Silas Reed Kidder was born around 1839 in Concord, Maine, to Aaron and Harriet Kidder. His father was a farmer who owned $600 of real estate and $570 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Vienna, Maine. According to an early biographer, he was “an excellent scholar and was well qualified for a teacher or any town business, but on account of the infirmities of his father he was obliged to remain on the farm.”

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 11, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in the 4^th Maine Light Artillery Battalion. The regiment took part in the Battle of Antietam, the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal, and he mustered out on June 17, 1865.

 

He moved to California after the war, and he married Flora D. Hilton on November 13, 1869. He worked as a gold miner. He died near present-day Iowa Hill, California, on January 17, 1876. According to one biographer, he and his business partner “found that gold had been taken from the flume, and suspecting one of the watchmen, they agreed to watch at night and find out. During the night Silas was shot by one of the watchmen, dying almost instantly.”

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