E. B. Spalding 1840 - 1920

SPALDING

Posted By: Connie Swearingen -Volunteer (email)
Date: 11/30/2018 at 11:23:28

Sioux City Journal
5 March 1920

E. B. Spalding Is Dead
Cerebral Hemorrhage The Cause Of Death
Was Born In Illinois In 1840
Came to Sioux City Fifty-Five Years Ago – Took Active Interest in the City’s Progress – Veteran of the Civil War

E.B. Spalding, a prominent citizen of Sioux City and a resident for the last fifty-five years, died at 2 0’clock yesterday morning of cerebral hemorrhage. He was 80 years old.

Mr. Spalding’s death was sudden and followed only a few hours illness. About 5 o’clock Wednesday afternoon he went out on the front porch of his home at 1219 Nebraska Street to get the evening newspaper. He was seized with a fit of vomiting. This was followed a few minutes later with nose bleed. He failed to rally to medical aid and died of a hemorrhage of the brain.

At his bedside at the time of his death were his widow, Mrs. Margaret Spalding, now past 71 years of age, his daughter, Miss Alice Spalding and his son, E.B. Spalding, Jr.

Sioux City was a trading post, population by 500 persons, when Mr. Spalding arrived here in 1865 with Capt. Evans Blake as chief clerk in the commissary department during the Indian wars. The Sioux Indians were responsible for the disturbance occurring northwest of the town.

Liked Sioux City From Start

Mr. Spalding was so much in love with the town that at the conclusion of the Indian troubles he decided to remain in preference to returning to his home at Rockford, Illinois. He had first came to Sioux City by taking a train as far as Waterloo, Iowa, where the track ended and then by stage for the rest of the journey.

In the fifty-five years that Mr. Spalding lived in Sioux City he was always closely identified with civic projects such as the building of the city hall, the waterworks and the public library. He was a member of the law firm of Hubbard, Spalding & Taylor. When he retired from the practice of law, he became superintendent of the waterworks under the trustees until he was forced to resign by failing eye-sight. He was a member of the Congregational Church and chairman of the finance committee at the time the church at Eighth and Nebraska Street was built.

Court Clerk Ten Years

For ten years he was clerk of the circuit and district courts and was secretary of the Sioux City Building Fund association until its charter expired in 1889.

Mr. Spalding had a remarkable record in the Civil War and held the rank of first lieutenant. For two months in the spring of 1862 he was chief clerk at the headquarters of Gen. Law Wallace, returning to his regiment just before the battle of Pittsburg Landing, where he was wounded three times and crippled for life in his left arm and hand. He rejoined his regiment in August, although he had been directed to report to surgeons for examination and discharge.

He was a member of the G.A.R., the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and Society of the Army of the Tennessee, societies of the Civil War and the Society of the Cincinnati, which member-ship he inherited as the oldest lineal descendant of Gen. Simon Spalding of the revolutionary army.

He was born February 2, 1840 at Byron, Illinois.