| Notes |
- One of his daughters died of a broken heart. The following account is in Charles Gustavus' own words, as extracted from the diary he kept: The quotations are compiled from several letters he wrote.
A LOVER'S DEATH
April 25,1894
"I have just buried my 22 year old daughter, Corinne Estelle, who died of a broken heart.
She had given her heart to an estimable young man (Will Reed) expecting next spring as he went into business to marry him. They were together almost daily for over eight months.
Corinne was very bright, a good writer, and a girl of great promise. (When she died) she nearly took me with her.
On Saturday evening she parted with him, he saying that he would be at our home Sunday afternoon to accompany her to see a friend and then go to church. If he did not come she might know he said, that he was very sick. He had been slightly ill.
Sunday afternoon, she sat in her accustomed place watching for him who came not, and so she sat until nearly eight o'clock when she asked Victor (her brother) to go and learn what was wrong. He brought back the sad intelligence that Mr. Reed was very sick. Then she was stricken with fear. All night she wept and next morning with our consent, and with Victor and her mother she went to his bedside, where she met his sisters and father and mother and stayed nearly all day. At night she came home to supper with his two sisters. Then she returned. Although I desired her to remain I could not find it in my heart to retain her. I feared that if he died and she absent she would die at once. I intimated that she would break herself down and destroy herself, but she must and did go.
At three the next morning I was sent for, with the statement that he was dying, and that she was acting strangely calm. I went at once. There near the foot of his bed she sat with her eyes on him, while he moaned in agony of death, just as he had been for hours. I could not even try to remove her. When the final act came, she sprang to her feet and stood near the bed. I caught her in my arms as she fell saying, "I told you, Will, that I could not live without you, and I can not." I said what I could say but words were powerless. I took her home and she became unconscious shortly afterwards. Her symptoms were like his, so the able medical men said, and pronounced her trouble cerebral-spinal meningitis. So they treated her. All that science, medical skill and care could do failed. She was unconscious for over five days when she passed away to him she loved better than all earthly things. She died a sacrifice to her love and nothing else."
"She was buried a week from the time he died. Her life and death were a poem and romance combined
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1871 - 1894 (~ 22 years)
