WILLIAM J. WALLER                            

The Star and Kansan, Friday, June 8, 1888, Pg. 3:

            One of Independence’s old citizens, Mr. W. J. Waller, dropped dead on the street last Saturday night from heart disease.  It was after ten o’clock and John Hefley was going along Laurel street on his way home when his attention was arrested by groans, which sounded as if someone was in trouble.  On going in the direction from which the sound came, he found Mr. Waller on his hands and knees crying for water, just east of Phil Shoemaker’s residence.  Mr. Hefley aroused the neighbors and procured the water but it was too late, for by the time he returned, Mr. Waller could not drink or speak, and expired in a few minutes.  He was a man about sixty years of age, and those who saw him at nine o’clock say he seemed to be in good health.  He was a member of the McPherson Post, having served during the war in Company D, 124th Illinois Volunteers.  The funeral service, under the auspices of McPherson Post, occurred Monday afternoon at the M. E. Church, Rev. C. R. Rice preaching an appropriate sermon.  It was a severe blow to the family, who had the universal sympathy of the community.

Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.