Decatur County Journal

October 24, l907

EDWIN L. GATES, eldest son of MRS. FRANCIS GATES, of Leon, died Sunday

at his home in Kansas City, Mo. The remains were brought to Leon

Tuesday and services were held at the home of the deceased's uncle, S.A.

GATES, after which interment followed in the Leon Cemetery. MR. GATES

had been in poor health for some time, having broken down from overwork

as secretary of the Missouri Valley Improvement Association.

EDWIN L. GATES was born in Leon thirty-six years ago. He spent his

early life in the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific coast, engaged

chiefly in newspaper work. He went to Kansas City in l896 from St.

Joseph and was employed until l899 as railroad editor of the Kansas City

Journal. The year following, he was city editor of the St. Joseph

Herald. In l90l he returned to Kansas City and to his former position

on the Journal. He held this until his appointment last fall as

secretary of the Missouri River Improvement Association.

His years of service as railroad editor fitted him excellently for his

duties with the Missouri Valley Improvement Association. It had also

given him a wide acquaintance among railroad men. The only organization

of which he was a member, aside from the First Church of Christ,

Scientist, was the Railroad Club.

He was one of the most capable and best known newspaper men in Kansas

City. When his health failed last March, he resigned from the

secretaryship of the association, but it would not accept his

resignation. He quit anyhow, and, after a short rest, resumed newspaper

work. But he felt that the association needed him and in the latter

part of April he went back to it. All summer he worked hard. He was

sick every day. His lungs troubled him. He attended the deep waterways

meeting at Memphis and then went down the Mississippi on the snagboat

Sutor. He took cold on this trip and pneumonia developed from which he

died. MR. GATES was managing editor of the Kansas City World for two

months last spring after he resigned the secretaryship of the Missouri

Valley Improvement Association.

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by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert

August 30, 200l