Death of Peter Sidles Removes Staunch Patriot

Centerville Newspaper Clipping - December 1905

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Was Public Spirited Citizen--His Demise Sudden on Friday

  A. Root, Robert Wright and Isaac Lane, representing John L. Bashore Post, G.A.R., of this city, attended at Jerome on Saturday the funeral of Peter Sidles who died suddenly last Friday [1 December 1905] morning at his home a mile north of Jerome. On the morning of his death, it is said that Mr. Sidles seemed to be feeling as usual. He ate his breakfast in the basement kitchen and retired to the sitting room above where members of the household found him a few hours later in a sinking condition in his armed chair. They immediately carried him to the bed and summoned a physician but death ensued before the doctor arrived. His wife, his stepdaughter, Miss Anna Sharp, and his son-in-law, William Laumer [Larimer], were present.

  The funeral was held Saturday afternoon at 1:00 o'clock conducted by Rev. George Blagg of the M.E. church at Mystic and interment was made in the Jerome cemetery.

  Peter Sidles, Jr., was born in Chariton [Clinton] county, Ohio, in 1823 and was therefore 82 years of age. His great grandfather, a native German, served in the War of the Revolution, and the patriotic spirit of this ancestor seems to have been inherited by the subject of this sketch who in his life served his country well in war and in peace, and was withal a kind husband and father. He was a lifelong member of the M.E. church in which he was class leader. He was a Mason of many years standing and also a voter and worker in the Republican party. At various times he was honored by election to civil offices including those of township trustee and assessor.

  Mr. Sidles was one of the survivors of Company D [B], Sixth Kansas Cavalry and had an excellent record in the War of the Rebellion. He enlisted in August 1861 in the Fifth Kansas Cavalry but was transferred to the Sixth. He was taken prisoner at Mazzard Prairie and held at Tyler, Texas, for seven months until he made his escape and succeeded in reaching the company of Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry under command of Captain Gedney, which he accompanied to Cairo, Ill., being mustered out at Leavenworth, Kansas, April 18, 1865. During his incarceration in the rebel prison he was sick for five weeks with fever, but was fortunate in having one of his comrades, James Asher, to care for him.

  Mr. Sidles married Miss Susan Crossman [Crosson] in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1824, and soon after bought 100 acres of wild land in that vicinity which he farmed for seven years, but finding the labor of clearing too severe for his health, he sold out and came to Appanoose county in 1850, settling where he resided until the time of his death. Mrs. Sidles died several years ago, being the mother of six children of whom four are now living. They are Mrs. Pendergast, Mrs. Larimer and George and John Sidles. Mr. Sidles later was married to a Mrs. Sharp who survives him.