My Genealogy Hound

ELDRED, SILAS. In noting the life history of men and early times in Greene County, none are more worthy of note than Silas Eldred, whose daring nature inured him to the stirring scenes of Western life. He was a native of New York State. Of his parents but little can now be learned, save that they moved to Greene County in an early day, probably about the year 1820. Amid pioneer associations young Silas passed his boyhood, and grew to vigorous manhood. He proved a sterling actor in the battle of life, and was destined to play no secondary part in the growth and development of Greene County. When Black Hawk made war on the white settlers, in 1832, he joined the forces that were organized to protect the frontier. Many anecdotes are told of Silas Eldred; one will be worthy of especial notice here, to show the daring nature of the man; on one occasion a man by the name of Roveley, a high tempered and somewhat quarrelsome man, drew a bead upon him with a shot gun, the old veteran silently advanced and wrenched the gun from the hands of the bully, completely subduing him. He became a farmer of prominence in Greene, and passed away in 1873, at the village of Roodhouse. The survivors of the family are seven children: Elisha, who married Carrie Taylor; Mary, who married James Wood; Jehosaphat, who married Carrie Eldred; Ward, who married Lottie Lane; Silas, jr., who married Miss Augusta Trimble, a daughter of Harvey Trimble, one of the first settlers of Greene County; Lucy, who married first Archie Anderson afterward Rice Trimble, and on his decease Presley Rice; William, who married Margaret Kelley; Calvin and Rufus not living.