The GILLHAM Family in America - 1917

GILLHAM, FINLEY, HART, WEBB, HASKET, HEATON, WHITNEY, ROBERTS, WHITTAKER, SANKEY, KIRKPATRICK, HOWELL, HALL, MILLER, RUSSEL

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 5/18/2011 at 18:25:07

"THE GILLHAM FAMILY IN AMERICA"
Published by W. G. Heaton, Fairfield, Iowa. 1917.

(From Brink's "History of Madison Co., Ill.")
.... Thomas GILLHAM, the first of the family to come to America, was a native of Ireland. He settled in Virginia about the year 1730, and afterward moved to South Carolina. He had eleven children....

2 - Ezekiel GILLHAM, the oldest of the original Thomas GILLHAM, married in Virginia, and moved to what is now Oglethorpe County, Georgia ....

THE GILLHAMS IN IOWA

Charles GILLHAM, son of Ezekiel GILLHAM of Oglethorpe County, Georgia, and grandson of the original Thomas, was married to Jane FINLEY in Georgia, soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. In 1802 or 1803 he moved with several small children to Illinois, where other children were born. About 1838 he moved to Round Prairie Township, Jefferson County, Iowa, apparently with his younger son, J. Newton, with whom he and his wife resided on a farm just south of Glasgow, until his death about 1844 or 1845. His wife survived him many years and both are buried in the Gillmore (sic - Gilmer) grave yard, about a mile east of Glasgow.

Their eight children were named Lucretia, Lucinda, Clarinda, Clement, Sarah, Ezekiel Johnson, Thomas Cunningham and J. Newton.

Ezekiel Johnson GILLHAM was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, January 14th, 1801, and moved with his parents a year or two later to Illinois. September 27, 1821, he was married to Nancy HART, a native of Kentucky. They lived in Sangamon County, until September 1838, when they moved to Jefferson County, Iowa, and settled in Section 27, Twp. 71 N. of R. 8W. Here he built the first frame house in the county. His home was a center among the early settlers where school was kept and church services held, before church and school buildings were erected. He was a devout member of the M.E. church and served as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the county from 1841 to 1843. His four daughters, all born in Illinois, were Leanah Jane, Martha Ann, Elizabeth Mary and Margaret Lucretia; Martha Ann GILLHAM married Henry WEBB, a native of Leicester, England, January 1st, 1846. The only child of this marriage was James Johnson WEBB, who married Margaret HASKET, Feb. 4, 1870, later moved to Republic County, Kansas, and now lives at Petaluma, California.

Margaret Lucretia GILLHAM married Captain George HEATON of the Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry, at Fairfield, April 11th, 1864. Their children were Wilson Gillham, Mary, Elizabeth Winifred and Abigail H. Elizabeth W. HEATON married Lieutenant Harry E. WHITNEY of the First U.S. Infantry, at Huntsville, Ala., in December 1898. Lieut. WHITNEY went with his regiment to Cuba, a few days later, and died at Cienfuegos, May 13th, 1899.

Ezekiel Johnson GILLHAM died February 4th, 1867, and was buried in Gillmore's (sic - Gilmer's) grave yard, where already reposed the remains of his wife, parents and three older daughters. His son-in-law, Captain George HEATON, died in a hospital in Chicago, February 26, 1901. He was buried at Fairfield, Iowa.

John Newton GILLHAM, younger brother of Ezekiel Johnson GILLHAM, was married to Elizabeth ROBERTS in Illinois, and moved to Jefferson County, Iowa, with several small children prior to 1840. He lived on a farm just south of Glasgow about 20 years, when he moved to Decatur County, settling on a farm near Leon. His children were Nancy, who married Smith WHITTAKER; Sarah Jane, who married in Illinois; Henry; William Finley; John Benjamin; Charles Albert, who died in Colorado; Calvet Cameron and Lycurgus, who died while soldiers in the Union army; and Mary Margaret, who was born near Glasgow, March 27, 1848. Mary Margaret GILLHAM married Ezekiel J. SANKEY of Leon, May 6, 1866, and was the mother of ten children. She died March 27, 1907.

In 1840 another son of Charles GILLHAM, Thomas Cunningham GILLHAM, moved from Illinois to Iowa, and settled on a farm near his brother Newton's home. He married Eliza KIRKPATRICK in Illinois, and had several children when he came to Iowa. The names of his children were Margaret, Calvet Addison, Charles Albert, Campbell, John, William Madison, Thomas Henry, Marquis Leroy and Ursula Jane, who were twins, and Alna Ann and Melissa.

Calvet A. was twelve years old when his parents moved to Iowa. He went across the plains to California in 1849 and afterward returned to Iowa and married Miss Almeda HOWELL. He soon returned to California and later moved to Oregon, where his three sons were born. They are Thomas of Turlock, Cal., Dr. George GILLHAM of Townsend, Mont., and Calvet Addison, Jr., of Dale, Oregon.

Charles Albert GILLHAM married Martha HALL of Glasgow and moved to Leon, Iowa, where his son, Lewis, now resides. His daughter, Mrs. Emma MILLER, and son, Frank, live in Bedford, Iowa.

William Madison GILLHAM married Jane BARTON in Jefferson County, and shortly afterward moved to Dallas County. A few years before his death, he moved to Oregon. His oldest son, Harry E. GILLHAM, now lives at Seattle.

John GILLHAM was married in the west and raised a family there. Ursula Jane married Leroy RUSSEL, and was the mother of five daughters. She and her husband both died in Jefferson County.

The GILLHAMs in Iowa are not now numerous. Many of them have emigrated to the new states further west. The whole family seems to have been a race of pioneers, and has done its share toward winning the wilderness to civilization, and building up the nation we now see in this land. W.G.H.

(Note: Wilson Gillham HEATON, Col., U.S. Army, Retired, apparently gave a copy of this pamphlet history to the Iowa State Department of History and Archives on Oct. 16, 1941. In his foreword, he states: "I consider that it was my misfortune that I knew practically nothing of my ancestors back of my grandparents until after I was 35 years of age. I was not at all certain that any of them were Revolutionary soldiers until my sister established the fact that she was descended directly from Ezekiel GILLHAM, of Oglethorpe County, Georgia, and that he served as a soldier in South Carolina, in the war of the Revolution.")

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I am not related to the person(s) mentioned.