My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL PERRY SISK, who is the proprietor of a valuable homestead on section 22, township 45, range 29, Johnson County, is an old and prominent citizen of this locality. He was here during the troubles of 1856, and helped to guard some of the men whose lives were in danger. He voted for James Buchanan, though his sympathies were on the side of the Union, and in the fall of 1861 he joined the first Missouri State Militia, organized by John B. Henderson, who was afterward sent to the United States Senate. During the six months of his service Mr. Sisk was engaged in preventing Price from receiving outside assistance. He had taken his family to Illinois on a visit, arriving there the day before Ft. Sumter was fired upon, and as he thought it was safer there, concluded to leave his family in that state. He later returned to Greene County, Ill., and in August, 1862, enlisted in Company G, Ninety-first Illinois Infantry, for three years. Then followed a weary period when he was mostly on guard duty, a part of the time in protecting the Louisville & Northern Railroad. In the last of December, 1862, he was captured by Morgan at Elizabethtown, Ky., and was later paroled. He received a furlough for ten days while at Benton Barracks, and several times was granted the same privilege, being exchanged in about six months after being taken prisoner. Just after the surrender of Vicksburg he was placed in the Thirteenth Army Corps, and remained in that city about three months, when he went to New Orleans. He was taken sick after a fight near Vicksburg and did not recover good health from that time until receiving his final discharge, and in the mean time was stationed for about a year at Ft. Brown, Tex., on the Rio Grande.

The birth of this honored old veteran occurred in Greene County, Ill., February 5, 1835, near the village of White Hall. The Sisk family is of Scotch-Irish descent and became early settlers in Virginia. There our subject’s grandfather was born, and there also he was married, after which he moved to Kentucky. In the Blue Grass State the parents of S. P. Sisk, William V. and Sarah (Davidson) Sisk, were born and married. They removed to Illinois about 1830, the father entering land in Greene County. He was not reared to do much work, as his father was a man of great wealth and owned over forty slaves. He liberated the latter, however, before his death. The marriage of William Sisk and his wife, Sarah, was blessed with eight children, all of whom grew to mature years. Of our subject’s four elder brothers, only one married, and he had three sisters younger than himself.

When he was only ten years of age Samuel P. Sisk began making his own way in the world, as his father was poor and had long ago spent all the money left him by his father. Young Sisk worked for three months at $6 a month, driving six or seven yoke of oxen and breaking prairie, his wages being given to his mother, who clothed him. He was thus employed several years, and when he was fourteen received $13 a month, continuing in the same place for three years. From the time he was eighteen he had the privilege of keeping his own wages, and soon saved enough to buy a team and wagon. Afterwards he drove teams to Texas for his uncle, and on his return worked in a brickyard in Scott County, Ill. In August, 1854, he went on horseback to Missouri and entered forty acres of land in Johnson County, putting up a log house on the place.

To his new home Samuel P. Sisk brought his bride, whom he married in September, 1854, and who was Miss Mary Kitchens, her birth occurring near White Hall, Ill. She died during the war, leaving three children. Corilla, born near White Hall, September 6, 1855, was married to Marcellus Clements, now of Bushnell, Ill., and has three children. James Henry, born in this county in 1857, was married in Logan County, and died in Butler County, Mo., January 31, 1895. His wife’s death occurred a few days prior to his own, and they left two children. Mary E., born in October, 1861, died at the age of nineteen years, at Lincoln, Ill. March 27, 1866, S. P. Sisk married for his second wife Nancy M. Allison, who was born in Cass County, March 27, 1850. Three children resulted from this union: Sally G., born June 19, 1868, and the wife of J. W. Cummins, of Cass County, Mo.; William F., born May 28, 1870; and Neva L., who was born March 21, 1872, and who has taught school for four terms successfully. Sally G. is a very fine penman and conducted a writing-school before her marriage. The mother died April 17, 1894, and her loss is deeply felt in the household. The father of our subject was an old-line Whig, while the latter, though a strong Union man, was a Democrat and voted for Douglas. He continued to use his franchise in favor of the Democracy until Marmaduke was put up for Governor. Although he did not vote for him he did vote for Cleveland, but he has since changed his views and now votes the Republican ticket. He had the honor of taking part in the review at New Orleans when General Grant and Colonel Black reviewed the army in 1863. Mr. Sisk is a member of Winfield Scott Post, G. A. R., at Holden.