Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Niles, Capt John W 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 2:33 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

Capt. John W. Niles, a retired farmer residing at Sterling, was born in 
Madison Co., N. Y., Nov. 11, 1832. His parents, John and Sarah (Mosely) Niles, 
emigrated West in 1855, settling in Jones Co., Iowa, upon a tract of 480 acres 
of land, where they resided, following agricultural pursuits for 13 years. 
They then sold that place and removed to Sterling, this county, and resided 
with their son, named at the head of this paragraph, until their death. Mr. 
Niles died in November, 1882, aged 82 years, and Mrs. N. died Sept. 1, 1884, 
also aged 82 years. They had lived together in the married relation 59 years. 
Capt. Niles, the subject of this sketch, was an inmate of his parental home 
until he was 20 years of age, receiving an academical education at Hamilton, 
N. Y. Then, in 1850, he went to Ohio, and was a clerk in a bank for a year. 
Returning to the State of New York, he taught district school winters until 
1853, when he moved to Iowa and followed farming until the summer of 1861.
At this time the tocsin of war was sounded, and he regarded it as a call to 
exhibit his patriotism by engagement in the field of carnage. Accordingly he 
enlisted, in the Ninth Regt. Iowa Vol. Inf., and was immediately appointed 
Sergeant. Going with Gen. Curtis' army to the southwestern part of the State 
of Missouri, he participated in the battle of Pea Ridge. Next, he was in Gen. 
Grant's army during theVicksburg campaign, was at the charge on Vicksburg on 
the 22d of May, 1863, and for gallantry in action he was promoted to the rank 
of First Lieutenant. He was also engaged in the campaign of Lookout Mountain 
and Missionary Ridge in the fall of 1863. In the summer of 1864 he was 
Regimental Quartermaster in the Atlanta campaign, and participated in Gen. 
Sherman's grand "march to the sea," when he received his commission as 
Captain. Was with Gen. Sherman at the surrender of Johnston at Raleigh, N. C. 
He took part in many battles and skirmishes too numerous to mention here. 
After participating in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C, the 15th Corps, 
of which he was a member, was taken to Louisville, Ky., in July, 1865, and 
mustered out. Thus, after a service of four years in the greatest war ever 
waged, Capt. Niles was honorably discharged. Returning from the war to this 
county, he purchased 200 acres of land four miles south of Sterling, and 
occupied it as an agriculturist until October, 1875, when he sold it and moved 
into a residence he bought on Walnut Street in the city of Sterling, where he 
is now a resident. He is Alderman of the Second Ward, and Secretary of the 
Board of Education of that ward. Is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
Commander of the Post of G. A. R., a Republican in his political sympathies, a 
member of the Baptist Church of Sterling, and a leading, representative 
citizen of Whiteside County. Accordingly a portrait of the Captain is given in 
this volume, accompanying this sketch.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/whiteside/bios/niles2272nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 3.8 Kb