From the Seeking Michigan web site:

Death of an Idol
After two terms Pingree left office and traveled to Africa for a safari and to study the Boer War. He fell sick and died in London before he could return home. Twenty-five thousand people attended his funeral in Detroit, and the aforementioned Pingree statue in Grand Circus Park was dedicated three years later. To many of his contemporaries, this early Progressive reformer was indeed an “idol of the people.”