On the evening of September 11, after an illness of seven days, V. R. Kidd answered the summons “to join the innumerable caravan.” And with that unfaltering trust which was characteristic in life, passed on to that mysterious realm.
Vance Robb Kidd, the tenth child of Ezra and Julia Kidd, was born on a farm June 12, 1858, in Columbus Grove, Ohio. Here he attended both country and city schools. When about eighteen years old, he moved with an older married sister to Chillicothe, Mo., where he assisted an uncle on his large farm. Then at the end of three years, he decided to become a railroader.
So in 1879 V. R. Kidd went to Janesville, Wis., here attending a school of telegraphy for a year. He then entered the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad September 1, 1880.
His first agency was at Opheim, Ill. After several years’ service, he became agent at Orion, Ill. While at this place he met and married Isabel McClosky, and they resided here more than three years before he was sent to Greenfield, Ill., in 1889.
In Greenfield V. R. Kidd was agent for three years. It was at this place that he joined the Masonic lodge. In March, 1892, he was transferred to the C. B. & Q. agency at Astoria.
His service at this place extended to April 1, 1930, with a record unmarred by a single black mark. The following, taken from the April 1, 1940 issue of The Daily Illinoian Star, Beardstown, Ill., in its 10 years ago Today column, attests to this fact: “During his long service, Mr. Kidd has been most faithful and efficient, a man of wonderful character, quiet and unassuming ways, but always willing and ready.”
In 1927 Isabel McClosky Kidd passed on. And in 1930 V. R. Kidd was married to Winnifred Simpson of Hannibal, Mo. After their marriage, they resided in Astoria most of the time until 1935, when they made a permanent home at Hamilton, Mo.
Besides his wife, Mr. Kidd is survived by two daughters, Mrs. D. W. Burr, Moorhead, Minn., and Mrs. A. P. Cannedy, Greenfield, Ill.
The funeral was held Sunday, September 15, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cline Horton, Astoria. The Reverend John Brubeck, pastor of the Christian church of which V. R. Kidd was a lifelong member, conducted the service in a manner most fitting the deceased. After the scripture read, Romans 12:1-10,, was truly applicable to V. R. Kidd. For he did abhor that which was evil; he rejoiced in hope and was patient in tribulation. Three of his favorite hymns, “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere,” and “Nearer My God to Thee,” were beautifully sung by Colla Kost and Colla Emerson, with Frances Gibson, accompanist.
The service of the cemetery was in charge of the Masonic Order. Interment was in the Astoria Memorial Mausoleum. As final commitment benediction the Reverend John Brubeck read “Passing the Bar,” the last stanza of which was a daily theme in the life of V. R. Kidd:
“For though from out the bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.”
The pallbearers were: Roy Danner, F. P. Haist, A. D. Foster, John Lockard, T. W. Tregellas, R. E. Anderson.
Those from out of town in attendance at the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Elsworth Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Chester Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Johnson and son Merle, Kenneth Johnson, all of Hamilton, Mo.; Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Kidd, Trenton, Mo.; Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Cannedy, Greenfield, Ill.; Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Burr, Moorhead, Minnesota.
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Vance Robb Kidd, 82 years old, a former Astoria resident, died Wednesday at his home in Hamilton, Mo. He had been ill one week.
Mr. Kidd was born in Columbus Grove, Ohio, June 12, 1858. He was the last of a family of 11. His first wife died several years ago and his second wife survives. Also surviving are two daughters, Mrs. D. E. Burr of Moorhead, Minn., and Mrs. A. P. Connedy, Greenfield, Ill.
Mr. Kidd was a member of the Astoria Masonic lodge and the Christian church of Astoria during the years he spent here as agent for the C. B. & Q. railroad.
Funeral services were held at 2:00 o’clock Sunday at the Cline Horton home. Interment was made in the Astoria cemetery. Masonic rites were performed.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus