Joseph Franklin Gillespie (1842-1935)

GILLESPIE, MITCHELL, MCLAUGHLIN, SMITH, WRIGHT, MAYO

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:13

From Nevada Evening Journal July 13, 1935 (page 1)

J. F. GILLESPIE, WAR VETERAN DEAD FUNERAL MONDAY

LONGTIME RESIDENT OF NEVADA PASSED AWAY IN CALIFORNIA

J. F. Gillespie, 92, Civil war veteran and longtime resident of Nevada, died at his home at Orange, Calif., Tuesday, July 9 and the body is expected here over the Northwestern Monday at 1:45 p. m., accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. Verne G. Mayo.

The funeral services will be held at the Methodist Episcopal church at 3:30, after which the body will be laid to rest in the family lot in the Nevada cemetery.

The youngest son, John L. Gillespie of Des Moines is in Nevada today arranging the details for the services and interment of the body of the aged veteran.

Mr. Gillespie was for many years an active and well known business man of Nevada, leaving here in 1924 for California and locating at Orange, where his home had since been.

Joseph Franklin Gillespie was a native of LaPorte, Indiana, where he was born May 15, 1842. He came out to Iowa in 1854 with his parents, his father buying a half section of land from the government, that lay where the west part of Marshalltown is now located.

There he grew to manhood and was married April 8, 1863 to Miss Mary J. Mitchell. They came to Nevada in 1871 and it was here that the wife died a few years afterwards. Three children survive this marriage, they being Mrs. Susannah Smith of Kansas City, Norillo F. Gillespie of Centralia, Wash., and Mrs. Lillian Wright of Kansas City, Mo.

On June 8, 1878, he was married to Miss Alice Belle McLaughlin in Nevada and to this union two children were born and survive the parents. They are John L. Gillespie of Des Moines and Mrs. Verne G. Mayo of Los Angeles, California.

The second wife passed away a few years before the family home was transferred to California and the younger daughter remained here and cared for the home of the father for a time.

Coming to Nevada in 1871, Mr. Gillespie engaged in various lines of business for a time but in 1876 was elected sheriff of Story county and continued in that office until the close of 1879.

Retiring from office he entered the mercantile business and during the balance of his residence in Nevada he was engaged in the mercantile business for a time and later was active in the insurance business.

Mr. Gillespie was affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, being active in each of them.

He was also active in the Grand Army of the Republic during his residence here and was one of the members of the local post when the charter was finally surrendered.

He was always active in the councils of the Methodist Episcopal church and during his years here acted as a lay delegate to a number of the general conference of that church a number of times.

He was a man of wide acquaintance not only in Nevada and Story county, but over the state, and highly respected for his many very splendid characteristics.

Thus, on Monday afternoon, "taps" will be sounded for one of the last the Story county Veterans of the Civil war.