Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2018 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Chicago Tribune Tuesday, October 19, 1915 REDFIELD Writes "Please Resign;" MANSFIELD Dies. In a sunny little apartment at 726 Sheridan road a man died yesterday. He was Capt. IRA B. MANSFIELD, for twelve years United States inspector of steamboat hulls for the Chicago district. To scores of his friends his death was not unexpected, for since the day the Eastland rolled over at its dock and nearly 1,000 of her passengers were drowned the veteran lake captain had grieved and brooded over the disaster almost continuously. Didn't Know Real Story. But his friends didn't know the real story. On Oct. 6. - Capt. MANSFIELD'S sixtieth birthday - the inspector went home late in the evening. Mrs. MANSFIELD had been "waiting up" for him to offer her congratulations and a little remembrance. Capt. MANSFIELD didn't smile. "My birthday, is it?" he said. "I'd forgotten it. Well here's what I get for my birthday." His Birthday Present. He pulled from his pocket a letter which he had received just before leaving his office. It was from WILLIAM C. REDFIELD, secretary of commerce. In polished sentences it commended Capt. MANSFIELD for his "general efficiency in service" during his twelve years as steamboat inspector, characterized his record as "an average of 100 per cent," expressed sympathy over what it termed his failing health as a result of "arduous duties in the Eastland inquiry" - and requested his resignation. The captain sat as in a daze during the evening. At midnight he was stricken with paralysis and never again left his bed. "He Was the Goat." "He was the goat," said Mrs. MANSFIELD bitterly last night. "It's not a nice way to say it, but it's the only way. You remember perhaps some of the things about Secretary REDFIELD'S inquiry. "Well, they had to have some one, and my husband was the man. Capt. WESTCOTT, the supervisor of steamboat inspectors over in Detroit, was our friend, but he was influenced, and there was nothing he could do. "My husband never told any one. He was keeping it to himself as long as he could. I am telling it now because he must be vindicated. He had not inspected the Eastland for nine years. He had nothing whatever to do with the tragedy. And yet it has killed him." Capt. MANSFIELD told his story at Sectretary RED- FIELD'S inquiry and testified twice before the federal grand jury. Was in Good Health. "The implication that my husband was failing in health is ridiculous," said Mrs. MANSFIELD. "Dr. HOWARD PLANK, his physician, told me that, except for a slight tendency to rheumatism, he was a thoroughly normal man up to the day he received the secretary's letter. "His stroke of paralysis that night was the first he had ever had." Capt. MANSFIELD was born near Cleveland, O., became a sailor as a young man, and had been master of many ships on the great lakes and one on the Atlantic, hav- ing the reputation of never losing a ship. In addition to the widow, Capt. MANSFIELD is survived by one daughter, Mrs. HARRY N. GRUT, wife of the cashier of the Mercantile Trust and Savings bank. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================