grave import

Obituary

The sad news of the untimely death by suffocation or drowning in his bath tub of Mr. E.H. Carpenter, the well known retired jeweler of this city, late Saturday night was a severe shock to the thousands of friends and acquaintances of that gentleman in Burlington. The story of the unfortunate accident that deprived this city of one of its best known and liked residents, related in Sunday morning's Hawk Eye, was the topic of conversation and comment in every home in Burlington, and was a matter of universal regret. In addition to the facts related in the Sunday Hawk-Eye concerning the unfortunate affair, it has since been learned that Mr. Carpenter had been the victim of an overheat about two weeks ago, when it was necessary to call a physician to assist in reviving him. The stroke occurred in the Carpenter jewelry store during one of the excessive hot days. Mr. Carpenter recovered from the stroke, but had not been feeling well since. Several times he complained of dizzy spells. he spent the afternoon of Saturday at the cabin boar of his son, Edwin, above Burlington, and came home about 8 o'clock in the evening. Swimming was his delight, and while at the cabin boat it was suggested that he might take a dip in the river. He decided not to do so, however, as he had been feeling somewhat dizzy that day. When he reached the city in the evening he went to the jewelry store, where his son, Anthony, was assisting in the Saturday evening trade and told him he was not feeling very comfortable and believed he would go home, take a cold bath and go to bed, hoping to feel better the next day. He walked up the hill to his home on North Sixth street, stopping at a friends on the way and making a similar statement about his feeling of exhaustion and dizziness. He went on to his home, and it is certain that he immediately prepared for his bath, probably letting the cold water from the faucet into the tub and not heating it. While Mr. Carpenter may have been overcome by a stroke just as he was entering his bath, it is more likely that the shock of the cold water on his overheated body caused him to faint and fall into the water in such a manner that suffocation ensued. His facial expression would indicate that as there were no signs of pain. it is the belief of Dr. J.W. Holiday, who was called when Mr. Carpenter's body was discovered, that the unfortunate man passed away without the slightest sense of pain. Mrs. Anthony W. Carpenter, Mr. Carpenter's daughter-in-law, and her little daughter, Frances Ruth, were in the house at the tiem, and were not conscious of the tragedy until after the discovery of the body by Mr. Anthony Carpenter shortly after midnight. The services for Mr. E.H. Carpenter will be held from the family home, No. 830 North Sixth street, at 9:30 o'clock this (Tuesday) morning. The Rev. Dr. Archibald Cardle, pastor of the First Presbyterian church will officiate. Friends are invited to these services. The request is made that flowers be omitted. The interment in Aspen Grove will be private. A number of relatives from outside the city have arrived to attend the funeral and others are expected this morning. There is little to be said in addition to the sketch of the life of this prominent business man, which appeared in Sunday morning's Hawk-Eye. As stated then Mr. Carpenter was born in Burlington in 1843, and was the son of the late Anthony W. Carpenter, founder of the well known Carpenter jewelry house. He was married on June 1, 1869, to Miss Alice Dunham, daughter of the late Clark Dunham, the well known "war editor" of the Burlington Hawk Eye. Mrs. Carpenter died May 8, 1912. A daughter, Mrs. Horace Wilson, died several years ago. Mr. Carpenter's two other children, Anthony W. and Edwin H., Jr, survive him. Devoted to his business, a man actually in love with his work, Mr. Carpenter was also a man who got the most out of his vacations. He had been a great traveler and he came home with new knowledge, with an enlarged vision, from each of his journeys. He had ever been a great sports man, and he was perhaps at his very best when relating some exploit with rod or gun, and he was an authority on all matters pertaining to fishing and hunting, to game and fish. He had traveled much and proposed to travel more, and included in his plans for the future was a tour around the world, and he would not have followed on of the stereotyped routes either, and would have gone forth to see, not what everybody has seen or can see, but what in known to and seen, by the few only. However, Mr. Carpenter was more than a business man and a sportsman and traveler. He was an ardent patriot and a keen reader of the papers and the better magazines. A democrat of democrats, he was one of the more prominent among the Burlington democrats who refused to follow William Jennings Bryan into the free coinage bog and he did valiant work in that memorable campaign for good money.. He could not have done otherwise for whatever he undertook he did with all home to work hard for something that interested him. He did not enthuse for a few days and then forget about a new movement, but whatever he had weighed and found good, he gave his loyal and unswerving support. While he was prominent in the democratic party in one sense of the word, he had steadfastly refused nominations for office and remained free and untrammeled to the end-a man who counted his friends in all parties and among all sorts and conditions of men. While all mourn the death of this Burlington man, who remained at home in Burlington and built up a great business and what is more important, a great name here, there is a feeling of gratification that this out-of-doors-man, this traveler, who had had all sorts of narrow escapes, should have been saved the pangs of a long illness and should, so to say, have simply stepped out of this life into the other world without these painful partings, that anguish and suffering that too frequently accompany the latter days of men who are growing into the yellow leaf. There will be none to recall him other than in the full possession of all his powers, proud of the past and full of great plans for the future, glad to see all his friends and that meant not a small circle, but almost everybody in the town. For there were few men in Burlington so well known and so well liked as this man Edwin H. Carpenter, who has gone to his long rest, and who will be laid away beside those who were most dear to him this forenoon. The unexpected death of Mr. Carpenter will disarrange for the present the plans which he had formulated for moving with his two sons to California and taking up ranch life. But the transfer of the jewelry business to Mr. E.C. Gerling having already been effected that deal will stand without change, but the change of residence must wait until the deceased's other business affairs can be adjusted. There is no idea at present how long this will take, but ultimately the sons will carry out the original plans of a western residence as formulated by the father. A few days before his death Mr. Carpenter said to a member of The HawkEye staff that it gave him a heart-twist to think of leaving Burlington. "I do not propose to give up the old home city entirely," said. he. "I intend to come back here often." The sons are of the same way of thinking and they do not intend to let their ultimate removal from this city divorce them from is as a place of fond memories and as a most desirable place to revisit often.