The Kansas City Star Newspaper was originally called the Kansas City Evening Star when it was founded in 1880 by Morse and Nelson after they moved to Kansas from Missouri City where they had edited the the Fort Wayne News Sentinel.
After a year and a half in Kansas working on the paper Morse became ill and eventually left the newspaper business leaving it in the hands of his partner. At the time the paper had three chief competitors The Evening Mail, The Kansas City Times and the Kansas City Journal.
Nelson launched a business campaign that included cheap advance subscriptions to a paper with what he described as an absolutely independent political stance. By 1882 he had bought out the Kansas City Evening Mail and changed his paper's name to the The Kansas City Star in 1885. The weekly Kansas City Star was lauched in 1890 and the monthly Kansas City Star in 1894 in 1901 he also bought out the Kansas City Times and launched the 'twenty four hour Star.'The Star' s current publishing location at 18th and Grand was opened in 1911.
In 1915 when Nelson died the paper was taken over by his daughter. From 1916-17 Earnest Hemingway was a reporter at the Star. When Nelson's daughter died in 1926 the paper became employee owned and remained that way until 1977. From 1977 to the present day the paper has been under corporate ownership. In 2006, on the northeast side of the paper's landmark headquarters a new plant was built and the paper was shrunk from its original broadsheet size.
