Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 187, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1911 — NOTED FIN ANCIER DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS. [ARTICLE]

NOTED FIN ANCIER DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS.

John W. Gates Died in Paris—One of Country's Shrewdest Speculators —Made Millions. Paris, Aug. 9.—John W. Gates, the American financier, died at 5:15 this morning in the arms of his wife and his son, Charles G. Gates. The end was peaceful and it seemed as though he was falling asleep. The usual restoratives failed in the last cribls. Others present at the bedside besides the members of the family were Drs. Gros and Reeves. His iron constitution and courageous resistance backed by every resource of medical science, failed to save Mr. Gates. He had battled herocially for weeks with a disease of the kidneys and when it was believed that he was almost sure to recover, contracted pneumonia. Tuesday night Mr. Gates suffered a general relapse and gradually sank until death intervened. Mrs. Gates and his son, Charles G. Gates, had been at the bedside constantly since Mr. Gatos’ illness was pronounced serious. An official statement issued by Doctors Gros fend Reeves says the immediate cause of death was heart failure, that the lungs stopped their functions and smothered the heart’s action. The end was painless. When Dr. Gros arrived he administered stimulants to which the patient at first rallied and an hour before his death he spoke strongly his son’s name. Then the pulse became feeble and restoratives were ineffectual. The death of John W. Gates in Paris removes in his prime one of the boldest and most successful American financiers, and a picturesque figure in the field of sports. Since 1880, when he organized the Southern Wire company, Mr. Gates had been a man with whom it was necessary to reckon in the particular industrial affairs to which he had given his attention. In recent years he found relaxation from business cares in becoming a prominent patron of the American turf. Mr. Gates began his business career as proprietor of a hardware store at Turner Junction, 111., near the farm where he was born in 1855. His parents were Asel A. and Mary Gates. At St. Charles, 111., in 1874, he married Dellora R. Baker, who with their son, Charles G. Gates, survives. The family had maintained a hbme in New York City for some years. From a hardware merchant Mr. Gates became interested in barbed wire, first as a salesman and later as a manufacturer at St. Louis. Following the Southern Wire company, he organized the Braddock (Pa.) Wire company, which in 1892 he combined with other wire concerns as the Consolidated

Steel and Wire company. Six years later this was sold to the Federal Steel company. In 1897 he organized the American Steel and Wire company, now a subsidiary of the United States steel corporation.