D. LeRoy Dresser

Dresser was born in Newport, Rhode Island to Elizabeth Stuyvesant LeRoy and George Warren Dresser, an Army brevet major. His maternal grandparents were Susan Elizabeth (née Fish) and Daniel LeRoy. His maternal great-grandparents were Elizabeth Stuyvesant and Nicholas Fish. His sister Pauline married Rev. George D. Merrill of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and his sister Susan married Vicomte Romain D'Osmoy of Normandy, France. In 1885, Dresser was a founding director of the Newport Fish and Game Association. He attended of Columbia College, graduating in 1889. There, he was a member of the Fraternity of Delta Psi (aka St. Anthony Hall). ==Career==

In 1889, Dresser started his first business. Dresser & Co. "advanced money to manufacturers and sold silks on commission, and had representatives in Japan, China, and England." Dresser's next business interest was the American Asiatic Steamship Company, and he served as its vice president. He was elected president of the Merchants' Association of New York in 1901. Under his leadership, the group distributed a circular about the corruption of the New York City police department and of its leadership, saying it was "an injury to every interest in the city." A newspaper had high hopes for their success, observing, "Men like Daniel LeRoy Dresser can not be threatened with moral blackmail which these many years have served to terrorize Tammany's enemies." In January 1902, Dresser and the secretary of the Merchants' Association, met with President Theodore Roosevelt to discuss the need for a new post office in New York. In April 1902, Dresser sent a letter to Roosevelt that mentions an investigation into silk frauds. In January 1902, Dresser became a founding director of the newly formed Trust Company of the Republic which was organized "to loan money to farmers throughout the country on warehouse receipts as security, and, when its resources will not permit of such loans, to become a headquarters for the negotiation of paper of that character." The Trust Company had $1 million in capital and $500,000 in surpluses. Dresser also served on the board of its associated Security Warehouse Company, which planned to build warehouses across the United States to store the cotton, rice, and raw materials received from the farmers. As president of the Trust Company, Dresser authorized loans to form the USSC, with Young's promise that his company would earn $250,000 in bonds, $67,000 in cash, $700,000 in preference shares, and $700,000 in common shares. Thus, when USSC failed, it also brought down the Trust Company. Dresser had convinced his brother-in-law to purchase 100,000 shares of USSC at a time when Vanderbilt has spent most of his inheritance creating Biltmore Estate. Its assets were $750,000 and its liabilities were $1,250,000, with some forty creditors. Those accused of the scheme were USSC associates Charles J. Canda, Horace W. Ganse, Charles S. Hanscom, E. W. Hyde, John S. Hyde, Lewis Nixon, Henry T Scott, and Irving M. Scott, with Dresser from the Trust Company. He obtained a discharge from bankruptcy on March 5, 1907. Dresser claimed that false representations totaling $15 million were made to him when he was asked to underwrite the USSC bonds. The judge said the directors' claims that Dresser did not bring the loans to the board for approval did not remove them from responsibility as they would have learned of Dresser's reckless loans if they had been performing their duty as directors of the company. Dresser always maintained that he did discuss the loans with the board, gaining their approval before seeking funding. On July 23, 1914, a western mining company named Dresser in a suit for $29,927 for a mortgage; however, the case did not come to trial. On April 21, 1914, he was the defendant in another case filed by the Japanese firm Madawaya & Co. for promissory notes totaling $200,000. In October 1914, he lost a court case of $200,000 to the Ichi Takayami Company of New York City. Near the end of his life, Dresser patented a steam generator that he claimed would save fuel. However, he was unable to attract investors to bring it to market. ==Personal life==

On November 20, 1889, Dresser married Emma Louise Burnham at St. Luke's Church in Matteawan, New York. She was the daughter of Douglass Williams Burnham and the former Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett who lived at their home Beaconside in Matteawan. Dresser was a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Seawanhawka-Corinthian Yacht Club. He also worked to clean up vice in Newport, Rhode Island. Always reluctant to speak to the press, Emma said, "I lived with Mr. Dresser until a year and one-half ago when he deserted me. His failure occurred six years ago, which disproves the suspicion that I am separated from him because he lost his money." Around 1911, Dresser started seeing a doctor for nervous trouble. She was the widow of Spencer Baldwin and the daughter of German immigrants, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Walther of Brooklyn. After their honeymoon, the couple stayed in Newport. He died immediately. He was 52 years old. He was found by his attorney and friend C. W. Gould who rushed to the fraternity house after receiving an "alarming" letter from Dresser at 5:30 p.m. In the letter which had been posted by special delivery at 9:00 a.m. that morning, Dresser said, "I am under a nervous strain so great that I cannot stand it any longer." When Gould arrived at the fraternity house, the door was locked. Shortly afterward steward William Bainbridge arrived and the two men forced the entrance. Gould rushed to Dresser's room which was empty. Bainbridge and Gould searched room-by-room until finding the Dresser's body in the third-floor library. Bainbridge had left Dresser alone in the fraternity house around 3:00 p.m. No suicide letter or note was found with Dresser or in the fraternity house. With regards to Dresser's motive for suicide, Gould stated that there were no problems with Marcia. Gould said, "Anybody who has known anything of Mr. Dresser or his affairs for the last 10 years would know that financial difficulties were back of his act." Dresser's finances had worsened over the twelve years since his business failure and he was no longer able "to maintain the standard of living to which he had been accustomed." After his death, his body was turned over to the mortuary with no funeral plans. == See also ==