From the AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CAROLINE E. LADD
On the 21st of September our son Charles came in very unexpectedly and
spent three days, which we greatly enjoyed, with no thought it would be his
last visit to us. On Oct. 28th, he was taken violently ill of inflammation of
the bowels, at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. I left home in answer to a
telegram and reached him November 2nd. His wife had already arrived, and
Mariana came a few days later. For three weeks he lay in a critical condition,
passing through much severe suffering. It was a time of great anxiety and
anguish, as we watched with alternate hope and fear the result of the varied
changes in the disease. We clung to a strong hope of his recovery until the
17th and 18th after 17 hours of severe vomiting had so reduced his vitality
that we knew he must die. He became sweetly resigned to the Lord's will,
talked freely with us, frequently asked us to offer prayer at his bedside, and
prayed himself, hsi dear wife and child, and expressed himself as "Sweetly
resting in Jesus." On November 22nd, 1883, about one o'clock he breathed his
last, aged 27 years and four months. Again our family circle was broken. I
felt keenly parting with our two small children in 1863 but the loss was not to
be compared with giving up this beloved son in his noble manhood, so bright and
affectionate. It cost a strong struggle to say, "Thy will be done."His dear wife returned to her parents' home, (Gen. J. M. Hedrick's), where
on the 29th of January 1884 her daughter Caroline F. C. Ladd was born, our
second granddaughter and sixth grandchild.
William C. Ladd graduated from Brown University in 1881.