W. H. Adams, the first publisher of a weekly paper and later of the first daily paper in the State of Kansas, died at Springfield, Mo., Dec. 13th, at the age of 84 years.

In September, 1854, he went to Leavenworth, Kansas, taking with him a plant for a newspaper.  On arriving there he was unable to secure a building and he set up his plant under an elm tree on the banks of the river at the foot of what was then Front street, and under that tree the first paper published in Kansas, the Kansas Herald, dated September 14, 1854, was issued.

In 1860 Mr. Adams sold his plant, and bought the Union at Atchison, and changed it to a daily upon the day that Fort Sumpter was fired upon.  A year later he sold it and started the Daily Inquirer at Leavenworth. His office was afterward sacked by a mob.  He was engaged in other papers, and only lately retired from active work.

Missouri Historical Review

Published by State Historical Society of Missouri, 1908