The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-30
HIS DEATH SUDDEN.
George A. Sells of the Secretary
of States Office
Passes Away Suddenly With
Neuralgia of the Heart
He Was the Basso of the Coyote Club
and a Universal Favorite.

There is big bow of Grape on the
workroom door of the secretary of states
Office today and a card announcing the
death of George A. Sells, chief clerk.
The death was very sudden one and
street, at o'clock this morning. The
state house is a solemn place today. No
man was better loved there than George
Sells.
He attended church last evening as
usual at the First Congregational church
and had retired for the night. Shortly
before IL o'clock he seemed to be sudden
ly in considerable pain.
Secretary of State Edwards, who lives
near him, was called and arrived al mid
night. DR.. L M. Powell was also sent
for and arrived at a bout 1916. Soon be-
fore one O'clock the sick man died.
He was conscious to the last and his
customary good nature did not fail him.
Ten minutes before he died he smiled
and talked about the pain he was in and
the position that seemed the easiest.
George Sells was 90 years old on the
18th of March just passed. He was we'll
known over Kansas as the Little Lamb
of the Coyote club. He was the bass
singer and his fund of good humor
| seemed inexhaustable.
n have known George Sells for over
twenty years. said Secretary Edwards
today, ''and I have never seen cloud on
his face"
DR.. Powell says that it would have
been impossible to save his life. HIS
death was caused by angina pectoris or
true neuralgia of the heart. All rsstora-
tives were applied without response.
A post mortem examination this morn
ing showed condition of chronic endo
carditis or Inflammation that resulted in
Qualification or hardening of the valves
of the heart. The heart muscle was in
a state of fatty degeneration.
Mr.. Sells moved to Topeka little
more than year ago, just after his ap-
pointment to the position he died in,
from Larned, where he had been friend
of Secretary Edwarde, and was register
of deeds from 1888 to 1887. Three mem
bers of his family were with him at the
time of his death. His wife and his
| daughters Grace, young woman, and
| III label, a girl of ten. He had two sons,
the oldest, Bert, ia the station agent of
the Missouri Pacific at Larned, and
younger one who is cashier in the Mis-
souri, Pacific station at Winfield.
He was the son of Elijah Sells, who
now lives at Salt Lake, though eighty
four years of age, has just finished term
as secretary of state of Utah. Away
back in the fftiss he was for three terms
secretary of the state of Iowa,
and was at one time during the seven
ties, a member of the Kansas legislature
from Douglas county; he was also
prominent treasury official during Presi-
dent Lincoln's first term and was one of
his personal friends.
George Sells has been a resident of
Kansas for more than 81 years.
Today his vacant chair in the secre-
tary's Office is a mass of Grape.
The details of the funeral have not yet
been arranged. The absent mem Lers of
the family have been telegraphed to and
their wishes and The wishes of the widow
will decide it. His home was at Larned
but his mother and two brothers are
buried at Kansas City, Mo. 1t is posi-
BILE he NAV be buried here.