Major William F. Sylla

Major William F. Sylla

       From the 1850 Census #209/314
Name - William Sylla
Aged - 9 Years
Home in 1850 - Elgin, Kane Co., Ill.

       From the Academy Civil War Monument
Attended the Elgin Academy

       From the Elgin Reserved Militia Rolls

1861 Elgin Class II Reserve Militia

   Signed the roll July 27, 1861.

       From the Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois

Elgin Union Grays

A Co. 36th Ill. Vol. Inf.

Three Years Service

Fox River Regiment

   Mustered In Sept. 23, 1861 at Camp Hammond in Montgomery, Ill's.
   Home of record listed as Elgin, Ill's.
   Issued 1857 .577 P-53 Enfield Rifled Musket.
   Contracted Typhoid Fever at Rollo, Mo. In 1861.
   Discharged Dec. 25, 1861 Disability.

? Co. 65th Ill. Vol. Inf.

Scotch Regiment

   Mustered In June 25, 1862.
   Guard duties at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Ill's.
   Mustered Out Sept. 25, 1862
   Promoted Major with the Commissary Dept. with the 23rd Army corps where he served till the close of the war.

      Excerpt from Grandfather was a Drummer Boy, diary of Charles Stiles.

   Dec. 8, 1863

      We changed front today and moved 5 or 6 rods.  William Sylla was here today.  He belongs in the Commissary Dept. of some Div. in Burnside's Army.  Longstreet is reported hemmed in at Starawberry Plain and and are giving it to him right and left.  It is rumored that we are going back to Chattanooga.  No rations yet.  Alex Robertson also visited us.

      Excerpt from Grandfather was a Drummer Boy, diary of Charles Stiles.

   March 17, 1864
       William Syulla was here today.  He came down from Knoxville expecting to find the 36th here.  He is well and loods finely.
      I am sorry, very sorry that intemperanxce has gained such a foothold in Elgin.  Wm. Sylla tells me that the Good Templars have established another lodge there.

Known Actions;
Corinth, Miss.          Oct. 3, 1862
Columbia, SC   Nov. 24, 1864
Spring Hill, Tenn. Nov. 30, 1864
Franklin, Tenn.        Nov. 30, 1864
Nashville, Tenn.      Dec. 15, 1864

Elgin Registered Voter in 1866.

Member Elgin GAR Post #260.

   Listed on the 1870 Illinois State Census #237/335 as aged 29 years living in Elgin.

       From the Post #49 Files
Joined Elgin GAR Veteran's Post #49 May 27, 1884.

       As recorded on the Elgin Sexton's ledger:
   Occupation, City Clerk.  Died July 19, 1923, 1:00 am at 162 Villa St.  Aged 82/11/13.  Undertaker, Wait, Ross, Allason Co.  Physician, Dr. W. C. Brown.  Permit #20060.

       Obit; July 19, 1923 issue The Elgin Courier-News.

   William F. Sylla, "Elgin's grand old Man," is dead.

   Ill since Memorial day, when he suffered a general breakdown from overwork in decorating comrades graves, he died at 1 o'clock this morning.
   His condition became generally known about ten days ago, since which time all Elgin had anxiously awaited the outcome.
   A resident of Elgin since his birth, August 6, 1840, forty-four years as city clerk, forty-eight years as town clerk, and for more than sisty-two years a deacon in the First Baptist church, Mr. Sylla is said to have known more, and was himself known by more Elgin residents than any other man in the city.  He concluded his duties as city clerk in 1919 but had still held the office of town clerk.  He was senior deacon of the church he became a member of when a small boy.
   Despite his advanced age-Mr. Sylla would have been eighty three years old had he lived only a few more days-the Civil war veteran and pioneer Elgin resident was active until his recent illness.  His work in Veteran post No. 49, G.A.R., was untiring.  Year after year he made it his duty to personally decorate the graves of his comrades.  It was his efforts to keep up his work this year that brought on the fatal attack.
   Members of his family recalled today that when he was forced to leave Memorial hall before this year's exercises were concluded, it was the first time in all the years of his work that he found it impossible to keep up.  At that time, however, it was believed that he was suffering from the heat.
   Funeral services will be private from the late home at 2:30 o'clock, and from the First Baptist church at 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon.  Rev. P. G. Mode, dean of the divinity school at the University of Chicago, will officiate.
   A resident of Elgin for more than eighty years, Mr. Sylla watched the development of the community from a small town to the city of today.  In all his years his best efforts were given to the building of the community.
   William F. Sylla was born on a small farm just west of Illinois Park, August 6, 1840, the son of Philo and Lavina (Huntoon) Sylla, natives of New Hampshire.  He was educated in the public schools here and at Elgin Academy.
   While a student in the academy, he gave instructions to classes to defray expenses, and also taught a district school for a time.
   In July 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, and was detailed as a clerk for the regimental Quartermaster.  The regiment arrived at Rollo, Mo., September 29, 1861.  Here he was stricken with typhoid fever and, after several weeks, was detailed as one of the guards of honor which accompanied the remains of his first lieutenant to Elgin for burial, Private Sylla being conveyed during the entire journey by his friends on a cot.
   He was honorably discharged at Camp Douglas, Chicago, December 25, 1861.  On June 25, 1862, he re-enlisted in Company D, Sixty-Seventh Illinois, and was appointed quartermaster sergeant of the post at Camp Douglas, serving until discharged by reason of expiration of service, September 25, 1862.
   Early in October he as employed as a clerk by the commissary of General Quimby's division at Corinth then was with General Grant's army during the Tallahatchie campaign.  Suffering much of the time from malaria and typhoid fever, he was sent north from the Foundry hospital at Memphis, Tenn., in January 1863.  In the summer of 1863 he was with General White's expedition onf the Big Sandy River, Ky., and in August was appointed clerk for James C. Rankin, division commissary of General Hascall's division, Twenty-Third Army Corps, and was with General Burnside's expedition to East Tennessee in August and September, 1863; was at Knoxville during the siege of that city by General Longstreet, and in December 1863 was sent on a special mission over the Cumberland mountains on horseback to Danville, Ky., and to Chicago.  Upon his return to Knoxville he found that Commissary Rankin had resigned and returned to Chicago.  He at once was tendered a position and served as clerk for Post Commissary Captain James Miller of Sixty-Fifth Illinois at Knoxville; until the reorganization of the Army of the Ohio, Twenty-Third Army Corps, preparatory to the Atlanta campaign.
   In February 1864 he was promoted to the position of chief clerk to Col. R. V. Treat, chief commissary of the staff of General J. M. Schofield for the Army of the Ohio, Twenty-Third Army Corps, remaining in this position nearly two years, when in April 1865, he was recommended by General Schofield for appointment as commissary of Subsistence with the rank of major for assignment as disbursing commissary but a general order from the war department made further appointments impossible.
   Mr. Sylla was connected with the Atlanta campaign and accompanied the Twenty-Third Corps to Pulaski, Tenn.; was at the battles of Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, went with the Corps via Washington to Wilmington, N.C., was at the battles of Kingston and was present at the meetings of Sherman's and Schofield's armies at Goldsboro, and remained at Raleigh, N.C., until the latter part of September 1865, returning with General Schofield's headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio in October, and to his home in Elgin in November 1865 making his service in connection with the Union army of four years and four months.
   He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was secretary of the Thirty-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers association.
   On returning to Elgin he became a partner of his former captain, M. B. Baldwin, in the drug business for a year, but finding this occupation too confining, in company with his father and brother, he engaged in the foundry business.  In the spring of 1874 he was solicited to be a candidate for alderman in the new Fifth ward of Elgin and was elected.  He was re-elected two years later.
   In March 1875, upon his resignation as alderman, he was appointed city clerk of Elgin, a position which by successive appointments he held for five years.  In 1880, the city having organized under the general state law, he was elected city clerk for a term of two years.  He was elected successively from that time until 1911, when teh commission form of government was adopted.  At that time he was appointed city clerk, retiring in 1919.
   In 1875 he was also elected town clerk, a position which he still held at the time of his death.
   He was elected secretary to the board of education in 1887, and was made a member of the board, and secretary the following year, and held these positions for sixteen years consecutively.
   In March 1861, he was named a deacon in the First Baptist church to succeed his father.
   Mr. Sylla was married December 5, 1871, to Kate E. Raymond, only daughter of George B. Raymond.  They were parents of four children:  Mary E., who is now Mrs. E. R. Davery;  Daisy A. (deceased); George B. R. Sylla, of the union National Bank, and Miss Marguerite Sylla.
   With Mrs. Sylla, his son and two daughters, he is survived by four grandchildren, Katherine H. Davery, Margaret Davery and Bargara Davery, and Jane Sylla.
   The funeral services at the baptist church at 3 o'clock Saturday will undoubtedly be the largest ever held in Elgin.  Mr. Sylla was known and loved by thousands of the city's residents.
   Mayor Earle R. Kelley and commissioners and ex-aldermen still residing in Elgin plan to attend the church services in a body.  Members of Veteran Post No. 49 will be an honorary escort.
   While he had served the city and township for almost 45 years, Mr. Sylla always found time for recreation.  He always attributed his excellent health to the exercise he secured in bowling and golfing, one of his greatest pleasures being contests with his friends.  Annually he journeyed to Aurora for a golf match with an old comrade.
   Close friends today declare that the veteran city clerk was in closer touch with the city's affairs than any other office holder or resident.  No matter what information was wanted regarding city affairs, Mr. Sylla always furnished the data.  He had a remarkable memory.
   Strictly a "home man", Mr. sylla spent much of his spare time with his family.  He was a member of the Weldwood Country club and Veteran Post No. 49, G.A.R.  Politically, he was a republican.

       From the 1956 Kane Co. Honor Roll
Soldier - Sgt. Wm Sylla
Unit - QM Co. 67th Ill. Inf.
Died - July 19, 1923
Interred at - Bluff City Cemetery in Elgin, Ill.
Location - Lot 16, Section 1

Used with permission Elgin Area Hist. Soc.
Militia forms filed for Elgin in 1861

Used with permission Dan Mallett

Many members of Post #49 sewed watch faces to their ribbons to show they were from Elgin.