Sidney P. Harrington, resident at Kirkland, was formerly a farmer of prominence in the township of Franklin, of which he has been a citizen since 1840. In that year he purchased 40 acres of land on section 20, and immediately interested himself with vigorous energy in its improvement, with the ultimate purpose of constructing a home and establishing a permanent citizenship. He was one of the first settlers in the township, and steadily but surely advanced in prosperity, and added to his possessions until he was the owner of 310 acres of valuable land, which he redeemed from its natural condition. He realized all the hardships and perplexities to which the settlers of that period were subjected, hauling his grain to Chicago, the nearest market, and selling it at three shillings a bushel, and encountering (and overcoming) other obstacles thrown in his way by existing circumstances.
Politically he was a Whig in the days of his early manhood, and since the inception and organization of the Republican party he has been a steady adherent to its principles and issues. He passed many years of his active life in local official positions and serving in minor offices, three terms as Justice of the Peace, and three terms each as Township Trustee and Treasurer. He also served 14 years as Postmaster. Mr. Harrington is living in retirement at Kirkland, in the enjoyment of the comfort earned by a life of effort and usefulness.
He was born July 20, 1809, in Shaftsbury, Bennington Co., Vt. His father, Phineas Harrington, was a native of Connecticut, and in early life to Vermont, where he married. His wife was born in Rhode Island. She was the mother of three children at the time of her death, and 10 children were born of his second marriage, while the family resided in Vermont. Four of his children still survive. Mrs. Phebe Green lives in Iowa, and is 71 years old. Whipple Harrington is a bachelor, aged 73 years and lives in Erie Co., N. Y. Mrs. Aurilla Wait is also a resident of that county, and is 79 years old. Five children who are now deceased, died in infancy, besides one who attained to advanced age. The father died in February, 1844, in Erie Co., N. Y., whither he removed from Vermont in 1827, and was 84 years old. Th mother died in 1848, at the residence of her son in Franklin Township, at the age of 71 years.
Mr. Harrington was 19 years of age when he accompanied his parents to Erie co., N. Y., where he was a resident 13 years, and came thence to the township of which he has since been a citizen. He was married in the State of New York, June 28, 1833, to Polly Hicks. she was born April 6, 1806, in Chautauqua Co., N. Y., and was brought up and educated principally in Massachusetts. She became the mother of eight children. Hiram, the oldest, died from disease contracted in the army while a soldier in the civil war. Henry H. and Mary I, died in Franklin Township. Mercy L., Mary, Whipple A. (see sketch), Sidney P., Jr., and Samuel H. are the names of the survivors. The mother died Dec. 20, 1880, universally lamented in the community of which she had been so long a leading and honored member.

* Taken from the "Portrait and Biographical Album of DeKalb Co., Illinois 1885"



Son of Phineas 1777-1844 and Mercy Greene Harrington 1776-1848.

His siblings were:
Aurilla Harrington (Wait) 1806-1887, Phebe D. Harrington (Green) 1815-1887, and Whipple Harrington 1813-1895. He had 6 siblings that either died in infancy or died young.

His children with Polly Hicks were:
Hiram S. Harrington
1834 – 1863
Mercy L. Harrington
1835 –
Henry Hicks Harrington
1839 – 1881
Infant Harrington
1840 –
Mary Harrington
1842 –
Whipple Andrew Harrington
1844 – 1927
Sidney Phineas Harrington Jr.
1847 – 1922
Samuel Hicks Harrington
1849 – 1919



Transcription of original obituary of
Sidney Phineas Harrington:


"Sidney P. Harrington was born in Shaftsburry, Bennington County, Vermont, in the year of our Lord 1809, and died at the home of his son, Whipple, in Flora, Boone county, Illinois, June 21, 1898.
In early manhood, he with his father's family moved to Erie county, New York. At twenty-three years of age he was united in marriage to Miss Polly Hicks. In the year 1840 they with their little family of three children emigrated to the town of Franklin, DeKalb county, Illinois. In this vicinity the remaining years of his life has been spent, he being one of the early pioneers was deprived of all the luxuries and many of the comforts of to-day. His occupation was farming and by dint of hard labor and frugality he amassed a good fortune. He was the father of eight children. His oldest son Hiram, died in 1862, a victim of the rebellion. One, a daughter, died in infancy, his son Henry, died in 1881.
For many years Mr. Harrington has been an invalid. His sickness being brought on by overwork and disease subject to a new country. The death of his wife which occurred in the year of our Lord 1880, has cast a gloom over his remaining years. For the past year he has lived with his son who has tenderly watched the declining steps of the poor old father until they have ceased to move and the throbbings of heart are stilled forever. His five remaining children were present: Sidney and Mrs. Barber of Iowa, Samuel of Rockford, Mrs. Gardner of Belvidere, and Whipple of this place. He has been a great sufferer, more so as his disease and age have advanced, and his life went out as the last flickering of a lamp."


"The wintry winds with chilling blast,
Have swept the branches of the old oak tree,
Until the leaves are strewn,and cast
Around the trunk now cold in death.

Our father dear, his children led,
Their footsteps on from year to year,
But now he's numbered with the dead
And we shall miss our father dear."