Gilmore, Quincy Adams 1825-1900

GILMORE, LOVEJOY, WILMARTH, BARNUM

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 10/31/2012 at 17:30:41

The Grinnell (IA) Herald

QUINCY ADAMS GILMORE

Pasadena Star.

Quincy Adams Gilmore, son of Thomas Weston and Hannah Lovejoy Gilmore, was born at Newport, N.H., March 1, 1825; died in Pasadena, Cal., Dec. 13, 1900. His boyhood was spent in Newport and in attendance at school at Meriden. He took his academic course at Dartmouth College, graduating with high honors in the class of 1845. Subsequent years were passed as a teacher in Haverhill and Boston, until his health became impaired and he found it necessary to seek change of climate in the west.

Several years were spent surveying in the then frontier states of Illinois and Iowa. He returned east for a short time only in 1857 when he married Ann Maria Wilmarth of his native village. Returning to Iowa he located at Grinnell, where were born five children, Marcia, Thomas W. Mary H., Anne M. and Jonathan M. On account of precarious health, Mr. Gilmore moved with his family in 1875 to Manitou, Col., and in turn spent a few years in Denver and Colorado Springs. The family passed the winter of 1881-2 in southern California and returned to make this section their future home in 1884, temporarily living for short periods in Santa Barbara, San Pedro and Los Angeles. He came to Pasadena in 1890, and built the beautiful residence on North Garfield avenue, where he has since made his home, and where his beloved wife died in 1895.

Of five children, one daughter, Anne M., died in infancy, and four survive, Marcia Gilmore of Pasadena, Mary G. Barnum of Los Angeles, Thomas W. Gilmore of Chicago, and Jonathan M. Gilmore of Pittsfield, Mass.

He was one of those rare characters whose quiet reserve makes its virtues known only to those in close contact with him. As a business man he stood as an example of remarkable acumen, unflinching integrity and sterling worth, holding the esteem of all connected with him. But to those who knew him intimately there was a depth and beauty of character which has a well of richness at all times, in association and conversation; steadfast, unflinching, sweet in its simplicity; deep and tranquil. No husband and father could be more affectionate and solicitous for the dear ones than was he, no personal sacrifice being too great to be borne gladly if it would add in the slighest degree to the comfort of wife or children.

To his family and intimate friends his life was the epitome of "sweetness and light," brightening and enriching all minds that came in touch with his; exhibiting an intellect of remarkable resource, a power of reasoning and deduction far beyond the ordinary, and an unfailing serenity grounded on an absolute faith that "the universe is homeward bound."
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Jan. 8, 1901

A WORD OF TRIBUTE.

MESSRS. EDITORS; THE HERALD brings me the sad intelligence, "Quincy A. Gilmore is dead!"

There is, possibly, no one who was intimate with him now left in Grinnell, to add a word to the kind estimate of him which you quote from the Pasadena Star. I want to say that he was prominent among the cultured citizens in 1856, was chosen by the college trustees to aid in directing their first teaching in Grinnell and sometimes officiating as teacher in the class room, and, in an emergency, carried brick and mortar to erect the first college building. In the lyceum in the winter of 1856 57 where the men (and sometimes the women) stood up in debate to have their intellectual measure taken, his gentle speech, vigorous thought, and wide knowledge placed him easily among the very first, close to the tallest. He was an honor to Dartmouth even if he did make himself a semi-invalid for life by his devotion to his studies there.

He served the town and the county in office when wisdom was especially needed, and left us, at last, with the well-earned esteem and honor of all, but, most of all, of those who knew him in the rugged hours of earliest pioneering.

We wish his monument could be erected in our cemetery, for nowhere else could he have been more highly esteemed, nowhere else is he remembered more gratefully for service in hours when men--when manliest men,--were most in demand.

L.F.P.