Hon. Charles Bronson

BRONSON, SHELDEN, MERRIAM, CARR, ENSIGN, FAIRALL, BOAL, HERSEY, STRONG, LE ROY

Posted By: Phyllis O'Roark (email)
Date: 1/16/2011 at 07:47:15

The Manchester Press
Manchester, Iowa
November 9, 1908
Front page

HON. C. E. BRONSON CALLED BY DEATH
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Prominent Attorney, Editor and Citizen Succumbs Yesterday at Noon.
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FUNERAL SATURDAY AFTERNOON
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Two-thirty O'clock us Hour Set for Service at Residence. Burial under Masonic Auspices.
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Hon. Charles E. Bronson, within a few days of sixty-seven years of age, for forty-two years a resident of Manchester, senior member of the law and publishing firm of Bronson & Carr & Sons, and one of the most prominent citizens of the community, died yesterday, November 18, 1908, a few moments before noon hour, at his home on Franklin street, as the results of an illness with cancer of the kidneys. Up to only a few short weeks ago Mr. Bronson continued his daily labors in the offices of the firm of which he was the oldest member. As had been their custom, Mr. and Mrs. Bronson spent several weeks of the summer at Lake Okoboji, where they have a cottage. After his return, it was noted by his friends that he had not appeared in his usual health, but he was not the man to complain, and courageously continues at his post. After being confined to his home for some time, it was finally determined that he should go to Rochester, Minnesota, for consultation with the Drs. Mayo at the noted hospital in that city. Accordingly, in the latter part of October Mr. Bronson went to Rochester. Last week an incision was made, and it was found that he was suffering from cancer, the primary growth having made its appearance on the kidneys and extending its hold to the liver. The specialists decided that an operation for its removal gave no hope of recovery. Being given every possible attention by the hospital authorities and the members of the family present, Mr. Bronson remained at Rochester until the fore part of this week, when he was removed to his home in this city. The trip was mad in the private car of L. C. Stickney, general manager of the Chicago Great Western, very generously tendered the family. The parveyed to his home, where death ensued the following day.

The funeral of Mr. Bronson will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock from the family residence. Rev. W. H. Ensign, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, will officiate. Interment will be made in the Manchester cemetery, where the service will be in charge of Manchester lodge, No. 165, A. F. & A. M.

Charles E. Bronson was a native of New York state. He was born at Lee Center, Oneida county, November 24, 1841, being a son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark M. Bronson and the eldest of a family of three children -- two sons and one daughter. At the age of fourteen, in October, 1855, he came west with his parents to Iowa City. There he supplemented his earlier education by an academic course of study. In the spring of 1864 he went to Chicago, entered Bryant & Stratton's Commercial college, and received his diploma from that institution in the fall of that year. He returned to Iowa City and entered the law offices of Fairall & Boal, where he read law, being admitted to the bar in December, 1866.

Mr. Bronson at once settled in Manchester, where he continued his residence until his death or for a period of about forty-two years. He achieved remarkable success in his profession, and won high favor with the public. In the fall of 1877 he was nominated as the democratic candidate for state senator to fill for two years a vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. L. G. Hersey of Earlville. Despite the fact that Delaware county was normally republican by 800 majority. Mr. Bronson's popularity resulted in his election by a majority of 400. In the senate he played a prominent part, doing his duty to his constituency in the same loyal, industrious methods. He was made a member of the committee named to investigate affairs at the Fort Madison penitentiary, and was also on the judiciary and other important committees. In 1880 he was the democratic nominee for supreme judge, and in latter years he was at various times honored by his party with nominations for various county offices.

Shortly after coming to Manchester Mr. Bronson engaged in the practice of the law with Mr. Strong, which co-partnership existed for several months, when the latter retired. In 1867 A. S. Blair and Mr. Bronson formed a partnership for the practice of their profession, which continued for about five years, or until the year 1872, when it was dissolved. November 5, 1873, Messrs. Bronson and M. F. Le Roy became law partners, the relationship existing until 1884, when E. M. Carr became a member of the firm. This partnership continued until April, 1887, when Mr. LeRoy retired to engage in the banking business. Shortly after his election to the sate senate Mr. Bronson became one of the proprietors of the Manchester Democrat, which had been established in January, 1875, by a stock company, with E. M. Carr at .... 1877 M----- Bronson and have since conducted the newspaper, of late years with the assistance of their sons. Thus Mr. Bronson and Mr. Carr have been law partners for thirty-one years, and for an extended period jointly interested in real estate. The firm name continued as Bronson and Carr until the spring of 1905, when the firm became Bronson & Carr & Sons, the two sons, Hubert Carr and Henry Bronson, having entered into partnership with their fathers, which partnership has continued since.

June 29, 1868, two years after coming to Manchester. Mr. Bronson was united in marriage with Miss Jennie E. Shelden, a daughter of Justus Shelden, at Earlville. To this union were born five children, all sons, as follows: Earl and Wirt of Spencer, Lee of Saskatchewan, Canada; Byron of Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Henry of Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Henry of Manchester. In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Bronson is survived by one brother, Prof. C. H. Bronson, of Chicago, and a sister, Mrs. Nellie E. Merriam, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Messrs and Mesdames Earl and Wirt Bronson and Prof. Bronson are in the city, Mrs. Merriam and Byron will arrive this evening and Lee is expected later.

Mr. Bronson was a member of the Masonic fraternity, having united with Manchester lodge, No. 165, A. F. & A. M., August 23, 1873. He continued his membership with that organization until his death, or for a period of thirty-five years.

The character of a community is determined by the character of its men. In fidelity, in honesty, in the integrity of his personal and professional life, Charles E. Bronson was a strong man. His family suffers by his death, but we venture to say that the community suffers more, for it loses the ripe experience, the sound judgment and wise counsel of a citizen of high legal attainments, of exemplary and useful life and of many lovable qualities. The fact that he was privileged to surpass the psalmist's allotment of three score years as his span of life does not deaden the sense of this loss, for in his later years his mental grasp was never keener nor were those qualities which endeared him to his friends more generously evidenced.

The death of Mr. Bronson comes as a greater shock because of the suddenness with which he was stricken down. But a few weeks ago he was in the pursuit of his accustomed avocations -- a familiar figure to us all, whether at his desk, in the drives.... the fatality that lurked within. But almost without warning, was the curtain drawn, the final chapter written. A sudden decline was allowed by the reluctant verdict of the most eminent of surgeons -- then the long journey home to await the summons. Mr. Bronson realized, better, perhaps, than any other, the gravity of his condition and the immanence of death. He faced that great change calmly, with the resignation of a man who is good without display, wholly free from fear, and, it may be, with the unspeakable relief of a mind and body racked with pain. Caesar uttered the panegyric of many a brave soul that should follow him when he said:

Cowards die many times before their death;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems most strange to me that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

When a friend is gone, it is pleasant to remember him in his relationship to his family, If that relationship has been what it should be. Mr. Bronson was devoted to his wife and children as few men are. For them, for their comfort, for their personal ... (LINE IS MISSING)... without stint and sacrificed without complaint. They may have many beautiful things in a life which shares adversity with good, but none of them, no matter what their worth or seeming importance, can surpass the memory which he has left them or the legacy of character which he has bequeathed. In this the sting of death is softened, to be replaced in large measure, as the years lengthen, by the unquestioning certainly that what is for the best.

No two men in Manchester have been more closely associated in personal and business relations than Mr. Bronson and his partner, Mr. E. M. Carr. For thirty-one years this association has existed, and its severance is pathetic, for the two men entertained an affection for each other as genuine as it was earnest. A partnership of such duration is unusual, particularly as this one was never marred by a single note of discord. Mr. Carr feels the death of his assoship with an intensity to be shared by none other than by one of his immediate family.

The writer will be pardoned the expression of own gratitude to Mr. Bronson for the kindness of past years. When a young man, deprived by death of his own father and left with the responsibility of this news paper, he went to Mr. Bronson on numerous occasions for counsel and assistance. Despite the fact that newspaper competition existed, a circumstance which might have made a smaller man churlish or ungenerous Mr. Bronson was invariably helpful wholly impartial in his suggestions and kindly as only he could be. We could not forget these things if we would, and it is at the risk of being misunderstood that we mention them now as indicative of his kindness to and interest in the younger men he knew.

The brief word of recognition of Mr. Bronson as a man and citizen would be incomplete without emphasis of his attainments as an attorney before the law. He was eminent in his profession, as eminence goes in a circumscribed community. He had a clear, analytical mind, reinforced by stubborn industry and unyielding will. His opinion on a point of law was certain to be based not upon the law itself, but upon sturdy sense and intelligent reason. It was this which gave him prestige as a pleader and the remarkable success which attended his appearance in the courts. He was not a man to take a case idly or for mere pelf. He valued his professional good name, and it was never sullied.

We have heard many tributes spoken of Charley Bronson since his death yesterday, but the one which most aptly characterizes the man is couched in the homely language of the street -- "he was a man who was at... (missing)

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