Wilder, Daniel Webster, journalist and author, was born in Blackstone, Mass., July 15, 1832, a son of Dr. Abel Wilder. He entered the public Latin school of Boston in 1848, graduating in 1852; received the A. B. degree in 1856, from Harvard; studied law in that institution and at Rochester, N. Y.; came to Kansas in 1857 and located at Elwood the next year; edited the Free Press and practiced law; was one of the founders of the Republican party in Kansas in 1859; became editor and one of the publishers of the Free Democrat at St. Joseph, Mo., in Aug.; 1860, and in the December following Mr. Wilder and the whole office force was indicted for violating the laws of a slave state and advocating emancipation. He then returned to Kansas and became editor of the Leavenworth Conservative, an anti-slavery paper, published daily, tri-weekly and weekly. In 1863 he was appointed surveyor-general of Kansas and Nebraska by President Lincoln; in 1864 he married Miss Mary E. Irwin in Atchison county; in 1865 became editor of the Evening Express at Rochester, N. Y.; returned to Leavenworth in 1868 and was editor of the Leavenworth Times and Conservative; was elected president of the Missouri Valley Associated Press in September of that year; was reëlected in 1870, during which year he became editor of the Fort Scott Monitor. Mr. Wilder was one of the incorporators of the Kansas Magazine in 1871, to which he was a frequent contributor; was one of the founders of the Kansas Historical Society in 1875, of which he was later the president and for many years one of the directors. His political career covers one term as state auditor, one term as executive clerk under Gov. Martin, and two terms as superintendent of insurance (1887 to 1891). On his retirement from office he went to Kansas City and published the Insurance Magazine. He then went to Hiawatha in 1892 and established the Hiawatha World. His home was at Hiawatha until the time of his death on July 15, 1911. He was the author of the "Annals of Kansas" (1875 and 1886), "Life of Shakespeare" (1893), and he was one of the compilers of all editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.