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Below is a family biography included in The History of Barry County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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George T. Sidway, residing about six and one-half miles southeast of Monett, Barry Co., Mo., was born in Chicago in 1860, and is a son of Leverett B. and Louise (Martin) Sidway. Leverett B. Sidway was born in Jersey County, Ill., on February 12, 1831. His father was born in New York. The early ancestor of the Sidway family came from England in 1776, and served in the Revolutionary War. The family history traces back to the time of William the Conqueror, when one of them, then called De Sideway, which has since been Anglicized, crossed the English channel from Normandy. During the days of Cromwell the Sidways were royalists, and their estates were confiscated. Leverett B. Sidway remained at his birth-place until he was sixteen years of age, when he removed to Alton, Ill. His wife, eldest daughter of Judge William Martin, and whom he married February 14, 1854, was born in Alton. Soon after their marriage they removed to Chicago, where for some time Mr. Sidway was engaged in the harness, saddlery and tannery business. In 1864 he became connected with banking interests in Chicago, and in 1873 organized the Illinois Trust and Savings Institution Bank, of which he was president. He was also for nine years Chicago South Park Commissioner. He is now a large land owner in Missouri and Illinois, and is a devotee of fine stock and blue grass pastures. The two companies, the Missouri Land Company and the Missouri Land and Stock Company, in which he owns the largest interest, own nearly 500,000 acres in the section west of Springfield. Mr. L. B. Sidway is greatly attached to Southwest Missouri, and has spent a great deal of time and money in aiding the development of its live stock and fine pasture interests, and believes that when the capacities of the country for growing stock are developed the lands will become very valuable. Mrs. Sidway’s ancestors are traced back to the time of the Mayflower, when they came over from England. To Mr. and Mrs. Sidway have been born four children, viz.: William (deceased), Charles W. (also deceased), George T. and Henry Turner. George T. was educated in Chicago and Racine, Wis. He made Chicago his home until 1878, when he went to Godfrey, Ill., from which place he removed to the estate in Barry County in 1883. He is a Democrat in politics, having cast his first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1884.

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This family biography is one of 103 biographies included in The History of Barry County, Missouri published in 1888.  For the complete description, click here: Barry County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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