Cover Story

CAMPUS SCENECOVER STORY A Founder...

Much of the life of John Milton Gorham is a very large mystery.

After attending Cornell from 1887 and graduating in 1891 with an

LL.B. and in 1892 a B.L., he served as the first International Vice

President (later renamed “BB”) of the Fraternity from April 15, 1891 to the first convention in 1894 hosted by the Michigan Chapter.

Gorham then broke all contact with the Fraternity. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the Quarterly printed numerous requests for information of Gorham, apparently without success. In the

September 1928 issue of the Quarterly, Gorham was listed as

“missing,” as O.K. Patton (“CC”) prepared information for the publication of a new Fraternity directory.

According to the 1880 U.S. Census,

Gorham was born in Canajoharie, New

York on April 21, 1867, the son of

James and Honora Gorham, who were Irish immigrants, and grew up in Washington County, New

York. Following his time at

Cornell, Gorham married Emma

Catherine Fuller of Palantine

Bridge, Montgomery County,

New York at the Canajoharie

Methodist Episcopal Church on June 27, 1894. Emma was born May 21, 1869. He was admitted to the bar in Utica in

September 1893. In a 1906

Souvenir Book he was listed with a photo of Distinguished

Alumni of Canajoharie’s

Union High School, where he graduated in 1887. Gorham was also listed as practicing law in New York City.

According to the next census following his graduation from

Cornell (1900), Gorham was living in Westchester County, New York in

Mt. Vernon. He and his wife had two daughters, Ruth Emma born on March 29, 1895 at Mt. Vernon, Westchester County,

New York; and Dorothy Elizabeth born on

November 28, 1906. According to the 1910 census the family had moved to Manhattan, New York, where

Gorham continued to work as a lawyer. His sister-in-law, Harriet C.

Fuller (Emma’s sister), was a stenographer for a law office and was living with the Gorham family, as was L. Peterson, who was listed on census records as a servant.

John M. Gorham does not appear to be listed in the 1920 census records. His family was living at 93 High St. in Orange, NJ (Essex

County) and were boarders in this house. Edith Mead was listed as head of household and had a daughter named Ruth. Emma was still listed as being married according to the census information.

In the 1930 census Emma and Dorothy were living at 23 Ridge

Avenue in Evanston City, Illinois (Cook County). They were living in the Illinois Children’s Home. Gorham’s wife Emma was listed as a widow and worked as an Assistant Superintendent of the Cradle Orphan’s home. His daughter Dorothy was 24 in 1930 and lived with her mother and worked as a clerk/electrical services. According to family sources, she married Eugene W. Ibs. He died on April 12, 1950, and she died on September 21, 1977 in Evanston, Illinois. They had a son named John Michael who was born on September 21, 1937 and died in October 1992. He never married. Gorham’s older daughter Ruth married Stanton Van Wie on May 15, 1920. She died from complications of childbirth on May 27, 1921 and is buried in Fort Plan Cemetery with a stillborn daughter, Ruth Ann. Stanton remarried and later died on April 14, 1975. Gorham’s wife Emma died on January 16, 1965 at Pembridget House, Evanston, Illinois at the age of 95. She was cremated, and her remains are interred at the Memorial Park. For several decades numerous efforts have been made to determine what happened to Gorham when it appears he left the country and, through this research, the following facts have come to surface to outline a rough sequence of events of his life when he separated from his family in the 1910s. In the 1910s Gorham moved with his family to East Orange, New Jersey. He left the United States for England in October 1913, residing on Abbyington Mans Road, Kensington. He received a passport from the London Embassy on June 9, 1915; it was approved on July 29, 1915. When asked on this 1915 submission when he would return to the United States, he answered “uncertain.” He requested the passport to visit the John Milton Gorham country of France for business and lists England as his temporary residence. Circa 1890-1891 There is no record of him returning to the School Year United States including when his oldest daughter died in 1921. On March 18, 1943, Gorham died of congestive heart failure at 62 Esmond Road Chiswick, Middlesex, England. He was cremated on March 24, 1943. On his death certificate, he is listed as a retired company director and as married. A person by the name of K. Forbes caused the body to be cremated. His cremation certificate adds that his remains were scattered at the Garden of Remembrance at Mortlake Crematorium on March 25, 1943. (In the spring of 2008 Delta Chi contacted the Mortlake Crematorium and placed John Milton Gorham’s name in the Book of Remembrance maintained by the Crematorium. The Book of Remembrance containing Gorham’s name may be viewed online at www.mortlakecrematorium.org.) The application for the funeral was made by Kathleen Forbes of Balls Park, Hertford. It is unclear what her relationship was with Gorham. It is important to note that some alumni sources at the time have speculated that he was promoting his automobile interest while

COVER STORY Lost No More overseas, but it is unknown why he would travel to France, which Raymond Burns, to investigate the location of Gorham. In his was in the middle of trench warfare fighting with the United Kingdom February 24, 1937 letter to the detective agency, Shaffer said, against Germany in World War I starting in 1914. “Apparently Brother Gorham’s life was saddened by being divorced from his wife and, apparently, he has dropped out of existence as Family sources of Emma Gorham believe John served overseas as far as the Fraternity is concerned.” an “undercover man” in World War I and never returned. No service records for Gorham have been located. Since he was the son of In March 1937, an employee of Burns International Detective Irish immigrants, one could make the case that it was unlikely he Agency traveled to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Stuntz. Mrs. Stuntz was involved in the war in aiding the United Kingdom and the allies was Emma Gorham’s sister and had previously lived with the in fighting against the Germans, since England still controlled his Gorham family during the 1910s according to census information. family’s native Ireland until 1922. The United States was neutral in During this discussion, Mr. Stuntz did most of the talking but had a World War I until 1917. very limited amount of information. Mrs. Stuntz said, “No, the past is dead, and I would tell nothing that might get back to my sister The 1916 Delta Chi Directory listed Gorham as living in Orange, and reawaken old memories that are not pleasant.” Mr. Stuntz N.J. and also in New York City as an automobile dealer. In the said that in 1910 or 1911 Gorham was engaged in the automobile 1920 Directory he is listed in accessories business. He said that Gorham went to Orange, N.J. and no longer in New England in 1913, presumably London, to promote the York City. sale of an auto truck. For a time he wrote to his wife Cornell University has no contact information for him as of 1926. That same year an 1874 Cornell alumnus, William N. Smith, had replied to the Registrar of Cornell stating that Gorham had disappeared, and his wife was living in Chicago. The letter incorrectly stated he had only one daughter who was married for five to six years and then died a year or two before. Emma in New York, but the letters stopped. Mr. Stuntz said nothing had been heard from him in 10 or 15 years. This statement makes it appear the possibility exists he may have been heard from again since 1913, and the additional comment does not cover the span of time to 1937 when this discussion took place. When Mr. Burns tried to follow up on this discrepancy of time, Mrs. Stuntz said “His wife, my sister, thinks he is dead, and I will say noting that will bring back any thought of him in any way.” Mrs. Stuntz did say her sister was alive but would not say where she was living other than to In a September 23, 1936 letter say she was in to Delta Chi Executive Secretary New York City O.K. Patton, Founder Frederick M. (1930 census Whitney stated that Cornell has no had Emma record of where Gorham lived after Gorham living he graduated. Whitney also said in Chicago, the same city as her sister, Mrs. Stuntz, at Gorham’s wife was last heard of the time of this interview). Gorham had two brothers, in Chicago. Whitney also wrote to but Mrs. Stuntz did not know anything about them. Mrs. Bert H. Brower, a Cornell lawyer Stuntz’s parting remark was that, “Gorham has been in Gorham’s hometown of Canajoharie, New York. Brower said that considered dead for many years, and it is best to continue in such Gorham’s brother-in-law, William Fuller, stated that the Gorhams belief.” Mrs. Stuntz denied that any family trouble caused Gorham’s were divorced. Fuller also told Brower that he believed Gorham lived departure from this country or caused him later to cut himself off in London. Fuller added that Emma, Gorham’s wife, had a sister in from his wife here. Chicago, Mrs. Helen Grace Fuller Stuntz. The Fraternity is truly indebted to M. Frank Gilbreath, Texas In 1937, Bernhard Shaffer, Penn State ’25 Delta Chi alumnus State, and Stephen Henson, Louisiana Tech, for the extensive connected O.K. Patton with the William J. Burns International research on Founder Gorham’s life history. Information Detective Agency Inc., which was headed by Delta Chi alumnus compiled by Aaron Otto, Kansas State ’98.

Garden of Remembrance, site of where Founder Gorham’s ashes were spread in 1943 near London, England.