Samuel Whiteside
Samuel A. Whiteside | |
---|---|
In office 1819–1821 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Blackhawk War | April 12, 1783
Samuel Whiteside (April 12, 1783 – January 12, 1866) was an
Early and family life
Samuel Whiteside was born on April 12, 1783, in Rutherford County, North Carolina to the former Judith Tolley and her husband John D. Whiteside. His paternal grandfather, William Whiteside Sr., was a patriot who signed the Tryon Resolves during the American Revolutionary War, and whose sons Davis, James, John D., William B., Thomas, Samuel, and Adam Whiteside all fought the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. William Whiteside arrived to the American Colonies from Northern Ireland, though he was of an Anglo-Irish background.[2] Davis Whiteside died of wounds suffered in that battle, previously having also signed the Tryon Resolves.[3][4][5]
Around 1792, Whiteside and his remaining sons moved west toward
His son John (Samuel's father) moved his family to Bellefountaine (now Waterloo, Illinois), also on the Kaskaskia/Cahokia trail in Monroe County, Illinois; his nephew another John D. Whiteside (1799–1850) would later represent Monroe County in the Illinois legislature.[8] Around 1800 many Whiteside descendants moved to the Goshen Settlement, in Madison County, Illinois, about 12 miles northeast of St. Louis and near modern Edwardsville, Illinois. One of them was William Bolin Whiteside (1777–1833), who owned at least two slaves, became a militia captain for that area for decades and was elected the first sheriff of Madison County after statehood (and served until a scandal in 1822).[9] Meanwhile, this Samuel Whiteside and his brother Joel purchased land in what became Maryville, Illinois (in Madison County about 17 miles from St. Louis) in 1802.[10] Some Whiteside relatives would cross the Mississippi River and Whiteside, Missouri would be named after early landowner William Whiteside. Other Whitesides (including this Samuel's children) moved inland to Niantic, Macon County, Illinois. Meanwhile, Samuel Whiteside in 1804 married Virginia-born Nancy Miller (1789–1851). Their children included: Michael Whiteside (1805–1881), Judith Whiteside Waddell (1806–1876), Nancy Whiteside (b. 1808), Sarah Whiteside (b. 1810), Joel Whiteside (1811–1882), William Modrel Whiteside (1812–1864), Thomas Whiteside (b. 1815), Samuel Ray Whiteside (1820–1866), Elizabeth Ann (Eliza) Whiteside Henderson (1812–1910), John Perry Whiteside (1822–) and Mary Ann Whiteside (b. 1830).[11] The family did not own slaves in the 1820 Federal census, nor the 1830 Federal census. In the 1850 census, Samuel Whiteside farmed in Madison County near his younger sons Samuel Ray and John Perry Whiteside and their families; the census found no slaves in the county.[12]
Indian fighter, legislator and farmer
In 1811, during Tecumseh's War, Whiteside received command of a company, in the newly formed 17th Illinois Infantry. The following year, during the War of 1812, Captain Samuel Whiteside commanded a company of mounted infantry in the Illinois militia from August to November 1812. This company was drawn from St. Clair County, which adjoined Columbia, Illinois to the north and comprised most of the modern State. Whiteside had enlisted as an ensign (January 2, 1810) in the Illinois militia and received promotions to captain (August 22, 1812), major (February 26, 1817), colonel (May 22, 1817) and brigadier general (1819).[13] Once during the War of 1812, captain Whiteside saved boats of fellow soldiers who tried to cross the Mississippi to attack St. Louis, but were endangered during a retreat by shifting winds as well as the great river's current.[14]
In August 1813 Whiteside received a captain's commission in the Regular Army and led a Ranger unit. In 1814, a woman and six children near Alton, Illinois were killed by Native Americans. Captain Whiteside and his men pursued the killers, and killed one of them found hiding in a tree. Whiteside was discharged from the Army on July 30, 1814, but was among the witnesses to treaties with the Kickapoo and Osage in 1815.[15]
Following Illinois' statehood in 1818, Whiteside served on the commission to select a new site for the Illinois State Capital, selecting Vandalia, Illinois at the confluence of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi Rivers and the end of the National Road; it would remain the state capital until Abraham Lincoln and other legislators secured a move inland to Springfield in 1839. Meanwhile, voters elected Whiteside as a delegate in the first Illinois General Assembly; he served from 1819 to 1821 and did not seek re-election. Instead, he returned to farming and leading the Madison County militia.
In 1827, after drunk boatman abducted and raped several
From April 26 to June 30, 1832, during the
Whiteside again returned to farming in Madison County, Illinois. In 1854, three years after burying his wife, he sold the farm and moved inland to Christian County, Illinois, where several of his children had moved. He lived with son-in-law William Henderson, his daughter, Elizabeth and their children and hired help.[19]
Death and legacy
Brigadier General Samuel Whiteside died at his daughter's home in Mt. Auburn in Christian County on January 3, 1866. He is buried at Hunter Cemetery, in Christian County.
During his lifetime, Illinois legislators created several counties along the Rock River from lands cleared for settlement during the Blackhawk War. They named the county which included Prophetstown Whiteside County, Illinois to honor this Samuel Whiteside. His sons Joel Whiteside and Samuel Whiteside would fight for the Union in different Illinois infantry units during the American Civil War. Joel received bullet wounds in both thighs during the Battle of Shiloh, which ended his military career, although he and his brother both survived the war.
References
- ^ Samuel Whiteside
- ^ https://whiteside.siue.edu/biography#reference5%7C
- ^ Whiteside family signers of the Tryon Resolves
- ^ Daughters of the American Revolution Patriot Index
- ^ Great granddaughter's genealogy website
- ^ "Whiteside, William Bolin (1777 – 1833) – Madison Historical".
- ^ "Illinois Society War of 1812".
- ^ "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Whitehurst to Whitin".
- ^ "Whiteside, William Bolin (1777 – 1833) – Madison Historical".
- ^ "Illinois Society War of 1812".
- ^ "Illinois Society War of 1812".
- ^ 1850 U.S.Federal Census for Township 3 North R8 West, Madison County, Illinois, family 99 (p. 11 of 21); ancestry.com indicates the county has no slave schedules for that census
- ^ "Illinois Society War of 1812".
- ^ "Illinois Society War of 1812".
- ^ Louis Houck, History of Missouri (Chicago, RR Donnelly & Sons), Vol. 2 Ch. 22 (1908) p. 398
- ^ "Winnebago uprising" in url=https://online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=96330&itemid=WE52&articleId=209191
- ^ "Battle of Stillman's Run" in William B. Kessell, Encyclopedia of Native American Wars and Warfare (2005), available online
- ^ Thomas Ford, A History of Illinois: from its commencement as a state in 1818 to 1847 (annotated and introduced by Rodney O. Davis; University of Illinois Press 1995) pp.
- ^ 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Christian County, family 1690 (p. 196 of 227)
- Baldwin, Carl R. Echoes of their Voices, (1978), LC Classification 78-71849. corporal(1811–1812)
- Baldwin, Carl R. Captains of the Wilderness: The American Revolution on the Western Frontiers (1986), (ISBN 9789997484666).