Thomas J. Whiteside, a pioneer farmer and merchant, now deceased, was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, May 22, 1844, a son of Jenkin and Elizabeth (Neighbor) Whiteside, early settlers of Ohio. Jerkin Whiteside was a native of Tennessee, and a son of James Whiteside who emigrated from Ireland to the United States prior to the American Revolution. After coming to the United States James Whiteside, in the course of a few years, went to central Tennessee, where he was married and lived for many years, when he removed to eastern Ohio with his family and settled in the heavily timbered country near Wills Creek. He bought land in Coshocton county from a Philadelphia land company, who had bought a large tract of land when Ohio was still a part of the Northwest Territory. Here James Whiteside spent the remainder of his life.

Jenkin Whiteside was one of their younger children. He was born on the plantation in Tennessee and was a young man when his parents went to Ohio. He was married in Ohio to Elizabeth Neighbor, a native of Pennsylvania, her parents being of German descent. Jenkin Whiteside and wife were the parents of nine children, of whom Thomas J. was the fourth in order of birth. He grew to manhood on the farm in Coshocton county and attended the district schools. On August 22, 1862, he enlisted in company A, Eighty-eighth regiment, Ohio infantry, under the command of Captain Henley. They were of the Home Guard of

Ohio and had the Knights of the Golden Circle under surveillance. He was discharged July 1, 1865.

Mr. Whiteside was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Jane Roach, a native of Guernsey county, Ohio. She was born January 29, 1847, and was a daughter of William and Mary (Cochran) Roach, natives of Ohio. The Roach family came from Dublin, Ireland. Mary Cochran was a daughter of William Cochran. After their marriage Thomas J. Whiteside and his wife settled on a farm in Coshocton county and lived in Coshocton and Guernsey counties about three years, and in the fall of 1869 went to Iowa. In April, 1871, they started in a covered wagon to Kansas. The journey required about four weeks over bad roads and in wet weather and after reaching Humboldt, Kans., where the land office was located, they decided to locate in Butler county. After reaching Towanda, the party camped for a few days and Mr. Whiteside located a claim in Murdock township. They built a small sod house and covered it with a wagon cover, and lived in it that fall, when they moved into a more pretentious home where they lived until the fall of 1874.

After the ravages of the grasshoppers, and a deed for the farm was secured from the Government, the family started for Ohio and, after a stay of about a year in Illinois, they reached Ohio. In 1879 they returned to the Kansas farm where they lived until 1888, when they removed to Brainerd, where Mr. Whiteside owned a livery stable and general store. After the railroad was built through Whitewater, the livery stable was traded for land in Missouri and the family moved to Maries county, Missouri, where Mr. Whiteside died March 8, 1893, when the family returned to Butler county.

Mr. and Mrs. Whiteside were the parents of the following children: U. G.. born February 22, 1866, Butler county; William C., born August 7, 1868, Whitewater, Kans.; Bertha E., born August 29, 1871, and died June 6, 1896; E. W., born September 21, 1873, Butler county, Kansas; Frank M., born January 20, 1877, died February 2, 1900; Thomas and Jennie, twins, born November 10, 1879, Jennie is now the wife of Roy Nye, Butler county, Kansas; John, born December 16, 1882; Olive M., born May 9, 1885, married C. H. Shuman. Butler county; Mary T., born December 5, 1887, married J. C. Fresh, El Dorado, Kans. All the members of the Whiteside family are industrious, thrifty and prominent in Butler county.

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