William Rockhill Nelson was an American journalist, editor, and publisher. Along with Samuel Morss, he was a co-founder of the Kansas City Star newspaper.
Background
William Rockhill Nelson was born on March 7, 1841, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was the son of Isaac De Groff, owner of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and Elizabeth (Rockhill) Nelson.
His father owned the Fort Wayne Sentinel and was a court clerk, civic leader, and farmer. His mother was descended from Quakers. Five years after Nelson was born, war erupted between the United States and Mexico.
Education
Nelson grew up on his father’s farm, Elm Park. He was an early and voracious reader, but also a very rebellious and arrogant boy. After several frustrating episodes with his son, Isaac Nelson sent fifteen-year-old William to the rigid restraint of the University of Notre Dame (which took high school students at the time). William Nelson called the school “Botany Bay for bad boys.” When Nelson left Notre Dame after his second year, the University wrote his father requesting that Nelson not return. Nelson had been studying law, and was admitted to the bar in 1862.
Nelson was assigned to manage Elm Park, and worked as a deputy for his father at the circuit court. When the Civil War broke out, the Nelsons remained pro-Union but opposed the war; Nelson did not serve in the war. While he practiced law he also began dealing in real estate.
At the end of the war he and a partner bought a large plantation and opened a general store in Savannah, Georgia. This venture brought some disappointment when prices for their cotton fell. Nelson concentrated on saving the store and also became a construction contractor. The store eventually failed, too, but Nelson seemed impervious in the face of failure, and said about the store’s failure, that the Lack of self-confidence was never one of his failings, and he never lost a minute’s sleep over the affair. He was sure in his winning.
He also became the campaign manager for Democratic presidential nominee, Samuel J. Tilden, who may have planted the seed in Nelson’s mind to start a paper. Years after Tilden told him “While it is a great thing to lead armies, it is a greater thing to lead the minds of men,” Nelson invested in the Fort Wayne Sentinel. He and Samuel E. Morss took full ownership of the paper in 1879.
Nelson positioned the Sentinel as an independent Democratic paper. Through the Sentinel he attacked special interest groups and campaigned for waterworks in Fort Wayne. By August, 1880, Nelson and Morss had been ready for a greater challenge; they sold the Sentinel, moved the Kansas City, and founded the Kansas City Star.
Kansas in 1880 was a tough, rowdy, and booming town with a population of 55,000. Nelson and Morss (who had stayed in Kansas City for only a year) had to compete with three other newspapers: the Times, the Journal, and the Evening Mail. The Star’s first strategy was to undersell their competition. They sold advance subscriptions for less than half of their competitors’ rates. Kautsch quoted Nelson as declaring that for Kansas City, a “first-class, cheap afternoon newspaper is an absolute necessity.” Readers would find “every issue containing one or more short stories, together with poetry, selected miscellany, etc.,” in a paper which would be “absolutely independent in politics, aiming to deal by all men and all parties with impartiality and fearlessness.”
At first the Star’s competitors did not take the new arrival seriously. But the staff of the Star laughed last. Circulation grew to ten thousand in 1883, to thirty-one thousand in 1889, and two hundred thousand in 1915 (greater than the population of Kansas City at the time). Nelson bought the Evening Mail in 1882, and with it obtained an Associated Press franchise. He founded the Weekly Kansas City Star for farmers in 1890, and in 1894, he introduced the Sunday Star. When he bought the Kansas City Times he turned it into the Star’s morning edition.
Nelson devoted much of his time at the Star planning his many crusades. Nelson himself commissioned studies and conducted experiments on behalf of this cause. He garnered the ire of many critics, but Kansas City was transformed under Nelson’s influence.
Nelson faced his death bravely. When a liver disease called nephritis turned to uremic poisoning, he urged his doctor not to save him; he felt that there was no use in keeping him alive. Nelson’s doctor ceased his intravenous treatment, and Nelson passed away on April 13, 1915.
Rugged individualist William Rockhill Nelson grew from an over-privileged hell-raising boy to the founder and publisher of the Kansas City Star, dedicating his life to public service. Though he lived as an aristocrat and was rumored to have enriched Kansas City for his own personal enjoyment, his dedication to civic improvement and progressive politics changed Kansas City from a ragged frontier town to one of the nation’s beautiful and efficient cities.
Despite the fame of his papers, Nelson himself shied away from public attention. He made an exception for the Associated Press, serving as vice president for a year and director for nine years. He did enjoy his private life, and was fond of his small family.
Though Nelson had been a stingy employer, and had left no means for the Star to continue after his death, he was generous to Kansas City. His will stipulated that after the deaths of his wife and daughter, the proceeds from the sale of the Star were to purchase artworks for the city; the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art now houses this collection.
Quotes from others about the person
“From the bulbous torso, with its fawn-colored vest, black coat and short thick arms, a collar suddenly expanded. It was like no other collar ever made; it widened from the neckband to take in a steadily heavier neck, and almost triple chin, and folds which rolled down at the base of his skull. His face was square, his mouth a wide, firm indenture; his chin overcame those folds beneath and jutted like Vermont granite. His nose began abruptly and ended the same way. Shaggy penthouses ruled over eyes which were really threatened by blindness, but which seemed to possess second-sight. His white hair was always rumpled, as if by pawing slaps from his fat hands. He had trouble getting into a chair and out of it. He would ask for something only once. Then he bellowed.” - Kautsch quoting one writer
“In a sense, Nelson offered his life as evidence that the enterprise, wit, and self-reliance of the rugged individualist could yield great fruits for the common good. The Star itself was one of Nelson’s lasting contributions, but just as important, perhaps, were the lessons he provided in how to achieve good journalism.” - Kautsch
Connections
On November 29, 1881, Nelson married Ida Houston. They had a daughter, Laura.