GILLESPIE, WILLIAM A.

GILLESPIE, LIGGETT, PRESNELL

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 4/5/2004 at 14:19:49

Biography reproduced from page 668 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

William A. Gillespie is senior partner of the firm of Gillespie & Gronwall, conducting a blacksmith shop in Algona. He was born in the neighboring state of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Richmond, McHenry county, in October, 1860. He is a son of David and Jane (Liggett) Gillespie. The father went to Illinois from Canada and engaged in the tailoring business in Richmond, where he resided to the time of his death.

In the schools of that place William A. Gillespie pursued his early education and later attended the Madison Seminary, at Madison, Wisconsin, from which he was graduated with the class of 1876. The same year he began learning the trade of horseshoeing and general blacksmithing in Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained for a year and a half, when he removed to Freeport, Illinois, where he finished his apprenticeship, and then followed his trade in that city until 1884. He next went to Chicago and different cities in the east and south, working everywhere at his trade until finally he settled at Wesley, Kossuth county, Iowa, on the 22d of March, 1887. At that time he began working as a farm hand and was thus employed by relatives until 1889, when he purchased a horseshoeing and blacksmith shop in Wesley, conducting business there until 1900. The succeeding two years were passed in Chicago and upon his return to Kossuth county in 1902 he settled at Algona. Here he began working at his trade in the employ of L. A. Gronwall, and soon afterward with Henry Norton purchased an interest in the business which was then conducted under the firm style of Norton & Gillespie and so continued until December 22, 1911, when they bought out the interest of Mr. Norton and the business has since been carried on under the firm name of Gillespie & Gronwall. The present partners have been associated in business continuously for ten years and they now have an extensive patronage accorded them in recognition of their excellent workmanship and straightforward dealing.

In July, 1889, Mr. Gillespie was married to Miss Ada Presnell, a daughter of Thomas Presnell, of Wesley, who is a retired farmer. He came to Kossuth county from Ohio, arriving in Wesley, January 2, 1878. To Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie have been born five children: Webster, who was born in August, 1891, and is now in the United States navy; Thomas, born in April 1893, a clerk in the Central Drug Company of Algona; Howard, born in March, 1896, who is a high-school student; Lawrence, born in July, 1897; and Irene, born March 23, 1905.

Mr. Gillespie holds membership in Success Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Wesley, and also in the Homesteaders of Des Moines. He and his family attend the Methodist church and are well known here, where he occupies a prominent position as a representative of industrial interests. His has been an active life and whatever success he has achieved is the reward of his own persistent labors. His course has ever commanded for him the esteem of those with whom he has come in contact and he is classed with Algona’s valued citizens.