Edward S. Rounds

Edward Sterling Rounds

Parents moved from Colorado where Edward was born, to DeKalb, Ill; Edward left home in his early teens for Chicago. Later went to New York where he married and was employed as a credit man for the American Can Company at the time of his sudden passing.

Bold adolescent? Malcontent?
Edward strode out on his own, alone
to make his way, and slay stray dragons
but alack!
He was not with us long enough
to make his mark -
Indeed, I think
his main impact
was not in what he did
but what he did not do
that is, in choosing not to stay
and in the way he chose to go.

"At the time of his sudden passing" - sudden and by his own choice - Edward was 29 years old and suffering from gonorrhea, incurable at that time. He climbed into bed, turned on the gas jet, but did not light it; and fell into a dreamless sleep. His 6 year old son found his body.
His sudden passing changed the course of the family life and fortunes: he left his widow destitute, and she was forced to move in with her mother, and find work as a bookkeeper. Her mother was a stern, mean old woman who ran a boarding house for Swedish immegrants, and the son was left in her care. It was a hard beginning for both mother and son.