The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-18
Typhoid Claims One of Kansas
Brightest Writers.
Death Came After Crisis Was
Supposed to Be Over.
WAS ILL THREE WEEKS
the Disease While
in Oklahoma.
known for Bright Paragraphs
and Swedish Dialect.

Harmon D. Wilson, paragrapher and
exchange editor for the Topeka Daily
Capital for the past five years. died at
his home at 42s TAYLOR street at 4:4O
2. IN. today. a victim of typhoid fever.
Wilson succumbed to the disease
after he was thought to have won in
his fight against it. The relapse oc-
CURED Wednesday night. The thirty
hours fight that followed was too hard
for his wasted body.
Six weeks ago Wilson made a trip to
the Indian Territory in company with
John Striclrott. the view photographer,
and they together travelled over much
of the country taking notes and pic
lures to be worked into a descriptive
booklet for the Santa Fe. 1t was in the
Territory. while subjected to the vicis-
STUDIES of frontier hotels and bad
drinking water, that both men con-
tracted the disease which caused Will
sons death 1t was during the hottest
week of the summer that Wilson and
Strfckrott We're conpelled to do their
hardest work, and both returned to To-
peka much the worse for their hard
ships. Wilson resumed his duties at
his desk and stayed uncomplainingly
win ms once work until taken to his
bed. Strickrott became i'll in Colorado.
out was among friends and received
good care and recovered sufficiently to
return home week ago. Harmon
Wilson became i'll on August 25
Mrs. ]. w. Wilson, Harmon Wilson's
widowed mother. was with him a the
time of his DEATH having been called
from her home in 2eloit at his illness.
- sister and one or two other relatives
are here also. Mrs. Harmon Wilson
was formerly a Miss Tops Campbell.
of Alton. Their son, Lisle. is four years
old. Mr.. Wilson's marriage occurred on
June =. 1898. year after he had COM
menced his work in Topeka He was
member of the Workmen lodge and
held an insurance policy of which his
mother was the beneficiary short
funeral service will be conducted by
Dean Kaye of Grace cathedral at the
home at 10 o'clock Saturday morning.
James Moore will sing The body will
De taken to Beloit for interment
Harmon wilson had known most of
the ups and downs of Kansas news
paper work before he came to Topeka
to begin work, where his varied career
OF type sticking, job printing, news
hustllng and country newspaper
work settled down into the congenial
occupation of exchange and editorial
work where he was at his best. Ever
since Wilson commenced to write. a
dozen years ago, his stuff" has been
read and copied because he had a way
of saying things and a wholesome,
cheerful point of view. He varied his
utility man in country print
shops by writing things in verse, dia-
lect and good prose. Finding himself
handy with the pencil he turned his at
tention from the mocha meal part of
newspaper work to writing and worked
upon or conducted several small papers
He was born in Troy, Kansas, 80
years ago next November 25. AS a boy
he concluded that an education was not
the main thing to be sought after and
he commenced lea rnincr how tn
type. 1t was on Sol Millers Troy
Chieftain that he matriculated in the
endless school of newspaper work. But
when about eighteen he went to work
for the Clay Center Times and there
began his experimentation with the
Swedish-American dialect. and his let
ters appeared regularly in the State
Journal. Wilson's dialect paragraph
ing was perfected in later years into
some of his cleVereSt writing. He ne
elected it a good deal but from time to
time renewed it's use. Some of that
which appeared in the monthly maya
zine, Push within the past year was
above criticism.
The knights of the Condemned Dog
have lost their leader The cottonwood
tree has lost its most relentless enemy.
while the Hon. Timothy Tugbutton of
Slippery Crossing will retire to tie OBJ
surity from which Wilson's ingenuoGs
hand Dlucked him. With the persist
ence that he believed he should devote
to what he regarded as a meritorious
cause Wilson demanded through his
column of Kansas Comment that the
cottonwood tree be cut down ana the
useless canine sent to the pound. For
him the cottonwood tree had ended its
usefulness. He hated dogs in general.
And al every opportunity he turned his
clever originality to creating public
sentiment against the luckless tree and
dog. Hon. Timothy Tugbutton was his
other self. Through his fictitious lips
he uttered at times the sentiments of