JOHN SANDIDGE, one of the most intelligent and prosperous farmers of Oakland township, Schuyler county, was born in the State of Kentucky in 1829. His father, Daniel Sandidge, was a native of Virginia, born in 1804; there he married Pamelia Tate, born in the same place in 1803. The paternal grandfather of our subject, John Sandidge was a Virginian by birth; he married a native of Virginia, and in an early day removed to Kentucky, settling in Lincoln county; he became a wealthy planter, owning a large number of slaves. They had a family of nine sons and four daughters: Daniel, Clayton, Joshua, James, Larkin, John, Wyatt, Madison, Pullum, Emily, Patience, Amanda, and Leanta; all grew to adult age and had families excepting Emily, who died in early childhood. The father met with death by accident, his team running away and throwing him from the carriage. He was an octogenarian, and his wife died seven years later, nearly eighty years old. The eldest son, Daniel Sandidge, removed from Kentucky to Illinois in 1831, bringing his wife and five children; they first located at Canton, and removed thence to Industry township, McDonough county; here Mr. Sandidge took up 160 acres of Government land which he improved for two years, selling it at the end of that time; he moved to Eldorado township and bought a claim to 160 acres, on which he lived until 1840; he again sold, and purchased another tract of the same number of acres, and lived on this until 1850, when he sold and bought 160 acres in Oakland township, Schuyler county.
His wife died in Eldorado township, at the age of forty-two years, leaving a family of ten children. He married a second time, the union being to Cynthia Phillips, who bore him a daughter and son. He died in 1882, aged seventy-eight years; the wife died in June, 1891, at the age of eighty-four years. The surviving members of this family are named as follows: Lucy J., John, Mrs. Jonah Lindsey, Harriet, wife of Elisha Goruch, Mrs. Nathan Lindsey, Daniel, Charles, Larkin, Ellen, wife of Mike McCarty.
John Sandidge, our worthy subject, was reared to the life of a farmer, but in his twenty-first year left home and went to California; the trip across the plains proved a very enjoyable as well as novel one, and he spent ten years in the Golden State, engaged in mining and raising live-stock. In 1860 he returned to Illinois via the Isthmus, remained one month, and then went back to California. In 1871 he came home via the Union Pacific route, the object of this visit being to claim his bride.
He was married November 19, 1871, to Miss Emma Stockton, and they returned to California by rail. It proved a pleasant trip for her, and Mr. Sandidge sold his interests there, and came back to Illinois in 1873. He has lived much of his time since 1873 in Vermont, Illinois, where he owns a pleasant home. He bought a farm of 400 acres recently, and owns 200 acres in McDonough county. Mr. and Mrs. Sandidge have one son and a daughter: John F. is nineteen and Ida Leah is fifteen; both are receiving excellent educational advantages. The son has a decided taste for agriculture, and intends making that his life occupation. Mr. Sandidge had the severe misfortune of losing his sight in 1882, the cause being brought about by his becoming overheated.
Mrs. Stockton, mother of Mrs. Sandidge, is now eighty-five years of age, but is bright and vigorous; she is a native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, but came to Illinois in 1839; she was married to Daniel Stockton in 1842; he died in January, 1883, aged eighty-three years. She well remembers the first steamer of the Ohio river, named the Adventure, and relates many interesting anecdotes of early days.
Mr. Sandidge is a Prohibitionist, but in former days was a Democrat, casting his vote for Horace Greely, whom he esteemed one of the greatest men and most gifted writers. He carries on a general farming business, but makes a specialty of raising live stock, giving his preference to short horn cattle. He plants from forty to seventy acres of corn, gathering as high as eighty bushels to the acre; he sows from thirty to seventy acres of wheat, but one of his practices is the rotation of crops, and he seeds to clover every third year. He is a man of good, sound judgment, and has made a marked success of every industry to which he has turned his attention.