William M. Condra

CONDRA, GREEN, DAVIS

Posted By: Alice Daniels (email)
Date: 2/23/2013 at 19:52:54

Centerville Citizen
April 1, 1896

Another veteran has laid his armor by and after faithful service is mustered out. On the 22d day of March, 1896, at his home in Franklin township, William M. Condra, after 8 very brief illness, passed into the life beyond, and on
the 24th all that was mortal of our comrade, neighbor and friend was borne to the land of silence. Funeral services were held at Franklin Church which was filled to an overflow. An appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. G. W.
Smith after which comrades of his own company bore him to his burial place in Franklin Cemetery where their ritual of the Grand Army was observed, the benediction pronounced and he was left with the silent sleepers, to await the
trumpet's call. He was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Condra, was born in Knox county, Illinois, Oct. 28th 1841, came to this county in 1850 with his parents, sharing in all the hardships and privations of those pioneer
days till early in 1862, when loyalty to home and native land prompted him to enlist in Co. I. 30th Iowa where he proved himself a worthy associate with such men as I. B. Gedney, Walter Johnson, Enoch Farmer, James John, G. W.
Athy, Geo. Streepy and many others equally brave and loyal, whose names we can't recall, for more than three years at the front.
Sharing in the march, the battle and the seige, he was honorably discharged in the fall of 1865. Ho participated in the battles of Helena, Little, Missouri, Saline River, Little Rock and Marks Mills, only escaping capture with his
regiment and a sojourn in the rebel prison at Tyler, Texas, by being on do was tail to guard prisoners. The war over, he returned to the peaceful pursuits of farm life on a part of the paternal homestead, which by industry and economy, he has enlarged and beautified. He chose for his first wife and companion
Miss Mary L. Green, who died Feb. 13, 1873. On March 25, 1874, he married Miss Susanna C Davis, who with five children survive to cherish his memory and mourn his absence.
He was a worthy member of the Grand Army Post at Cincinnati and of A. F. and A. M. For many years he was a faithful Christian in the fellowship
and commission of Franklin Baptist church. "So He giveth His beloved sleep."