1915-08-02-New York Sun-Dr W A Croffut

Dr. W. A. Croffut

New York Sun, 2 August 1915, page 7

Editor and Traveller Dead in Washington After a Long Illness.

WASHINGTON, Aug l.--Dr. William A. Croffut, editor and traveller, died here yesterday after a long illness. He was born in Redding, Conn., in January, 1835. At 19 he was a reporter for the New Haven Palladium. In the civil war he served as a private of the First Minnesota Regiment and as a field correspondent of the New York Tribune. After the war he was employed at various times by the Rochester Democrat, the St. Paul Times, the Minneapolis Tribune, the Chicago Evening Post and the Graphic, Tribune and World of New York. In the first Cleveland Administration he was the editor of the Washington Post.

Some of his travel letters were written in verse under the title of "A Mid-summer Lark." He wrote the libretto of a comic opera, "Deseret," the music by Dudley Buck, which was produced in New York in 1882. It was a burlesque on the Mormons. Among his books were "The Crimson Wolf," a novel; "The Vanderbilts," "A History of Connecticut in the Rebellion" and "Bourbon Ballads," a collection of political poems written in 1880. He wrote the opening ode for the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.