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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record of
Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio
Publ.
Chicago: Chapman Bros.
1892.
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ANTON W. GERWELS
Source: Portrait and Biographical
Record of Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio -
Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892. - Page 589 |
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DAVID K. GILLESPIE,
a prominent grain dealer in Kirkwood, Shelby County,
Ohio, is one of the substantial and successful business
men of the place. He is well known for his honesty
and uprightness and for his sterling integrity and
excellent business acumen. He first saw the light
in Warren County, Ohio, Nov. 29, 1821, and is a son of
William Gillespie, who was born in Pennsylvania
in 1783, and the grandson of George Gillespie,
who was born in Ireland and of Scotch-Irish
descent.
The grandfather emigrated to the United States about
1740, located in the Keystone State, and was there
married to Miss Jane Allen, who
bore him ten children. About 1795, he removed to
Butler County, Ohio, and there passed the remainder of
his days, dying in 1823. His eldest son entered
the Revolutionary War as a substitute for his father and
was wounded. Mr. Gillespie was one
of the very first settlers of Butler County, and Indians
and wild animals were numerous.
William Gillespie, the youngest of the
ten children mentioned above and the father of our
subject, was about twelve years of age when he came to
Ohio. The family came down the Ohio River on a
flat-boat to where Cincinnati now stands, and had to be
very watchful for fear of being captured by the Indians.
Mr. Gillespie had very limited educational
advantages, for he spent most of the time in clearing
the farm and making possible the pleasant homes of
to-day. In 1816, he married Miss Mary
Kimmens, a native of Pennsylvania, whose parents
emigrated from there to Ohio when she was a little
child. She was of Scotch-Irish descent.
In 1838, Mr. Gillespie removed to Shelby
County, settled in Washington Township at an early date,
bought land in the woods and began his career as a
pioneer. He built a log cabin with clapboard roof,
and as wild game was still quite plentiful, his table
was always supplied with meat, although he cared very
little for hunting. The country did not agree with
the family, for nearly all fell ill, and as his means
were limited, Mr. Gillespie saw some hard
times, losing a whole year's crop on account of
sickness. They raised, spun
and made their own clothing, and as the children grew up
around them, easier times appeared. Mr.
Gillespie died in 1862, at the age of eighty years,
and his widow followed him to the grave in 1872, when
seventy-three years of age. He served in the War
of 1812 and held the rank of Orderly Sergeant.
During his residence in Shelby County, Mr.
Gillespie served as Trustee of his township and was
active in all enterprises for the good of the county.
He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church and
was an earnest worker in the same, as was also the
mother.
Four of the eleven children born to Mr. and
Mrs. Gillespie are still living and our
subject is the third in order of birth. After
fifteen years of age, all his schooling was received at
home, a neighbor's family and the Gillespie
family joining together and having school at night
In that way, our subject received his schooling, and
although in later years he assisted in building a log
school house he never attended. It must not be supposed
that Mr. Gillespie has not improved his
early edutional advantages, for he has been a
student all his life, and being a man of observation and
good common-sense, he is, perhaps, as well posted as
many men who have bad much better facilities for an
education. He remained under the parental roof and
assisted his father in clearing the home place until
twenty-eight years of age.
In 1850, he embarked in the grain business at
Lockington with a capital of $600, bought and shipped
grain by canal to Cincinnati and Toledo, and continued
thus engaged for fourteen years, being very successful.
In 1864, he purchased a farm of four hundred acres three
miles north of Piqua, in Miami County, and tilled the
soil for fourteen years, making a decided success as an
agriculturist. In the fall of 1877, he located at
Kirkwood, Shelby County, and again engaged in the grain
business, which he has now been carrying on for fourteen
years. He handles a great deal of grain and is
doing a flourishing business.
The original of this notice was first married in 1851
to Miss Martha McKee, a native of
Washington, this county. Her parents were
originally from Pennsylvania and of Scotch-Irish
descent. This union resulted in the birth of two
children, both of whom died in infancy. Mrs.
Gillespie died in 1854, and in 1856 Mr.
Gillespie took for his second
wife Miss Maria McKee, a cousin of
his first wife. She died in 1875, leaving eight
children: William H., engaged in the grain
business in Lockington; James M., educated at
Monmouth (Ill.) College, and a graduate of Rush Medical
College, Chicago, located at Welda, Anderson County,
Kan., and died at Monmouth, Ill., in 1886, one week
after marriage; Lee W. married and is now in
business at Kirkwood with his father. The latter
attended college at Ada, Ohio, and is a wide-awake,
prosperous young business man. Jennie L.
(deceased); Annie S., at home; David K.
and Mattie (deceased); and one who died in
infancy.
The third marriage of our subject occurred in 1878 to
Miss Sarah J. McKnight, a native of this county
and a cousin of his second wife. Mr. Gillespie
is a Democrat in politics but is a strong
Prohibitionist and has voted that ticket for twenty
years. He voted that ticket in Shelby County
before anyone else voted it and has ever been active in
politics. He has held various township offices and
was elected Commissioner of Shelby County in 1860, and
re-elected in 1863. He has represented the
Prohibition party repeatedly in county, district and
State conventions. He and Mrs. Gillespie
are members of the United Presbyterian Church, and he
has been a member since twenty-three years of age and
Elder since 1859. He owns sixty-five lots in Welda,
Kan., also owns warehouse, residence and lots in
Lockington, a corn and wheat elevator in
Kirkwood and a house and lot there. Kirkwood
Station was named in his honor, it being his second
name. He is a self-made man in every sense of that
term and what he has accumulated is the result of his
own industry.
Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of
Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio - Publ.
Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892. - Page 585 |
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DARIUS GLICK
Source: Portrait and Biographical
Record of Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio -
Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892. - Page 537 |
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S. G. GOODE
Source: Portrait and Biographical
Record of Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio -
Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892. - Page 577 |
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HARVEY GUTHRIE
Source: Portrait and Biographical
Record of Auglaize, Logan and Shelby Counties, Ohio -
Publ. Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892. - Page 275 |
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