[1][2] He killed himself after he was bankrupted by the collapse of the United States Shipbuilding Company, a project that involved J.P. Morgan and Charles M.

George D. Merrill of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and his sister Susan married Vicomte Romain D'Osmoy of Normandy, France.

[1] In May 1897, he established Dresser & Co., a wholesale dry goods business that specialized in Japanese silks, hosiery, and webbing, with partners Charles E. Reiss and C. E.

[1][11] Dresser & Co. "advanced money to manufacturers and sold silks on commission, and had representatives in Japan, China, and England.

"[15] A newspaper had high hopes for their success, observing, "Men like Daniel LeRoy Dresser can not be threatened with moral blackmail which these many years have served to terrorize Tammany's enemies.

"[16] In January 1902, Dresser and the secretary of the Merchants' Association, met with President Theodore Roosevelt to discuss the need for a new post office in New York.

"[1] In April 1902, Dresser was approached by John J. McCook from the law firm of Alexander & Green on behalf of John Willard Young, a son of Brigham Young, to support the United States Shipbuilding Company (USSC), an effort to merge seven large shipyards into one company.

[22] In addition to being promoted by Dresser and Young, and USSC involved financier J. P. Morgan, Chicago lawyer and manufacturer Max Pam, steel magnet Charles M. Schwab, and naval architect Lewis Nixon who became its president.

[1] To fund the USSC loans, Dresser went to Wall Street, getting firms "to hold up prices on bonds that he underwrote, agreeing to take them at the market figures in addition to brokerage.

[22][27] Dresser contracted with John W. Young to sell $4,200,000 in USSC bonds in Paris in exchange for a commission of interim stock receipts that would be worth millions.

[1] At this point, Dresser borrowed $3,500,000 under the Trust Company's name to support USSC—he was counting on the French investments in time for the loan's sixty-day note.

[1] The Wall Street brokers started selling the USSC bonds instead of keeping them, forcing Dresser to buy them back.

[28] Dresser had convinced his brother-in-law to purchase 100,000 shares of USSC at a time when Vanderbilt has spent most of his inheritance creating Biltmore Estate.

[3] Once on the road to financial solvency, Dresser sought "revenge on the men he thought responsible for his ruin four years before.

[1][32] Dresser claimed that false representations totaling $15 million were made to him when he was asked to underwrite the USSC bonds.

[1] In October 1908, due to lack of evidence, all of his suits settled out of court for around $200,000; Dresser still had to pay his legal fees from this sum.

[12] In September 1909, the courts ruled that the former directors of the Trust Company of the Republic were personally responsible for the debts resulting from Dresser's USSC loans because of their negligence.

[21][1] However, in 1915, he and Dr. Oliver H. Huntington lost a case for $10,000 related to a Progressive Party celebration at Newport—although this loss was due to lack of ticket sales to see President Theodore Roosevelt rather than any wrongdoing.

[1] Shortly after that, the family sold their home in Oyster Bay, taking an apartment at 30 Central Park South in New York City.

[3] In the summer of 1906, amidst rumors of marital issues, the couple began to live apart—Dresser at the New York Yacht Club and Emma at 166 Madison Avenue.

[3] On January 14, 1908, Emma traveled to the "divorce colony" of Sioux Falls, South Dakota where she remained for one day at the Cartaract Hotel.

[3] She returned to Sioux Falls in April 1908, this time staying a residence at Prairie Avenue for the six months required for a divorce.

Stewart—another would-be divorcee, Mrs. W. Barklie Henry of Philadelphia, told a reporter about Emma's presence in Sioux Falls.

[1] After the divorce, Emma and the children lived at 142 East 40th Street in New York City, with a summer home in Babylon, Long Island.

[40] Using the name Marcia Walther, she made her stage debut in the title role of August Strindberg's Countess Julia which opened on Broadway on April 28, 1913, for a three-show run.

[40] The review continued, "She is not without magnetism, and in occasional quiet passages...her playing justified and held respectful attention.

But she seems wholly without the power to express great passion, her speech is not infrequently marked by affectation, her gesture is awkward and restricted, and her general organism is of a kind which in reading roles nothing short of transcendent genius would make effective in the theater.

[1] Marcia stayed with her mother while Dresser took a room at the Delta Psi fraternity house at 434 Riverside Drive in New York City.

[5] On July 10, 1915, Dresser shot himself in the right temple with a .38 caliber revolver at the Delta Psi fraternity house around 3:00 p.m.[1][2][5] He died immediately.

"[21] Dresser's finances had worsened over the twelve years since his business failure and he was no longer able "to maintain the standard of living to which he had been accustomed.