An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company,
Spokane, WA. 1905, page 252-253.

RICHARD SIGMAN is one of the best known men of Dufur, and a veteran of the
terrible conflict which raged to preserve to us the rights and privileges of
freedom when base treason would have trodden under foot the stars and stripes
and rent asunder the land of our fore-fathers. He has achieved a good success in
the financial world and has thus far passed a career which is unblemished and
filled with industry and good deeds.      

Richard Sigman was born in Ohio, on July 26, 1844, the son of James and Ruth A.
(Lucas) Sigman, natives of Ohio. The mother died in the spring of 1865. The
father came to California in 1849 and about eighteen months later returned to
Ohio where he died in 1903. His father, the grandfather of our subject, was in
the War of 1812, and the father of that veteran, which is the great-grandfather
of Richard Sigman, fought in the Revolution. His wife was the mother of
twenty-two boys. Our subject was reared and educated in Ohio and in 1862
enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry,
captained by Mr. Gordon under Colonel Ball. He was soon sent to the front and
participated in the Oak Grove and the Winchester engagements. Then he was taken
prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness and for weary months was detained in
the Andersonville, Libby, and Florence prisons. He weighed one hundred and
eighty when he entered those death pits, but scarcely tipped the beam at one
hundred when he was finally released. A living death, although the people of the
land know well what those horrible places were and something of what the poor
boys in blue suffered, still never can it be written the horrors that becloud
the perpetrators of that cruelty nor can the anguish of the poor victims ever be
adequately told. Living in the midst of the awfullest death, and dying by
inches, Mr. Sigman eked out the days until the glad news of his deliverance came
and a drawn skeleton, he staggered out to welcome it. After that he returned
home and for eighteen years was farming in Illinois. 1884 was the year in which
Mr. Sigman came to The Dalles and made settlement in Dry Hollow. This was near
Dufur and he took railroad land which afterward reverted to the government. Then
he took government claims and also purchased land until he had an estate of
nearly one section. Since the years of prosperity have come to Mr. Sigman, he
has sold a greater portion of this land to his son and in 1901, he came to Dufur
to spend the remaining days of his life in quiet retirement from the bustle of
active business.      

At Pana, Illinois, in 1870, Mr. Sigman married Miss Ward, a native of Ohio. She
died on the home farm here in Wasco county, on March 6, 1890. Her parents were
John and Martha (Griffith) Ward, natives of Ohio. The father's parents were born
in Ireland. Mr. Sigman has eight sisters, all in the east. His wife had three
brothers and two sisters in Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Sigman seven children have
been born: Melvin and Alvin, farmers near Dufur; Alberta, the wife of Neil
O'Leary, a farmer in Sherman county; Jessie, the wife of Darius Smith, on
Eightmile creek; Maud, the wife of Milton O'Brien, in the employ of Johnson
Brothers; Margareta, teacher in Sherman county; Nettle, a girl of seventeen and
now with her father. Mr. Sigman is a member of the G.A.R. and is often at the
county conventions. He is a prominent and highly esteemed man and is looked up
to by all.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. 
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.