The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-13
WILLIAM r.. NELSON.

All the newspaper world was mex
pressibly shocked today when IL re-
ceived the news of the death OF VIII
| liam Rockhill Nelson, editor and owner
| of the Kansas City Star, even though the
occurrence had been forecasted by a
serious illness of several months
duration. But while there is life there
is hope, and his friends and admirers
from one end of the United States to
the other, were hoping and praying
that he would overcome his ailment,
as he had overcome the countless OBJ
stacles that beset his path to the prog
ress and browning success that 1T has
been the portion of few newspaper
men to achieve. Before his illness he
seemed so rugged, such colossus of
a man in body and mind, as to make
it almost certain that many more
years of an active life would be vouch-
safed him, Notwithstanding the fact
that he had already passed the three
score and ten milestone. In his death,
modern newspaperdom has lost com
manding figure, a master spirit OF the
craft, and one who has left deep i'm
press on his calling.
His development of the Kansas City
Sta is one Of the real romances OF
newspaper making in this country.
When he and his partner, Mr.. Morss,
arrived in Kansas City in 1880, after
disposing of their newspaper property
in Fort Wayne, Ind, it is understood
that their sole capital totaled about
$1,000 apiece: With this they started
the Star in the fall of that, year, and
in an upstairs room on a side street.
Nine months later, July, 1881, Presi-
dent Garfield was shot. And Mr.. Nell
son seized this event as. the psyche
logical one to make a showing for his
struggling paper. He issued an Eek
ira on the shooting and followed it
up with others during the ex
element that attended the assas-
sination. While he had no As
ISOLATED Press service, he did have
a little service furnished by the Ma
tional Press association. This organ
ization had a good correspondent at
Washington. And Colonel Nelson's
enterprise and the excellent work of
his Washington service, enabled him
to give the people of Kansas City the
news they were most eager for, and
give it promptly. Colonel Nelson met
a demand which the other newspapers
in Kansas City were slow to supply.
The result was that the people of
Kansas City and the surrounding ter
ritory Immediately took notice of the
Star, which hitherto had created no
perceptible impression in newspaper
circles. Shortly after this the Asso-
ciated Press paper, being overshad
owed by the Starts enterprise, became
moribund, and Colonel Nelson bought
the property for the sake of the AS
ISOLATED Press membership. From that
time on, the growth of the Star has
continued to its present magnificent
proportions, to the position of one of
the great newspapers of the United
States. But Colonel Nelson not only
developed an excellent newspaper. He
produced it at a low price, and his 8
papers for 10 cents a week has been
the great competition that the news
papers in Kansas have had to face.
And while the Star was Colonel Nell
sons hobby, it had to share a place
IN his affections and his plans with
the city that is its home. Indeed the
development of the Star and Kansas
City may be called coincident And
Colonel Nelson played almost as large
a part in the making Of one as he did
in the other. His faith in Kansas City
was unbounded. He never hesitated
to invest of his means either in the
development and expansion of his
newspaper, or of the city of his adop-
uon He has been a tremendous fac
tor in the building of the city to it's
place of Importance among the COM
mercial cities of the nation. Colonel
Nelson was not only great newspaper
man. He was also a great citizen.
And Kansas City has lost a soldier
from her ranks whose place probably
can never be filed