My Genealogy Hound

HARRIS SIDWELL, farmer, P. O. Russellville. Henry Sidwell, father of our subject, was born in Virginia, and, when quite young, his parents moved to what is now known as West Virginia, where he remained until he was twenty-two years of age. He married a lady in Virginia in 1799, and in 1800 emigrated to Mason County, Ky., where he lost his wife and child. He then married Casandra Slack, of Kentucky, born September 16, 1784, on the eastern shore of Maryland, by whom he had fourteen children, twelve of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. She was a lady of great intellectual capacity and wonderful memory. In the spring of 1808, he moved to Adams County, Ohio, and settled near Manchester, where he remained eleven years; he then moved to what is now known as Jefferson Township, Brown County, and settled on the farm at present occupied by our subject, in the northeastern portion of the township, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1837. He was a man of an energetic and persevering nature, and industrious habits, and was termed by his neighbors the “peace maker,” owing to his ability to settle difficulties with comparatively little trouble. He has served as Trustee for Jackson Township, Jefferson, then forming a part of Jackson. In his death, Brown County lost one of her worthy and honorable citizens. Harris Sidwell, subject of this sketch, was born December 8, 1807, in Kentucky, and in the following spring, his parents emigrated to Ohio. He remained at home until he was twenty-six years of age. In March, 1834, he married Elizabeth Dunham, by whom he had eleven children, seven of whom are still living. She died in June, 1855, and he then married Isabella Shirley, by whom he had two children. She died in October, 1881. After his first marriage, he lived for about twenty years on a farm located about two miles west of Winchester, in Jackson Township; he then removed to the homestead farm in Jefferson Township. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which denomination he has officiated as local minister for twenty years. Mr. Sidwell had four sons who fought under the old flag of the Union during the war of the late rebellion, viz., John, who served nearly four years in the Thirty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the battle of Vicksburg, and numerous other important engagements; Wilson (deceased) and James, who served three years of service in the Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the battles of Shiloh, Lookout Mountain and the Atlanta campaign ; Abraham, who served nearly three years in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, and in one engagement, was wounded in the leg.