from The Republican (Danville, Hendricks County, Indiana)--issue of Thursday, February 20, 1919--page 7, column 4:
DEATH OF WM. E. KERSEY
(Stuart [Ia.] News)
William Ezra Kersey, eldest son of Dr. Jonathan and Annie Jane (Benbow) Kersey, was born at Danville, Ind., September 11, 1865. In the fall of 1867 Dr. Kersey went to Stuart, Ia., to live and his promising young son grew up there. He was the first to graduate from the Stuart high school in 1882. He went to the State university at Iowa City for a course in law and entered with high hopes and the most flattering prospects upon his professional career. For two years he was in the office of O.R. Fogg at Tacoma, Wash., when that young city was beginning to rank high upon the Pacific slope. After returning from Tacoma he located in Horton, Kas., where he spent about two years when he returned to Stuart. About twelve years ago he joined the rest of the family, consisting of the step-mother, half-brother and half-sister, in Des Moines, and that was his final home. He had employment in the railroad commissioner's office at the state house, only giving up his work on January 15, when failing health made it no longer possible to work. He died on February 2, of uremic poisoning at the age of 54. With a number of other Stuart young men, Mr. Kersey saw service in the Philippine Islands during the Spanish war, enlisting in Company H, 51st Iowa. In 1917 he enlisted in Company B, 168th infantry and was color sergeant in that body at Camp Dodge. In June of that year, he suffered a sunstroke and was discharged from service on June 17, 1917, but was greatly disappointed that he did not get to go to the border. He was taken to Stuart for burial beside his father in Oak Grove cemetery. Will Kersey was a man of brilliant mental powers and always attracted friends.