Hamilton Disston - Death

Death

Disston himself continued living in Disston City until more bad fortune prompted his return to Philadelphia. The financial Panic of 1893, the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 and two devastating freezes (see Great Freeze for details) caused financial difficulties and he mortgaged his Florida assets for $2 million.

On April 30, 1896, Disston had dinner with the mayor of Philadelphia and attended a theatre production with his wife in Philadelphia. The following morning, he was found dead at age 51. Although some claim that Disston committed suicide in his bathtub with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, almost every obituary, as well as the official coroner's report, stated that he died of heart disease in bed. The New York Times further reported that, several months before his death, Disston suffered from a bout of typhoid pneumonia.

He was poignantly mourned in Philadelphia as a benevolent employer of over 3,000 and a rare businessman who treated his employees exceptionally well. The Chicago Tribune wrote that he was "peculiar in his ideas. His hand was always in his pocket and his influence always for his less successful fellow-men to whom he took a fancy." He was reported in 1889 to give $17,000 in Christmas gifts to his employees. His philanthropy branched out in other areas as well. In 1882 he sponsored the immigration of approximately 40 or 50 Russian Jewish families and purchased homes for them, assuring they would settle in Pennsylvania.

At the time of his death, Disston's estate was valued at $100,000 but he also carried a $1 million life insurance policy, the second largest in the United States. His family had no interest in Florida and creditors foreclosed on his Florida mortgage four years after his death. Henry Flagler's railroad reached a settlement of a little more than 500 people named Miami the year Disston died.