Joseph Wharton - Last Years and Death

Last Years and Death

Wharton was active to near the end of his life both physically and in business affairs. Until he was 72, he skated with guests on the pond at his Ontalauna estate near Philadelphia and would often go on walks with his family after dinner. His good health throughout his life was likely due in part to his enjoyment of physical exercise, total abstinence from tobacco and restricted use of even mild alcoholic drinks. When he was nearly 80, he visited his Nevada silver mine by canoeing down the Colorado River and descending into the mine in a bucket, and when he was 81, he traveled to Germany with his grandson, Joseph Wharton Lippincott, to visit Kaiser Wilhelm II and had dinner on the Kaiser's yacht. He read widely in literature and was an accomplished poet. He continued to oversee his holdings in coke manufacture in Pennsylvania and iron in northern New Jersey. In 1907 he was incapacitated by stroke and gradually worsened until his death in 1909.