Edmund Brooks Willson

Ed B. Willson Dies in Hospital Thursday Noon

Edmond B. Willson passed away at the Douglas hospital today (Thursday) at 12:30 o'clock.

Mr. Wilson had, after suffering a paralytic stroke, been confined to the hospital for the past three years and nine months.

He lived in Wyoming for many of the seventy years of his life and so has a host of friends here who will regret his passing but will be relieved to know that he shall suffer no more.

Funeral services will be held at the community church, Saturday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock with Rev. H.H. Koontz officiating. G. J. Armstrong has charge of funeral directions.

A full obituary will be carried in our next issue.

The Lusk Herald
October 28, 1926
REMAINS OF E.H. WILLSON LAID TO REST SATURDAY

Services Held at Community Church and body is Placed in Lusk Cemetery

Note: The Lusk Herald copy of this article is damaged. Missing parts are marked with "...". We are hoping to find another copy with which to fill in the blanks.

Edmund Brooks Willson was born June 16, 1856 at Como, Whiteside County, Illinois where he lived until he was sixteen years of age. At that time his home being broken by the death of his mother, he soon left to join his two elder brothers out west in what was then Wyoming Territory.

His first work in Wyoming was with a party of government surveyors, Messrs Hay and Thomas of Cheyenne, with whom he spent several years, helping to lay off the townships and subdivide them, so that later the land could be mapped and opened up for settlers.

After some years of this work, he became interested in the cattle business which was just then beginning to attract men of capital in the east. Large herds were then being driven north from Texas and turned loose on the Wyoming and Montana ranges. Mr. Willson took charge of a great many of these big drives. For several years he had charge of the Three Nine (999) outfit on the Cheyenne river for Cas. A Guernsey.

At one time he was the proprietor ... livery barn located on what is now ...of the LaBonte Hotel in Doug(las).

...Burlington railroad ex... into Wyoming, the ... as located and Mr. ... a part in the sur- ... of town lots, ... closely associated with Mr. Guernsey in looking after the iron mines which were then just being opened up at Sunrise. At that time he purchased lots in the new town of Guernsey and built a most attractive home.

While in Mr. Guernsey's employ, Mr. Willson bought up and remodeled many of the old ranches located along the river bottom on the old Fort Laramie and Oregon trails, where the many graves bear silent testimony to the hardships and burdens born by the brave pioneers of Wyoming, to Indian massacres, to hunger, greed, sickness, despair and a hundred other horrors that haunt the trail of the Covered Wagons.

Later, with Mr. Thompson Black of Willow, Wyoming, as his partner, he went into the cattle business for himself. Still later, he purchased the Hitshew ranch on the head of Lance Creek, where he resided at the time he was stricken with paralysis which terminated his life forty-six months later at the Douglas hospital, Thursday, October 21, 1926.

Edmund Willson was in the fullest sense of the word, a pioneer of Wyoming. He was a lover of good horses and cattle and of the country which was his home for so many years of his life. A man of delightful personality, vastly entertaining, his life was full of splendid friendships. He had a cheery word for one and all, held a brave spirit in time of despair, possessed a wealth of good common sense and had ever a cheery word and acts of kindness for his great pals, the children.

The deceased is survived by his widow, Mrs. Annie Willson of Guernsey, two brothers, George and Gene, and one sister, Miss Helen Willson, all of Manville and a step-son, Glen, of Lusk.

Services were held at the Community Church last Saturday afternoon, October 23, with Rev. H. H. Koontz officiating. Among those gathered at the church, were many friends from Manville who had come to pay their last respects to their departed friend.

A.L. Miller and H. B. Hargraves of Lusk, H. B. Card and a. T. Harris of Manville, Tom Black of Willow and Harry Arnold of Douglas acted as pall bearers.

Interment was made in the Lusk cemetery.

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