by Laurel | March 22nd, 2013
14 May 1903
Once Heir to a Third of the Whiting Street Estate Dies at White Pigeon, Michigan
Whiting Bradley Street, once heir to a third of the big Whiting Street estate, valued at over $370,000 after the bequests to the towns of the valley had been set aside, is dead at White Pigeon, Michigan, at the age of about 50 years. Bradley Street, as he was familiarly known, was the son of Henry Street and the grandson of Alpheus Street, brother of Whiting Street. Had he maintained “habits of frugality and temperance” and shown himself to be competent to manage the estate left temporarily in the hands of the trustees of the Whiting Street will he wold have easily been worth over $200,000. Repeated efforts to have the young man reform failed, and he had for a part of the time been lost sight of. The past year, aided by the trustees, who, according to the provisions of the will, were not to allow him to come to want, he had obtained a plot of land on which he raised vegetables for marketing.
Whiting Bradley Street’s father died when he was about four years old, and his mother went to live with her her father for a few years, subsequently marrying Duane Perkins of Springfield. Young Bradley went with his mother to their new home, and went to school in the Springfield schools and apparently did well for a time, as he had thoughts of being a lawyer. But wither through bad companionship or some other influence, as he came into young manhood, he developed bad habits, and although counseled by good men he failed to make the best of his opportunities, and finally disappeared, and his whereabouts was not known for some time. He wrote to a half-brother at school, and his mother became apprised of it, but he refused to return home, and did not even come to his mother’s funeral when she died, some time later. The trustees of the will of Whiting Street have kept more or less in touch with him, and have seen that he did not want. It is pleasant to not that so far as they could find out from diligent inquiry he always paid his bills, being conscientious on this point. For some years he had supported himself by peddling in the agricultural districts of Michigan. His near relatives are all dead, but he eaves three aunts in Holyoke — Mrs. Aligence Smith, Mrs. R. A. Houston and Mrs. Joseph Houston. The funeral will be held in Holyoke upon the arrival of the body from White Pigeon.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican.
