My Genealogy Hound

Gen. William A. E. Tisdale. The history of the Tisdale family in this country, or rather that branch to which the subject of this sketch belongs, dates back to the great-great-grandfather, John Tisdale, who settled in Massachusetts in 1646, making his home at Taunton. His son, John, the great-grandfather, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and raised and equipped his regiment. His son, who also bore the name of John, was born in the “Bay State,’’ was a gentleman of the old school, and possessed very courtly and polished manners, and in his youth was very fond of the chase. His son, Timothy, the father of our immediate subject, was born in Massachusetts, and there spent most of his life, his death occurring in 1856, at the age of fifty-eight years. He was very finely educated, being a graduate of Harvard College, and was a Congregational minister. His wife, whose maiden name was Charlotte Quintin, was also born in Massachusetts, and on her father’s side is a descendant of an old Scotch family, that resided in the Lowlands. She was born in 1800, and died in 1869. Her mother was Thankful Nye, a sister of the late Senator Nye, of Nebraska. Maj. Will. A. E. Tisdale, was born near Winchester, Va., in 1838, his parents being residents of that State at the time, but in his early youth he was taken by them to Hampshire County, Mass., and at the age of fifteen years he entered West Point Military Academy, and was graduated therefrom in 1857. He was sent to the frontier as brevet-second lieutenant, and under Maj. (later Lieut.-Gen.) E. Kirby Smith, Confederate States army, went to Salt Lake, thence to San Francisco, Fort Vancouver, Walla Walla and back to the frontier, where, in 1859, he resigned on account of rheumatism and located in Clinton County, Iowa. Here he was admitted to the bar by the Hon. John F. Dillon, in April, 1861, but did not enter on his practice as the war then came up. He joined the Missouri State Militia as first lieutenant of an independent company, being mustered in by the then Capt. (afterward Gen.) Lyons, on April 23, 1861, for three months, and before the expiration of said service was made captain. He subsequently enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry (in August, 1861), and remained in the army until August, 1867, serving part of the time after being crippled as Adjutant 60, United States Colored Troops, and mustered out with the volunteer rank of major-brevet-colonel, and the rank of captain in the Regulars. He received a severe wound in the thigh at the battle of Wilson’s Creek, in August, 1861, and in March, 1862, at the battle of New Madrid, received a wound in the forehead over the right eye, causing the entire loss of the same. This happened while serving under Gen. John Pope, and he received a high compliment from his brigade commander, Brig.-Gen. Schuyler Hamilton. On September 19, 1862, while acting aid-de-camp at Iuka, Miss., he was wounded seven times, twice through the lungs, both balls passing in under the right arm, once through the right foot, one in the right hand, one in the right leg above the knee, breaking the bone, one in the left leg below the knee, and one in the buttock. All these wounds he received in forty minutes, and was complimented on his bravery in a special order by Gen. C. L. Mathias, his old colonel. Subsequently he served the most of the time on staff duty, holding such positions as provost-marshal, inspector-general and aid-de-camp. He commanded the military prison at Helena for some five months, and was also engineer in charge of Helena’s fortifications. He arrived at Little Rock the night of the surrender of Richmond, and was assigned to duty as district provost-marshal, which position he held until August, 1865, at which time he was assigned to duty as superintendent and provost-marshal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands for the White River District embracing De Vall’s Bluff, Augusta, Jacksonport, Batesville and Evening Shades. In October he was ordered to Little Rock to relieve Col. Sargeant, in charge of the largest district of the State. During the reconstruction he was appointed by Gen. E. O. C. Ord, as president of the board of military registration for Johnson County, which office he held until after the election for the constitution, and its adoption in March, 1868. In July of the same year he was appointed by Gen. Clayton, assistant adjutant-general for the State, and assistant mustering officer, and was sent to the district embracing the counties of Van Buren, Searcy, Newton, Carroll and Madison to muster the militia, which he accomplished in due time, and returned to Little Rock the night of November 4, in time to vote in the Congressional election held on November 5. He was one of Clayton’s brigadier-generals in the military troubles, was with Gen Upham in his skirmishes, and subsequently commanded the district composed of the counties of Greene and Craighead, where he had a skirmish with the Ku-klux gang, and on being relieved, turned over to Gov. Clayton 980 affidavits of parties who confessed to having belonged to the Ku-klux. All this time he was interested in planting on the Arkansas River, an investment that did not pan out to his advantage, and in July, 1869, he was appointed assistant assessor and deputy collector of one division of the First Congressional district, with headquarters at Jacksonport, and during this time collected some $20,000, much of which he obtained from old delinquents. In March, 1871, he was made chief assistant assessor for the district, with headquarters at De Vall’s Bluff, which office he held until the fall of 1872, when he was appointed clerk of the United States Court at Helena, and held this office until March, 1875. In March, 1881, he was tendered the position of mail agent on the Memphis & Little Rock Mail Route, the duties of which position he faithfully filled until November, 1881. Since that time he has been twice elected a school director of his district, and although he has never been an aspirant for political honors, he was once nominated by the Republican party for State senator, but declined to be a candidate. He is now one of the commissioners of accounts and notary public of Prairie County. Although disabled and incapacitated for manual labor, he prides himself as being one of the “honest sons of toil,” and the owner of about 1,000 acres of land. He was married November 19, 1863, to Miss Serena M. Graham, a daughter of Hon. James B. Graham and Sarah A. (Fish) Graham, the latter a relative of Hamilton Fish. Mrs. Tisdale was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., in 1844, and when about nine years old she was taken by her people to Warren, Ohio, thence to Keokuk, Iowa, at the age of eleven years. She is an accomplished singer, and at the time of her marriage was the leading soprano singer in the Congregational Church at Keokuk. She is one of nine children, all of whom are living and married, with the exception of two who died in infancy. Gen. Tisdale is the seventh son in succession in a family of nine children, the one younger than him a girl, and he and five brothers were in the Union army, three operating in the East and three in the West. Gen. and Mrs. Tisdale have had born to them a family of seven children: Launa Maria (born May 3, 1865, in Keokuk), Frank Story (born in Keokuk November 8, 1868), Maud Alice (born January 13, 1870, and died August 12, 1872, at DeVall’s Bluff). The following children were also born there: Charles Henry (born August 8, 1873), Clara Mabel (born October 8, 1874, and died in September, 1875, at Fairmount), Thomas Albert (born March 8, 1877, and died August 12, 1878), and John Timothy (born May 8, 1881, and died August 12, 1881). These little ones were carefully laid away on the home place, and the especial care of their graves and the wealth of flowers which bloom over them shows that though absent they are not forgotten. When the General first came with his family to their present home, which they called Pleasant Prairie, the people in the community obtained their mail at De Vall’s Bluff, twenty-five miles away, but through the instrumentality of Hon. W. W. Whitshire, then a member of Congress, and a personal friend of the family, he had established a mail route from Lonoke to De Witt, which gave them mail once each week, and later was increased to twice a week. This office was from some cause unknown abandoned, and Gen. Tisdale had the office established at his home and it was called Des Moines, Mrs. Tisdale being postmistress until the establishment of a store at Fairmount, when she resigned in favor of Benjamin Thalheimer. The General is now Post Commander of the G. A. R. Post at Stuttgart, and is a member of the Republican Central Committee of Prairie County. In politics he is a strong Republican, and always has been from boyhood. He has in his possession a silver spoon that came from England with the first John Tisdale in 1646.