Samuel Whiteside
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Samuel A. Whiteside (1783-1868) was an Illinois pioneer, political figure and military leader. He was not the same person as the Maj. Samuel Whitside who participated in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
Whiteside was born on April 12, 1783, in Rutherford County, North Carolina. He was the son of William Whiteside, who fought the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain, 1780, during the Revolutionary War.
Around 1793, the Whiteside family settled near the Goshen Settlement, near modern Edwardsville, Illinois. Eventually they built "Whiteside's Station", a fort on the road between Cahokia and Fort Kaskaskia.
In 1811, during Tecumseh's War, Whiteside was placed in command of an Illinois company of the newly formed 17th Infantry. Capt. Samuel Whiteside commanded a company of mounted infantry in the Illinois militia during the War of 1812. This company was drawn from St. Clair County, which comprised most of the modern State.
In 1814, a woman and six children were killed near modern Alton, Illinois by Native Americans. A party led by Capt. Whiteside pursued the killers, and killed one of them who was hiding in a tree.
Capt. Whiteside was a signatory to the Kickapoo and Osage Treaties in 1815.
In 1819, Whiteside served on the commission to select a new site for the Illinois State Capital, selecting Vandalia, Illinois. He served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1819 to 1821.
Gen. Samuel Whiteside commanded the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War in 1832. Capt. Abraham Lincoln led a company under his command.
Whiteside died in Christian County, Illinois on January 3, 1869. He is buried at Hunter Cemetery, in Christian County.
Whiteside County, Illinois was named in honor of Samuel Whiteside.
