SIDDLE, Abraham

SIDDLE, WOODHEAD, KAY, SCHOFIELD, DUNLAP, BREWSTER, SANTEE, POTTER, FISH

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 23:13:44

Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

ABRAHAM SIDDLE.

The subject of this biography is one of Clinton’s most esteemed citizens, and for many years he was prominently identified with his industrial interests, but is now living a retired life. He was born in Yorkshire, England, on the 23d of February, 1818, and in 1827 came to the United States with his parents, Abraham and Johanna (Woodhead) Siddle, who were also natives of Yorkshire. On reaching this country the family located in Poughkeepsie, New York, where for five years the father worked at his trade of cloth fuller, which occupation our subject’s grandfather also followed. The family next removed to Titus Factory, four or five miles from Poughkeepsie, where the father made his home for several years or until his retirement from active life, when he went to Simsbury, Connecticut. There his death occurred in 1860. The mother had died previously.

Mr. Siddle of this review, is the only surviving member of a family of six children. He was educated in the subscription schools of his day in Dutchess county, New York, and when a small boy commenced working in a woolen mill, learning the trade of a wool-sorter. For thirteen years he had charge of the wool department of the Glenheim Woolen Mills of that county, doing their buying, the mill using about one thousand pounds per day. This necessitated his traveling as far west as Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and was in Chicago buying wool in 1847, when old Fort Dearborn was still standing. At that time the nearest railroad was at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it took four days to go from Chicago to New York.

In the fall of 1858 Mr. Siddle came west and settled on a farm in Center township, where he owned two hundred and forty acres near Elvira, Clinton county, the following year, making it his home for seven years. In 1866 he removed to Clinton and became one of the promoters and original member of the Clinton Lumber Company, of which he was vice-resident the part of the time in which he was interested in it. While connected with that enterprise in 1868 he became one of the proprietors of the Clinton Paper Company, of which he was secretary and treasurer for twenty-six years. On the formation of the company, a. P. Hosford and Mr. Siddle were the principal officers, the former being its president. It was incorporated with a paid-up capital of sixty thousand dollars. They built a mill having an output of four tons per day of rang and straw wrapping paper. The mill gave employment to about thirty people. In early life he also took a very active and prominent part in many local enterprises, but since March, 1894, he has lived a retired life, having practically laid aside all business cares to enjoy a well-earned rest.

In 1847 Mr. Siddle was united in marriage with Miss Isabella Kay, of Dutchess county, New York, who died a year and a half later, and in 1851 he wedded Miss Charlotte Schofield, of Glenham, Dutchess county, New York, by whom he had five children, namely : Mary, wife of Andrew Dunlap, of Massachusetts; George and Josie, both deceased; Sarah, wife of W. A. Brewster, of Dutchess county, New York; and Charlotte, deceased. The mother of these children died in 1866, and in December, 1867, Mr. Siddle was again married, his third union being with Mrs. Sarah (Santee) Potter, of Pennsylvania, and to them were born four children: William, a resident of Walnut, Illinois; Girtie, who died at the age of three years; Myrtle, who married Herbert Fish, of Clinton, and lives with our subject; and Robert, an actor, of New York. By her first husband Mrs. Siddle had one son, Franklin Potter.

On attaining his majority Mr. Siddle became identified with the Whig party and cast his first presidential vote for William Henry Harrison in 1840. Four years later he supported Henry Clay. He was affiliated with the Republican party since its organization in 1856 and has never cast a vote for a Democratic candidate. He never misses either a presidential or local election and has always taken an active interest in political affairs. Mr. Siddle has always been a liberel supporter of churches, and has given his aid to all enterprises tending to the improvement of the community in which he lives. In his younger days he was a good singer and a member of the church choirs where he lived in the east. After a useful and honorable career he can well afford to lay aside all business cares and spend his remaining years in ease and quiet.