Our ancestor, Isaac Sydebotham was born August 7, 1837, "about dusk in the evening," in Somerset Township, Perry County, Ohio. His parents were Isaac Sydebotham, Sr. and Mary Ann Ryan. His father said of his birth, "The Lord grant that he may be heir of eternal life."Isaac grew to manhood in Ohio. Sometime after 1850, Isaac moved to Schuyler County, Illinois.
When the Civil War started, Isaac enlisted with the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry Volunteers, Company G., the first company recruited in Schuyler County. The Sixteenth was organized and mustered into United States' Service at Quincy, Illinois, under the "Ten Regiment Act" on the twenty-fourth day of May 1861. He reenlisted December 23, 1863, as a Veteran Soldier.
Disease was a major problem for the units in the field. In early 1864, smallpox was a threat and the "boys in the field" were ordered to receive vaccinations. Isaac was vaccinated above the elbow on his left arm. The vaccination Isaac received was contaminated. He became ill and his arm inflamed. He was admitted to the General Field Hospital, Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 1, 1864, and returned to duty at Kelly's Ferry on May 11. His arm continued to bother him the rest of the war, and the rest of his life.
The war went on but mercifully not much longer. In the month of Lincoln's second inauguration, March 1865, Grant took up his advance against Richmond, and on April 2nd the city fell. On April 9, 1865, General Grant accepted the surrender of the Confederate Army from General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. On May 24, 1865, Isaac's regiment participated in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. The regiment proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, where the men were mustered out on July 18, 1865.
Just a month after being discharged, Isaac Sydebotham married Elizabeth Ann (Lizzie) Thrush in Rushville, Schuyler County, Illinois. Lizzie was born December 4, 1845, in Morgan County, Ohio, to George Thrush and his first wife, Rebecca (Swackhammer). Isaac and Lizzie's license issued August 27, 1865, lists M. Schunk, Minister of the Gospel.
Isaac and Lizzie made their first home in Schuyler County. Their first child, a daughter and our ancestor, Elizabeth Belle (Lillie), was born there June 10, 1866. Soon after Lillie's birth, the family moved to Missouri. They settled in Grand River Township, DeKalb County, Missouri, P.O. Stewartsville. Isaac listed his occupation as a farmer. Isaac and Lizzie had three more children, Eddie, Gracie and Jennie.
The 1880 census shows the Sydebotham family living in a plated addition to Cameron, Missouri, located in Shoal township, Clinton County. Isaac is working for the railroad.
October 24, 1884, Isaac filled out a Declaration for Original Invalid Pension. In the declaration he stated that his left arm was disabled by impure vaccination and that "that since leaving the service this applicant has resided in the State of Missouri and his occupation has been that of Railroading. That prior to his entry into the service above named he was a man of good, sound, physical health, being when enrolled a farmer. That he is now disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor by reason of his injuries above described, received in the service of the United States; and he therefore makes this declaration for the purpose of being placed on the invalid pension roll of the United States." Isaac was granted a pension on Certificate No. 297,940.
Isaac died on February 13, 1886. He was forty-three years of age. He was buried at Packard Cemetery southeast of Cameron in an area with other veterans. In a Physician's affidavit prepared after Isaac's death in support of Elizabeth's widows claim, Isaac's doctor, D.B. Adams, stated Isaac's death was caused by being vaccinated while in the U.S. Army with impure virus and that his illness continued from that time until his death.
Elizabeth was almost forty-one when Isaac died. She and the children remained in Cameron after Isaac's death. We don't know how she supported herself and her younger children in the coming years, but we do know she received a government pension (Certificate No. 230,597, Mo.). Elizabeth continued to live in her 4 room home "on Lot 5, Block 95, Hunt Godfrey's addition" in Cameron until a short time before her death.
Elizabeth, at the age of sixty, suffered a heart attack and died at her daughter Grace's home in St. Joseph, Missouri on January 24, 1905. Elizabeth was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Cameron, adjacent to Packard Cemetery.
. +Elizabeth Ann Thrush b: December 04, 1845 d: January 24, 1905
.... +Robert Lee Doherty b: May 16, 1863 d: July 10, 1953
2 Edward Elsworth (Eddie) Sydebotham b: April 12, 1868 d: January 11, 1949
.... +Pauline Fannie Keller b: January 01, 1870 d: February 13, 1948
2 Grace May (Gracie) Sydebotham b: August 07, 1870 d: January 29, 1942
.... +Albert C. Blakely b: 1873 d: 1929
2 Jennie Bernice Sydebotham b: August 15, 1876 d: May 1951
.... +Charles Elmer Ewing b: January 24, 1871 d: 1960
Elizabeth Belle (Lillie) Sydebotham (1845) and Robert Lee Doherty DOHERTY
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