Editor’s Note: Western North Carolina is rich with untold stories—many resting quietly in local cemeteries. In this Tombstone Tales series, we explore the lives of people from our region’s past whose legacies, whether widely known or nearly forgotten, helped shape the place we call home.
FLETCHER, N.C. — Long before television brought America “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” another Bill Nye had already made the name famous. Edgar Wilson Nye, one of the nation’s most beloved humorists of the late 19th century, rests in the quiet churchyard of Calvary Episcopal in Fletcher.
Born in Shirley, Maine, in 1850, Nye moved with his family to Wisconsin as a child. He studied law, passed the bar, and began a short-lived career as a lawyer. He discovered his sharp wit and gift for storytelling would carry him further in print than in the courtroom.
In 1876, Nye headed west, landing in the rough-and-tumble town of Laramie in Wyoming Territory. He served briefly as postmaster and justice of the peace before turning to journalism. In 1881, he founded the Laramie Boomerang, a newspaper he named after his mule, known for wandering off and returning at the most inconvenient times. The mule’s name was a joke in itself — and so was much of Nye’s writing. His humorous essays quickly spread beyond Wyoming. Newspapers across the country began reprinting his columns, and readers from Boston to San Francisco came to know “Bill Nye.”…