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WHO WAS - W. K. Gilliland
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By Howard Strawbridge July 26, 1961

William Kerr Gilliland, Esq., of Sunville, was born March 11, 1828, at Penns Valley, Centre County. He was one of six children of Joseph A. and Nancy Kerr Gilliland. Their ancestry was Irish.

William's grandfather, Joseph Gilliland, was born in New Jersey in 1770, and moved to Chester County, in 1796. Subsequently, he moved to Union County in 1805 where he maintained a hotel. He was Presbyterian in faith, and in 1815 was elected an elder in the Sinking Creek Church.

William's father, Joseph A. Gilliland, one of nine children, married in Centre County and followed the occupation of farming. In October, 1833, he and his family removed to Canal Township, Venango County, settling on a large farm on the Franklin-Meadville road. He also kept a temperance hotel. He lived his last years in Franklin where he died in 1861.

Attended Log Schoolhouse

William, consequently, was five years old when he moved to Venango. He obtained his education in the log schoolhouse, and in 1838 received one year's instruction at a select school taught by an uncle in Centre County.

William then went to Franklin to serve an apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade under a Mr. Balliett. However this man died before William mastered the trade, and he continued and finished his apprenticeship under A. B. Walker of the same city.

In 1843, when William was 15, he experienced an incident that he was never to forget. On that particular day he took his father's horse and buggy to Cochranton on an errand. While returning home and proceeding down what was called Sugarcreek Hill, he noticed a woman and a boy running fast as they could. A big rough Indian was chasing them and he had a stone in each hand. When he saw William coming with the buggy he stopped, thus affording the woman and boy ample opportunity to safely get away. William didn't stop the buggy. If anything, he hustled his horse faster past the Indian. The Indian simply stood and stared at William and continued watching him until he drove out of sight.

When William reached home he learned that the Indian had previously been there talking to his father and the hired man. The "big ugly man," as they called him, had demanded whiskey. Mr. Gilliland ordered him to leave or he would set the dogs onto him and have him arrested. The Indian left.

He wandered into Franklin where he stayed two or three days, then went on down the Pittsburgh road. At a place called Stone House in Butler County, the Indian murdered a Mrs. Wigton and her five children - a hideous crime that shocked this area of the nation. The Indian, whose name was learned to be Sam Mohawk, was brought to trial and sentenced to hang, which sentence was duty carried out on March 22, 1844. Briars and brush later grew over his grave.

In 1851 W. K. Gilliland, then 23, traveled through the "western" states of Illinois and Iowa.

On Nov. 4, 1852, he married Miss Nancy Foster, a daughter of John and Isabella Foster of Canal Township. Nancy was born July 3, 1830. She was said to be a tall, thin woman.

Moved To Hannaville

In 1853 they moved to Hannaville where W. K. worked at his trade for one year. Then, on March 23, 1854, he settled in Sunville where he blacksmithed. In March, 1859, he met with an accident that crippled him to the extent that he had to abandon his trade. Apparently, though, he hired a man to run his blacksmith shop because record states he still had his shop in 1865.

W. K.'s house sat in the northern end of Sunville and his shop sat immediately north of the house. He owned three lots, each adjoining the other, two of which he purchased from W. W. Davison and third one from Morgan Jennings.

At the election of March 24, 1863, W. K. was elected a justice of the peace in Plum Township, receiving 92 votes against one W. B. Davis who got 7 votes. W. K. was re-elected time and again through the years and held that office for 44 years - certainly a record in Plum and possibly a record in Western Pennsylvania at the time of his death. He was known as "Squire" Gilliland by everybody after he assumed that office.

He drew up hundreds of deeds, wills, articles of agreement and other documents. Many lawsuit cases were heard before him, and he acted as executor in a number of estates. He officiated at dozens and dozens of marriages.

Of course he wasn't a coroner, but he acted in a capacity similar to that in Plum. At least two cases are known when he impaneled juries to reach verdicts. One was a suicide verdict in 1863, and another an unexpected death in 1880 (verdict, natural causes).

The squire was also a surveyor. He made several surveys concerning transfer of deeds. He was occasionally appointed as a viewer when a township road was to be either newly established, altered or vacated.

On July 21, 1855, only slightly more than a year after moving to Sunville, he was appointed postmaster of Sunville and held that position until February, 1875, when the Post Office Department passed a ruling that an individual could not hold both the offices of justice of the peace and postmaster. The squire was succeeded by Alec Davison, but he did continue to serve as assistant postmaster.

Elected Auditor

Squire Gilliland was a Republican and in 1871 was elected a Venango County auditor, serving from January, 1872 until January, 1875. He ran for the office in 1875 too, but was unsuccessful, probably due to the fact that an untrue rumor was circulated by his opponents.

In 1883 he was appointed by the court to fill a county auditor vacancy, and was elected to that position shortly afterwards, serving again from January, 1884, until January, 1888.

He often served as a Plum delegate to the Venango County Republican conventions, generally held in Franklin each June.

In the winter of 1874 he was elected Plum Township clerk and held that position until the winter of 1879.

When Sunville was incorporated as a borough in 1879, Squire Gilliland was on the first town council. In 1881 he was elected burgess and held that office for one year.

He and Mrs. Gilliland were parents of the following nine children with their birth dates: Margaret Irwine Gilliland, June 30,1853, Levi Speer Gilliland, Dec. 21, 1854, Foster Madison Gilliland, April 23, 1857, Effie Belle Gilliland, Feb. 14, 1860, John Adams Gilliland, May 17, 1862, Cyrus Abner Gilliland, Nov. 6, 1865, Mary Alwilda Gilliland, Nov. 5, 1868, William Kerr Gilliland, Feb. 15, 1871, and a child who was born in 1873 and died in infancy.

All the children were born at Sunville except the first, Margaret. She died Sept. 25, 1857, aged four.

Levi, a schoolteacher, married Miss Maggie Grove and they lived at Rocky Grove. They had one son, Harold Gilliland, who now lives in California. Levi died Nov. 3, 1912, and his wife on April 10, 1935.

Foster, also a teacher, never married. He died July 5, 1905.

Effie was married to Prof. John D. Goodwin of Saegertown. They had one son, Roy Goodwin. All three are deceased.

John, a farmer in Oklahoma, got married. They had no children. Both are deceased.

Cyrus, a teacher and later a UNG office worker, married Miss Ada Ann Graham, and they lived in Oil City. They had three children: William Foster Gilliland, James Lincoln Gilliland and Miss Henrietta Gilliland, only one of whom is living - William, at Oil City. Cyrus, the father, died Sept. 25, 1948, and his wife previously in May, 1936. The son, William, gave fine cooperation to this writer by contributing family data and the photograph for this sketch. He also has "greetings" from various state governors notifying his grandfather of his several elections to the office of justice of the peace.

Mary married in her later life to John F. Walton. They lived at Saegertown and had no children. He died July 18, 1945, and she on March 15, 1948.

William K., Jr., married Miss Etta Lupher. They lived for some time at Conneautville. They had no children. Both are deceased.

On Quiet Side

Squire Gilliland was a large man about 6 feet 2 inches tall, and in his prime weighed 220 pounds. He wasn't a great talker. In fact he was a bit on the quiet side. It's said he possessed a low, soft voice. He had a flowing white beard.

Besides his business and political interests, he also took an active part in church and social life. He and his wife were members of the old Sugarcreek Presbyterian Church located about a mile and a half southwest of Cooperstown. This was one of the oldest an largest congregations in the county at that time.

On Sept. 1, 1867, a destructive hailstorm damaged the big church to the extent that it was deemed inadvisable for repairing. It was also damaging in another sense - it split the congregation in deciding the location of the new church. One division built a new church beside the old one and named it the Sugarcreek Memorial Presbyterian Church, while the other division built the present Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown, which was dedicated in 1870. Squire Gilliland was one of those prominent in the erection of the Cooperstown structure. However, he must have later taken his membership back to Sugarcreek Memorial Church because record states he was elected an elder in it and was a member there at the time of his death.

Throughout all this time the squire maintained an active interest in the Sunville Presbyterian Church, too. He taught the Ladies Bible class there for years. If one could turn the clock back 60 years or so to a Sunday morning in Sunville, he could see the good squire leave his house with his Bible tucked under one arm and walk slowly down the wooden sidewalk towards the Presbyterian Church with one of his shoes squeaking quite loudly. This anecdote is well remembered by Leo S. Bumpus of Bradleytown who as a youngster often attended church at Sunville with his grandparents Davison. The squire generally sat on the west side of the church during services.

Four of his children, Effie, John, Mary and Cyrus, had united with the Sunville Church during their earlier years.

On Sept. 30, 1897, Squire Gilliland delivered an historical address at the Sugarcreek Memorial Church at an anniversary attended by a large throng. This lengthy address was later printed in booklet form and this writer has seen only one of those rare booklets. It is possessed by Mrs. Susie Reib of Franklin.

Newspaper Correspondent

For more than half a century the squire was a contributing correspondent to the Venango County newspapers. He was one of the earliest rural contributors.

He was one of several men appointed on the Plum district committee in preparing for the county celebration of the Fourth, 1876, which was this nation's 100th birthday.

He also served a few years, particularly during the early 1880s as president of the Cooperstown Harvest Home Picnics.

On Dec. 8, 1893, Mrs. Gilliland died of a tumor. She was buried on the 11 in the Sugarcreek Cemetery. The daughter, Mary, then kept house for her father until his last.

Before Sunville's borough charter was annulled in 1903, the last place of voting was in Squire Gilliland's office. From 30 to 40 votes were regularly cast at the last.

Postmaster J. M. Shriver of the Diamond postoffice managed to get rural Route No. 2, Diamond, established in 1907, which sounded the death knell for the Sunville postoffice. It was discontinued May 15, 1907. Squire Gilliland was staunchly against the closing of the Sunville office and attempted to save it. However, modern times were gradually coming and the aging squire, who had only a few months of life left ahead, sorrowfully watched the old postoffice pass out of existence in Sunville.

During the fall of 1907 he went to the home of his daughter, Mrs. Goodwin, at Saegertown to gain from poor health. He had been there for some time and was improving when he suddenly had a stroke of paralysis. He survived 10 days, dying on Dec. 17.

The funeral of the well-known Sunville citizen was held at the Sugarcreek Memorial Presbyterian Church with interment in the church cemetery beside his wife and little daughter, Margaret.

For several years the Gilliland house in Sunville stood vacant and gradually deteriorated. Ira Thomas of Sunville bought the old house for $15 and saved the upper story of it which he rebuilt into the smaller part of his house now standing just outside of Sunville.

A small new house was built on the former Gilliland lot few years ago and it still remains there.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription ofinformation from both early and late (current contributors) work.