Sidney Randolph DeLong

He was born to Mary Huston DeLong of Grand Isle, Vermont on December 28, 1828 in Beekmantown, New York. His father was from Goshen, Vermont. His parents met and married in Beekmantown where his father was a schoolteacher. His father died in 1832, when DeLong was three years old. He attended elementary school in Upstate New York, high school in Isle La Motte, Vermont. He studied civil engineering at the military academy in Plattsburgh, New York. Upon graduating he assisted in surveying the railroad line from Plattsburgh to Montreal.[1]

In 1848 the California Gold Rush started. In 1849 DeLong sailed from New York, around Cape Horn, and arrived in San Francisco, California, in 1850. DeLong settled in Amador County where he worked as a placer miner and taught school.[1]

After the outbreak of the American Civil War, DeLong enlisted as a private at the Presidio, August 18, 1861. He mustered into Company C, 1st California Infantry August 26.[1][2] On May 22, 1862, Delong, along with 1,500 California volunteers, 500 being cavalrymen, entered Tucson.[3] Private DeLong was mustered out February 19, 1863, to accept a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and was transferred to Company B.[2] He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant May 4, 1864.[2] Lieutenant DeLong was mustered out in New Mexico Territory, October 31, 1864, and re-enlisted that same day to be mustered into Company B, 1st California Veteran Infantry Battalion.[2] Lieutenant DeLong was mustered out in New Mexico Territory July 11, 1866.[2] DeLong served as acting assistant Quartermaster at Fort West, Fort Cummings, and Santa Fe in New Mexico, and Fort Goodwin, and Fort Tucson, in Arizona.[1]

After mustering out of the army in Santa Fe, DeLong returned to Tucson to work for Estevan Ochoa's freighting and mercantile firm Tully & Ochoa. On March 20, 1880 the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Tucson and business for freighting by horse-drawn wagon collapsed. DeLong left Tully & Ochoa to trade at Fort Bowie, and later mined gold in the Dos Cabezas, Arizona. In 1898 DeLong returned to Tucson, moving to 199 Church Street. From 1905 until his death DeLong was Secretary of the Arizona Pioneer Society, except one year when he was Receiver of the United States Land Office.[1]

Sidney R. DeLong died on November 24, 1914 in Tucson, Arizona. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson.

• Council Member of the 8th Arizona Territorial Legislature (1875)
• Mayor of Tucson (1871–1872)

• Sidney Randolph DeLong at Find a Grave