Widespread surprise and sorrow
were causes by the announcement that
Grover Cleveland, former president of
the United States, had died sud
denly at his home in Princeton, New
Jersey, on Wednesday, June 24, at
8:40 o'clock a. m. Mr. Cleveland had
been in impaired health for several
years, but there was nothing in his
condition twenty-four hours before his
death to indicate that his end was so
close at hand. After alternating
spells of consciousness and insensi
bility during Tuesday night, the dis
tingu.bhed patient sank into a state
of coma two hours before breathing
his last, and thus passed pacefully and
painlessly away. His faithful wife
and three attending physicians were
at the bedside, but the four Cleveland
children were at the family's summer
home at Tamworth, New Hampshire,
and could not reach Princeton in time
to see their 'father alive. Heart
trouble, superinduced by stomach and
kidney ailments of long standing, was
the immediate cause of death.
Mr. Cleveland was born at Cald
well, New Je rsey, March 18, 1837,
hence was in his seventy-first year.
He was baptized Stephen Grover, but
in after years dropped the first name
and was known only by the second.
His father was a Presbyterian minis
ter. Grover's early schooling eas
thorough, though he was not able to
complete a college course, and his first
money was earned as a teacher. He
studied law and was admitted to the
bar at Buffalo, N. Y., in 1859, when
only 22 years of age. Four years
later he was chosen assistant district
attorney of Erie county and was
elected sheriff of that county in 1870.
