal friends, regretted his
departure from this life. We heard with the sorrow one does
not write of his sudden death away off in a land of strangers.
Brother had made friends with a wealthy Spanish merchant
on a former visit to Kingston, whose name was Immanuel
Lyon. In their hour of shock and sorrow, his son was of the
greatest assistance to our relatives.
In November of the year in whose last weeks we now are,
I went to see, on the evening of Thanksgiving day, the opening
of the new Administration Building of our brother's firm. It
is a monument to the founder of the business and his principles.
As I sat on the marble landing to the private offices of Paul and
Ernest and looked down a sweep of two hundred feet, and saw
the beautiful soft light faUing upon myriads of pieces of opales-