Corporal Robert Lee Whiteside
United States Army, Spanish American War
Company F, 8 Battery Field Artillery
June 6, 2022 - The Whiteside family first came to Shelby County, Texas from Alabama about 1860 and settled at Clay’s Mound which is northwest of the present day city of Timpson that had not yet been founded.(1) Robert Lee was the oldest child of twelve born to Martha Jane Dillion and James Monroe “Stark” Whiteside. His siblings were William Andrew; Frank Monroe; Hoye; Georgia Dee; Thomas Pierce; Emmett Buford; Exie Bell; Gabriel Carson; Marion Bedford; Marie; and Troy. A little over a month following his birth May 12, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and 300 of his Seventh Cavalry Regiment were wiped out by 5,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The 1880 US Census placed the family living on a farm in Precinct 7, Shelby County that his father and brother Moses worked to provide.(2)
On February 15, 1898 the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor and sank killing more than three quarters of the crew. The Spanish American War only lasted a few weeks but what some refer to as the Philippine -American War or the Philippine Insurrection that followed lasted until July 2, 1902. Patriotism was at a high pitch when Robert voluntarily enlisted in the US Army in Dallas, Texas on March 30, 1899. His enlistment document listed his civilian occupation as motorman and was physically described as five foot nine inches tall with light red hair. He was assigned to Company F, Eighth Battery Field Artillery and served to honorable discharge March 29, 1902.(3) Documentation could not be found showing exactly where he served but it appears he never went overseas.
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Receiving his discharge at Vancouver Barracks, Vancouver, Washington he settled in Portland, Oregon where met and married Miss Lulu Katherine Hickethier in 1905. The 1905 Portland City Directory listed his occupation as a “Carman”, perhaps a truck driver or motorman on a trolley/street car. The October 1, 1908 edition of the Oregon Daily Journal, Portland listed his name among 25 men who had passed the civil service test for patrolmen three weeks earlier and from this list ten would be selected as new policemen. Two years later the 1910 Census listed him and Lulu living at 63 West Jessup Street, Portland with daughters Edna (3) and Marie (2), with employment as a city police officer.(4)
On September 12, 1918, two months before the World War ended in Europe, Robert registered for the military draft in Portland. His registration card (P.M.G.O. Form # 1) noted: his age as 42; residence 63 West Jessup Street; white; natural born citizen; and employed as a special policeman. Physically described as tall and of medium build with brown eyes and hair. With the war ending and at age 42 he was not called to service.(5)
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Robert Whiteside had an interesting and exciting career as a police officer and special patrolman in Portland and a newspaper article that appeared in the Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, September 4, 1922 gave an overview of his police work. It said in part “PATROLMAN KILLS ROBBER IN HOUSE. Robert L. Whiteside, special patrolman, shot and instantly killed an unidentified burglar Sunday night at 9:30 o’clock after an encounter with the robber in the residence of L. Allen Lewis, No. 706 park Avenue. This was Whiteside’s fourth encounter with ruffians, in two of which he was himself wounded. The burglar was about 21 years of age. Whiteside had been following him most of the evening, having been attracted by suspicious movement of the robber. The youth was seen loitering about the Lewis residence and Whiteside surmised he was planning robbery. Shortly before the shooting Whiteside entered the residence and heard a noise up-stairs. He went to a bedroom from which the noise seemed to come and as he entered the door a flashlight was turned on him and he was told to ‘stick em up’. In answer Whiteside fired and the burglar fell dead. The Lewis home was unoccupied, the family being at Ecola Beach. Whiteside was employed by residents of the Park Avenue District to patrol that section of the city and carried a key to the Lewis residence. Beside the burglar’s body was found a leather handbag containing jewelry valued at several hundred dollars which had been stolen in the Lewis home. Coroner Earl Smith found a small pistol, unloaded, tucked in the dead man’s shirt pocket beneath his sweater. Whiteside who is 41 years of age resides at No. 63 Jessup Street.”
The article went on to say “In August 1918, Whiteside followed two burglars into the home of Chester G. Murphy, No. 251 King Street and captured them. He caught them unawares and no shooting took place. In June of 1919 Whiteside was shot in the left arm and left side while attempting to arrest a burglar at the home of E. A. King, No. 186 King Street. Believing somebody was prowling in the house, Whiteside started to enter. He walked up the front steps and as he neared the front door one of the bandits fired at him. Whiteside fell after he was shot and the burglars escaped. The special policeman was in the hospital for several weeks recovering from his wounds. In July 1921 Whiteside encountered two men fighting in a taxicab at twenty-first and Wayne Streets and started to arrest them. One of the men, thinking the policeman was helping his opponent fired at Whiteside. The bullet entered the right side of his neck, grazed his windpipe and went out the left side. The two men fled after the shooting but were captured by the police three days later on the east side. This fray also put Whiteside in the hospital for several weeks. While he was in the hospital his wife who was at the beach died suddenly. Whiteside has been a special policeman in the vicinity of Washington Park for the last eight years. It was stated at police headquarters this morning that Whiteside was released from the police department as a patrolman several years ago with eleven other men for playing penny ante.”
As described above wife Lulu, age 36 died at Rockaway Beach Oregon on August 3, 1921 of accidental drowning. The Oregon Daily Journal newspaper, August 5, 1921 reported that her funeral service was held Saturday, August 6 at the Chapel of the Skewes Undertaking Company and the Bethany Presbyterian Church. She was buried in the church cemetery at Rock Creek, Washington County, Oregon. The 1929 and 1931 Portland City Directory listed him still living on Jessup Street and with a wife named Emilie. Marriage information could not be found.
Still employed as a “Special Patrolman” the Capital Journal newspaper, Salem, Oregon, published the following on January 5, 1935. “COP PROVES AGE NO BIG HANDICAP: Special Patrolman Robert L. Whiteside who declared he was ‘still a good man at 58 years’ when his clients presented him with a large bonus on Christmas, proved it last night. He found a man, later identified as Alfred H. Everett, 31, ex-convict, trying to open a window in a vacant house. Whiteside collared him and marched him to a police call box. While he was calling for a patrol wagon Everett swung on him, knocking him to the sidewalk. The blow knocked the pistol from Whiteside’s hand, broke his trigger finger and knocked out three teeth. Whiteside managed to reach inside his coat to draw a second pistol which on several occasions has stood him in good stead. He put a bullet through Everetts thigh. Everett fled but was captured a few minutes later.”
It is not known how long Robert continued his police work before he died at his home in Portland on June 4, 1943 at the age of 67 with the news reaching his family in Timpson that evening. He was buried in the Veteran’s Plot, Section L of the Lincoln Memorial Park, Portland, Multnomah County Oregon. His veteran headstone was ordered on July 1, 1943 by Portland American Legion Post # 1. Two of his brothers Maron and Troy served and survived World War I. Day is done, God is nigh.
Sources:
(1): Shelby County Historical Commission, History of Shelby County, Texas 1988.
(2): Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 7, Shelby, Texas; Roll: 1326; Page: 97C; Enumeration District: 092
(3): Ancestry.com. U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
(4): Year: 1910; Census Place: Portland Ward 10, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: T624_1287; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0239; FHL microfilm: 1375300
(5): Registration State: Oregon; Registration County: Multnomah
