Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-01-17
DEATH OF GENERAL WILSON.

GENERAL WILLIAM DUANE WILSON,
of Des Moines, who was probably
one of the best known and most
highly respected citizens of Iowa, is
dead.
The Register has the following BIZ
ographical notice:
Gen. Wilson's title dates from the
time he was General Superintendent
of Light Houses on the Great Lakes,
an office he held under two Presidents.
He was born in Philadelphia in Sep
tcmber, 1909. While a youth he
moved with his father to Steubenville,
Ohio, where he learned the printers
trade, working in his fathers office.
To the day of his death he loved the
craft. Gen. Wilson was probably the
Oldest printer in the Northwest.
While yet but seventeen years of
age he removed to Pittsburg and was
employed on paper there, of which
he soon become the editor. From
Pittsburg he changed his residence to
Wheeling where he was for many
years the editor of the Whig paper
at that place. A change of adminis-
tration bringing the Wings into pow
er the General was appointed General
Superintendent of Light Houses for
the Northwestern Lakes, a position of
great responsibility at that early day
in the history of our Lake marine.
He held it until the Office was abol-
ished, and then settled in Detroit,
where he became editor of the A d.
reftiser, In 1S45 he removed to Mil
waukee and commenced the publica-
tion of the Wisconsin Gazette, which
was subsequently, consolidated with
the Sentinel and published by Gen.
Wilson and Hon. Rufus King. Sew
eral years later he sold his interest in
the paper and was appointed to
Clerkship in the Agricultural Bureau
at Washington. This he retained for
four years and then returned to Mil
waukee where he remained until 1852,
when he moved to Chicago and COM
menced the publication of paper
which he soon sold and which was
consolidated with another paper, and
tho two became the Chicago Tribune.
The General then purchased the
Cou1ant. 1t soon became influential
and was purchased by Cook, Cameron
q Sheehan, who consolidated it with
another paper and the two formed
the Chicago Times. Thus our late
townsman was a partner to the estab-
lishment of two of the most widely
known journals in America.
From Chicago he removed to Fair
field and commenced the publication
of the Ioaca Farmer, which he subse-
quently moved to Burlington and
thence to Mount Pleasant, and finally
sold. He came to Des Moines while
the first General Assembly was in
session, and was elected Secretary of
the Board of Trustees of the Agricul-
tural College. When the office was
abolished he was appointed to re-
sponsible position in the Agricultural
Bureau at Washington. Subsequent
ly he purchased the Iowa Homestead,
in Des Moines, of Henry w. Petit,
which failing health, few years
later, compelled him to sell.
Gen. Wilson was one of the foun-
ders of the Patrons of Husbandry in
Iowa, and was the first Secretary of
the State Grange. Subsequently he
was State Lecturer and performed
much efficient and valuable labor for
that organization.
During the past two years his
health has been gradually failing,
until about two months since he was
missed from the streets, and last Sum
day morning he breathed his last,
and the weary, worn soul was at rest.
A wife who faithfully shared the
good and i'll Of his chcckered life, and
two children, George, railroad agent
at Grand Island, Nebraska, and Mrs.
Judge Snyder, arc left to lament him.
Another child, Birney, has gone be-
fore.