Daniel Webster Wilder Papers

Biographical sketch: Daniel Webster Wilder was born at Blackstone, Mass., July 15, 1832. He died at his home in Hiawatha, Kan., July 15, 1911. In 1858 he settled at Elwood, in Doniphan county, and became the editor of the Elwood Free Press. In August, 1860, he went to St. Joseph, commercially a Kansas town on Missouri soil, where he was editor of the Free Democrat, a Republican paper. He became editor of the Leavenworth Daily Conservative in January, 1861. He was one of the founders of the paper, and when Col. D. R. Anthony went into the army he purchased the Anthony interest and became the sole proprietor.

In 1865 he went to Rochester, N. Y., where he was the editor of the Evening Express; but he found it impossible to remain away from Kansas, and returned again in 1868 to edit the Leavenworth Conservative. He became the editor of the Fort Scott Monitor in 1871. In 1872 he was elected auditor of state. In October, 1876, Mr. Wilder resigned his office to become editor of the St. Joseph Herald; but this was only for another attempt at the impossible, and he returned again to Kansas and settled in Hiawatha, where he was editor and proprietor of the World. This he disposed of to accept the office of State Commissioner of Insurance.

In 1875, Wilder offered the resolution which led to the creation of the Kansas State Historical Society. He also wrote the Annals of Kansas, providing a chronological history of the state from its first exploration by Spanish conquistadors up until 1885.

[Kansas State Historical Society. "Daniel W. Wilder." http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/kansasnewspapers/Wilderbio.htm (accessed 13 October 2009).]