The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-07-17
WEB WILDER DIES
Fall Proves Fatal to Well
Known Citizen.
Came to Kansas to Help in
Slavery Fight.
AN EARLY DAY EDITOI
Gratitude to Franklin Demanded
He Run Newspaper.
Since 1859 Name Is Connected
With Kansas History.


Wilder, author OF the annals Of Kan
sas.'' a book on Shakespeare and several
other works, and a widely known Kan
san since the early days of the state,
died at his home here Saturday night
as a result of injuries sustained in the
morning when ne walked out of the
window of his bedroom. 1t is suppos-
ed he became confused and mistook
the window for a door, stumbling head
long into the yard.
Sunday was Mr.. Wilder's seventy
ninth birthday anniversary.
Mr.. Wilder was for many years ac-
tive in Republican politics of this state.
He was at one time postmaster at Hia-
watha; also state auditor and state in
surance commissioner.
Web" Wilder was one of a number
! Of young newspaper men who "ame to
Kansas from New England in 1857, full
Ct enthusiasm to keep the state free
from slavery, at a time when men
wrote editorials one day and argued
about them with six-shooters the next
if they lived.
Born in Massachusetts,.
Wilder was born in Blackstone. Mass.
in 1882. and was brought up in all the
culture which New England had to Of
fer. At the Boston Latin school he
took the Franklin medal, and this had
considerable weight in his choice of a
career, according to the late Noble
Prentis.
Common gratitude to Ben Franklin -
Prentis wrote, who had left a medal
for him, demanded the Wilder should
go into the newspaper business and he
did,
After leaving the Boston Latin school,
young Wilder entered and was gradu-
ated from Harvard in 1856. He was a
member OF the Alpha Delta Phi fra
ternity studied law and was admitted
to the bar in Boston, and apparently
was well fitted to settle down to an I'M
eventful existence in some small New
England village. And then somehow,
across hundreds of miles, the call of
Kansas came to Web Wilder and he
gave up a comfortable Massachusetts,
existence to go out and settle in a lit
tie Wind-Swept, cOttonWOod-shaded
town in Kansas that all but disappear |
ed into the Missouri river a few years
ago.
The town was Elwcod. Kan. There
Wilder practiced law for a while, arc
at the same time edited the Free Press |
nine papers out Of ten had the word
free OF "of liberty at the head of their !
scant columns in those days.
Wilder was editor Of a half dozen |
newspapers in Kansas in the "a years |
he lived in the state. Wilder went from |
Elwood to St. Joseph, where he start /
ed a free paper about % years too |
early" Noble Prentis wrote, and was
finally run out of town. Then he edi- |
ted the Leavenworth Conservative for
q time, a paper D. R. Anthony founded |
for Wilder more as a joke than any
thing else.
Wilder was a member of the famous
Continental Congress" which used to
meet in Arthur Simmons's cigar store /
in Leavenworth-an impromptu gath
ering of the big men of the town,
where politics and war and literature
were discussed over after dinner cigars
and pipes. The same store where
Web Wilder, Justice Brewer, Colonel
Jennison. leader of the "Jayhawkers,'
and a dozen other famous Kansans
used to sit, was open until last Sep
TENDER.
s'Web' Wilder was the born man
of literature of that coterie of men
who had come out to grow up with
Kansas. He had been graduated from
Harvard at a time when being a gradu-
ate meant being a scholar and it was
to him that his comrades always used
to appeal in later years to settle points
of Kansas History.
Wilder state Oracle.
fIn the matter of what is written in
books, Mr. Wilder is the state oracle
Noble Prentis wrote in Kansas Miscel-
lanies.
Mr. Wilder's most noted work was
1.-THE Annals of Kansas a remarkable
volume of ITO pages, containing an
exhaustive history by chronological
now Kansas by Coronado in 1541 to
1885. Mr.. Wilder's name appears in
this volume many times. Following
are some of the references which give
an idea Of his career;
His History in Kansas.
May Is, 1S59-Convention at Osa-
watomie. Organization of the Repub-
lican party in Kansas. Daniel W. VIII
der of Doniphan county, secretary.
Convention addressed by Horace
Greeley
June Is. 1S59-The Free Press is
sued at Elwood by A. L. Lee and D.
w Wilder It raises the name Of
William H Seward for president and
Abraham Lincoln for vice president.
December l. 1S59=Abram (spelled
this way in Mr.. Wilder's book) Lincoln
arrives in Elwood and makes a speech
that evening. He was met at St Jo-
seph by NJ. w. Delahay and D. ".
December 90. 1s6o-Frank n.
Tracy, D. W. Wilder and B. P. Cheno-
weth indicted for publishing the Free
Democrat. a free state paper, at ST.
Joseph, Mo.
Daily Conservative started D. r. An
thony publisher, D w Wilder editor
November 8, 1S61-D. r. Anthony
sells the Daily Conservative to D. ".
February %. 1s62-The Daily En-
quirer, a slavery organ. started IN
LeavenW A meeting called %
mob the paper was addressed by ID.
w. Wilder, favoring free speech and
the meeting of argument with argu-
ment.
September 8. 1S63-In convention at
haola. of which D. ". Wilder was vice
president, resolutions were adopted
asking the removal of General Scho-
field and General Ewing and the estab-
lishment { f a new military department.
May 3, 1S6S-D. w Wilder returned to
the Leavenworth Conservative from
Rochester On. W Express.
September II, 186S-Wilder and Sleep
er buy the Leavenworth Times and the
consolidated paper is called the Times