The Kissick Family

Robert Kissick in Past and present of Mahaska County, Iowa

The full biographical sketch as printed, transcribed from the public-domain book. Spelling and wording are the original author’s; a few scanning errors may remain.

ROBERT KISSICK, LL. B.

Robert Kissick. lawyer, author, newspaper correspondent and literary critic, has since 1865 resided in Oskaloosa and though formerly engaged in the practice of law is now devoting his entire time to his literary wijrk. He is a native of fiercer coimtv, Pennsylvania, born May 4. 1843, and is a son of Thomas and Mary Ann ( Lafferty) Kissick, the former a nati\'e of Ireland and the latter of Ohio. Thomas Kis- sick was bom in 1807 and crossed the Atlantic with his father's family at the age of si.xteen years, Ijecoming a resident of Pittsburg. By trade he was a molder. but through many years de\-oted his attention to general agricultural ])ursuits. His death occurred in 1869 and his wife passed away in Iowa in the fall of i860, at the age of thirty-nine years. In their family were eight children, of whom the following are vet li\ing: Captain \\'illiam L. Kissick, of Os- kaloosa: Roliert: John L., who is living in Den- ver, Colorado: Florence, the wife of Dr. N. R. Hook, of Oskaloosa: Araminta, the widow of Re\'. \\'illiam Wilson and a resident of Ypsi- lanti. ^Michigan: and George L., of .Alliia. Iowa. Those deceased are: Lucetta J., who was the first wife of Dr. X. R. Hook: and James L., the youngest of the family.

Robert Kissick was a youth of fifteen years when he came with- his father's family to Iowa,

I'AS'l- A.Xl) PRESENT OF MAHASKA COUNTY.

an"i\-inii' at Oskalc^osa. April 7. 1859. the old lidiiK' being established in Oskaloosa tovvnshi]) ii|)tin a tarni five miles west of the citv of Oska- liiiisa. Ik' acc(|uircd a Cdnmion-sclKjol educa- tinn and was reared to farm life, assisting in the labors of held and meadow nntil after tiie oiilbreak of the Ci\il war. On the loth of Au- gust, i8Ci_', at the age of nineteen years, be of- fered his serxices to the go\crnmenl and became a member of Company C, Thirty-third Iowa In- f.antry. m which be was mustered in as a cor- poral. Shortly afterward he was promoted to 'the rank of second sergemt and later became cnliir sergeant of the regiment at Helena, .\r- kansa-. in .\pril, ]X(\]. lie >er\e<l with the regiment in all its expeditions and campaigns until .March. 1864. With his command he took part in the Vick.sburg campaign, in what is kill iw 11 as the Yazoo Pass expedition, during i'"ebruai\\'. March and .\])ril, 1863. This ex- peditiiiu was jierhaj^s the most miicjue of any during the war or indeed of the world, going through the state of Mississippi li\' the wav of the Yazoo Pass, the Coldwater, Tallahatchie and Yazoo rivers to Fort Peml)erton, with a fleet of some tbirt}-ti\'e or fort\' gunljoats and steam- boats, traveling in all some se\'en hundred and fifty miles in going and returning. He also took ])art in the sex'eral campaigns against Lit- tle Ruck. .\rk;uisas, in .\ngust and Se])tember, 1863, uniler Major (jcneral I-'red Steele, com- manding the Seventh .\rmy Corps, that city being captured Sei)teniber 10, 1863, where the regiment remained during the winter. On the 28th (if March, 18^)4. at Little Rock, Mr. Kis- sick w;i.> promoted to the rank of first lieuten- ant and adjutant of the One LIundred and Thir- teenth Regiment of L'nited States Colored Troops, being at that time Init twenty years of age. He was commissioned by authority of Abraham Lincoln and continued to serve with that r.ank nntil the close of the war.

When hostilities had ceased Mr. Kissick re- turned to Oskaloo.sa and liecame a student in

Hull &• Piper's Cla.ssical and Xormal School in 1865. He was afterward principal of tlie high school iu Manchester. Iowa, in 1867-8, and has since been a resident of Oskaloosa. Having studied law under jirivate instruction, he matriculated in the law department of the Iowa State I'niversity, from which he was graduated in the class of 187J. lie then en- terefl upon the practice of his chosen profes- sion and was for many years a learned and able member of the Oskaloosa bar. but ten vears ago. on account of ill health, he retired from practice and since 1894 has given his attention almost entirely to literary work.

His fir.st ]nil;lished work was "W Philoso- phical History of the Formation of the .Amer- ican Republic." the first edition of which has been exhausted, and a second work, "Models of .\merican Patriotism." is now in manuscript form. Something of the character of his first publication may be indicated by the following .statement of Senator James Harlan: "Your history has placed thepeo]jleof the wIkjIc cmintrv under the lasting obligations of gratitude." Profes.sor .\. L. Tidd, of Aurora Modern Col- lege, -\urora. Illinois, .says: "Your work has struck the true chord of historv. It is the very .spirit and essence of .\merican history and should lie read liy e\'ery citizen and future voter ol the republic. Alany have given statistics, but you have written history." Mr. Kissick is now preparing a hi.story of the Thirty-third Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Inf.antry in the war of the Rebellion. 1861-1865. ^^'''1 '"i '"' troduction on the causes and beginning of the war. He has also prepared an elaborate criti- cism on Lee's New School Histoiy of the L'nited States and Channing's Students' His- tory of the United States. He has written for leading papers of Des Moines, Chicago and Washington, D. C, and prepared and published a symposium on tariff revision in the fall of 1905, which was noticed by the big dailies of the country. Being a stalwart rcjiublican, Mr.

Kissick is active in the work of the part}- and as a strong and forceful writer has made him- self felt along many questions of political dis- cussion for the good of the country.

Mr. Kissick was married at Oskaloosa in November, 1868. to Miss :\Iary J. Pettitt. a daughter of David and Rel^ecca Pettitt. who came to Oskaloosa from Ohio, in 1864. They lost one child, Ralph W'., while those still liv- ing are as follows : Frank P., of Albia, Iowa, who served for six years in the Iowa National Guard, resigning as captain of Company F, Fifty-first Iowa Infantry, in 1897. Guy E.. who served in the Spanish-American war with the rank of lieutenant of Company F, Fifty-first Iowa Infantry, actix'ely serving some time in the Philippines. Before this he served about six years in the Iowa National Guard at Oskaloosa. Edwyne R., serxing as a private in the same company with his brother in the Philippines, died on board the United States steamer. Sen- ator, September 29, 1S99, in Nag-asaki harbor, Japan, when on the trip home, and was buried in Forest cemetery, at Oskaloosa. Norman J., is now second lieutenant in Company F, Fifty- fourth Regiment, Iowa National Guard, at Os- kaloosa. Mary Irene completes the family. The sons seem to have inherited their father's mili- tary spirit and have become active members of the nation's standing army of volunteers.

Mr. Kissick is a member of Phil Kearney post. No. 40, G. A. R., of Oskaloosa, and was the second one chosen to the office of com- mander, serving for the year 1882, and is now the senior past post commander. For the past three years he has been adjutant. In politics a stalwart republican, his first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 while a soldier at Little Rock, and the same year he was com- missioned an officer by the President when but twenty years of age. While he was seeking the office of a member of the board of control of state institutions in Iowa, in 1900, there were many eminent gentlemen who gave him their

endorsement. The Hon. Milton Remley said to him: "He is a gentleman of high charac- ter, learned, of general information and a high order of ability," while Judge Remley said of him: "I have been personally accpiainted with Robert Kissick for nearly thirty years and have known him as a student and a careful analyzer of causes and effects in affairs which afl'ect the condition of men." Hon. S. M. Clark said: "He is one of the men who has contributed to the large statesmanship of Iowa by his treat- ment of public questions." ]Many more equally favorable letters of commendation were writ- ten. The writings of Mr. Kissick show him to be a man of broad mind and scholarly attain- ment, who has carried his researches far into the history of the country, the purpose and aims of its people, their ambitions and accom- plishments.

Source: Past and present of Mahaska County, Iowa. See the original pages at the Internet Archive.