Benjamin Franklin Tracy

   GEN. BENJ F. TRACY
      DIES IN 86TH YEAR
Soldier, Statesman, Jurist Had
    Been in Coma Since
     Paralytic Stroke.
  FATHER OF FIGHTING NAVY
As Secretary Under Harrison He
  Took the Department Out of
   Politics--Funeral Monday.

 General Benjamin Franklin Tracy,
Secretary of the Navy under President
Harrison, died at 3:30 yesterday after-
noon at the home of his daughter, Mrs.
Ferdinand Wilmerding, at 14 East Six-
tieth Street. He was in his eighty-fifth
year.
 His daughter and son, Frank Tracy
and the attending nurse, Miss Pinkerton,
were at his bedside when the end came.
The General, who had been unconscious
for the past ten days, with the excep-
tion of a brief period last Tuesday, died
peacefully. When he became conscious
on Tuesday afternoon, and opened his
eyes for a few moments, Mrs. Wilmer-
ding was at his bedside, and her father
recognized her but was unable to speak.
He then relapsed into the coma that
ended in death.
 Dr. William B. Pritchard of 143 West
Seventy-second Street, who had been the
General's physician for twenty-two
years, said that it was only the Gen-
eral's great vitality that kept him alive
for the past two weeks. Frank Tracy
said last night that his father had been
unable to take nourishment since he
went to bed after his stroke of
paralysis suffered at dinner two weeks
ago.
 It is thought that an accident suf-
fered by General Tracy on memorial
Day had to do with his death, al-
though  he was said to have made a com-
plete recovery. For many years he had
lived a regular and ordered life, and sev-
eral days before his stroke he was de-
layed for several hours on a railway
journey. He worried much over this.
 Frank Tracy sent many telegrams last
night to fiends throughout the coun-
try, announcing the death of his father.
The funeral will take place on Monday
morning at 10:30 o'clock in Trinty
Church. The body will be buried in
Greenwood.
     Soldier, Statesman, Jurist.
 General Tracy had been before the
public as a brilliant soldier, statesman,
and jurist for more than sixty years.
As Secretary of the Navy under Presi-
dent Harrison he was called "The
Father of the Fighting Navy." "Some
people have called me 'the father of
the fighting navy,'" he said shortly be-
fore his death. "I don't deny it. I be-
lieve I am. I tried to take the Navy
Department out of politics and I be-
lieve I succeeded."
 He was born in his father's farmhouse
in Tioga County, N.Y., in 1830, and his
father, Benjamin Tracy, was a soldier
in the war of 1812. His grandfather,
Thomas Tracy, settled in tioga late in
the eighteenth century, having moved
there from his home in New England.
After graduating from the grammar
school, General Tracy attended Owego
Academy and studied law with David
& Warner of Owego. At the age of 21
he was admitted to the bar of the State
of New York.
 General Tracy was active in poitics
from his earliest youth, and in 1853
he was elected District Attorney of
Tioga County on the Whig ticket. He
was the youngest District Attorney ever
elected in the State of New York, and
the rest of the Whig ticket was badly
defeated.
   Helped Organize Republican Party.
 Not long after this he took the leading
part in the organization of the Repub-
lican Party in this State and was elected
Chairman of the Tioga County Repub-
lican Committee, the first County Com-
mittee organized in the State of New
York. He was also the first representa-
tive of his county at the State Con- 
vention and was a member of the com-
mittee that issued the first Republican
address to the voters of this State.
 In 1856 he was again elected District
Attorney, defeating Gilbert C. Walker,
who later became Governor of Vir-
ginia. Shortly after the election he
formed a law partnership with his late
opponent under the name of Tracy &
Walker.
 General Tracy became very prominent
in his profession in the old Sixth Ju-
dicial District, and at the age of 26
was trying more cases than any other
lawyer in his county. It is related
that in 1859, when he was suddenly
taken ill, court was compelled to ad-
journ because he was engaged in every
case in the calendar. He was more
active than ever in politics, and in 1861
was elected to the Assemly. At the
meeting of the Legislature in 1862 there
was a sharp contest for the Speakership
of the Assembly between Hurlburt of St.
Lawrence County and Henry J. Ray-
mond, editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES,
General Tracy espoused Mr. Raymond's
cause, and, after a bitter fight, Mr.
Raymond won. General Tracy then be-
came the acknowledged leader of his
party on the floor of the Assembly.
 When McClellan's army was checked 
on the Peninsular, in the Summer of
1862, President Lincoln called for 300,000
more men. General Tracy raised the
109th and 137th regiments of New
York Volunteers in a month, and was
appointed Colonel of the first. His first
active service was under General Burn-
side, and he won the Congressional
Medal of Honor and was brevetted Brig-
adier General of Volunteers for his
conduct at the battle of the Wilderness.
Four times during the battle he rallied
his regiment, and finally captured the
Confederate ramparts. At the moment
of victory he fell desperately wounded
upon his battle flag.
 After recuperating in the hospital at
Annapolis, he returned to his home in
Owego. In the Fall of 1862 he was ap-
pointed Colonel of the 127th Regiment,
colored troops, and took command of
the prison camp at Elmira, which he
held until Lee surrendered.