Sedgwick County KSGenWeb
Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.
Chapman Brothers 1888
Pages 485 - 491
SILAS RUTLEDGE, in 1870, made his advent into Eagle Township, and located on his present homestead on section 34, on the 16th of December of that year. His property includes 335 acres of good land, 195 in Union Township, on section 2, and the balance in Eagle Township, on section 34. He first homesteaded a quarter-section, upon which he put up his present residence. The land at that time was uncultivated prairie, which by careful management he has transformed into a fertile tract, and which, lying not far from the Arkansas River, comprises a portion of the most valuable territory in Sedgwick County. Ten acres of this is occupied by a fine grove, three acres being planted with walnut trees, and four acres in maple and cottonwood, while three acres are devoted to a flourishing orchard and the cultivation of grapes. Mr. R. has also attained an enviable reputation as a stock-raiser, and usually fattens from 300 to 400 hogs during the season, mostly Poland-China, which he ships by the carload to Kansas City. He has had a thorough experience as an agriculturist, and being a man of industry and sound judgment, has been uniformly successful in his labors.
Our subject is of Southern birth and parentage, his youth having been. spent in Dixon County, Tenn., where he was born on the 5th of May, 1837. His parents, David and Ann (Harris) Rutledge, were natives respectively of Tennessee and North Carolina. After marriage they removed from Tennessee to Macon County, Ill., where the father followed farming, and where his death took place on the 9th of February, 1868, at the age of fifty-six years. The mother survived her husband thirteen years, and died at the home of her son, our subject, in Eagle Township, Feb. 22, 1881. She had then been a resident of this township ten years, having come to Illinois in October, 1875.
David Rutledge had been reared to farming pursuits, and after leaving his native State followed agriculture in Illinois for a period of twenty-eight years. There also he became quite prominent in public affairs, holding the local offices, and after 1856 being one of the warmest defenders of the principles of the Republican party. In religious matters he was a Cumberland Presbyterian. The parental household included ten children, of whom but four lived to mature years: William, during the Civil War enlisted in August, 1862, with Company E, 115th Illinois Infantry, and yielded up his life on the battle-field at Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863; his remains fill a soldier's grave at Chickamauga. Sarah Jane is married and resides in Illinois, and Silas, of our sketch.
Our subject continued under the parental roof until about twenty-three years of age, acquiring a common-school education, and assisting in the labors of the farm. The first important event of his life was his marriage, which took place July 28, 1861, with Miss Maria Huffman, who was born in 1833, in Illinois, and departed this life at her home in Christian County, Ill., in October, 1864. Mr. Rutledge, in 1866, contracted a second marriage, with Miss Martha E. Braman, who died the following year, leaving one child. This lady was a native of Illinois, and was about twenty-nine years old at the time of her decease.
The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married Jan. 10, 1868, was formerly Miss Olive P. Smith, who was born in Readfield, Kennebec Co., Me., Sept. 25, 1826, and is the daughter of Bowen and Lucinda (Wing) Smith, who were also natives of the Pine Tree State. Her father was a farmer by occupation, and died in middle life, Feb. 5, 1843. The mother, surviving her husband over forty years, died Jan. 29, 1884, in Sedgwick County, Kan. Their family consisted of six sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to mature years. They were named respectively: Cyril C., Ebenezer H., Pardon Bowen, Benoni, Dorillus Greenwood, James Vanderbilt, Lucinda Orinda, and Oliver P. Of these four are surviving, and are residents of California and Kansas.
Silas Rutledge was about twenty-three years of age at the outbreak of the late Rebellion, and on the 13th of August, 1862, enlisted as a Union soldier in Company E, 115th Illinois Infantry, under Capt. J. M. Lane, who was succeeded by Capt. James Whittaker. Our subject participated in the battle of Chickamauga, from whose terrible field he escaped unharmed, but in the engagement at Resaca, Ga., was seriously wounded, and not long afterward received his honorable discharge on account of disability. He was also present in the battle at Nashville. Upon retiring from the service he returned to his old tramping-ground in Illinois, and purchased land in Macon County, where he carried on farming five years, whence he came to this county. In the spring of 1887 he was elected Treasurer of Eagle Township, which position he still holds, and has been the incumbent of the various school offices in his district. He is an earnest defender of Republican principles, and is a man whose opinions are invariably held in respect. Of his last marriage there has been no issue. Ralph Roy is an adopted child, who at this writing (1888) is a bright boy four years old. Our subject is in religion a materialist, and his lady is an agnostic in belief.
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