- JOHN GILLESPIE, a well-known citizen of Grand Chute township who is engaged in cattle raising, is a native of Ireland, having been born in County Antrim, February 22, 1868, a son of Alexander and Jane (Warwick) Gillespie, farming people of the Emerald Isle who never came to the United States. Both are now deceased. Mr. Gillespie was the next to the youngest of his parents' eight children, and he attended school in Ireland until he was about twelve years of age, although one year before this he had engaged in working for his board. He had just passed his thirteenth birthday when he came to America with his brothers and sisters, and he went to school for two years in Ellington, to Dr. Kenovan. After he had completed his educational training he went to work for James Laird, an uncle, as a farm hand, continuing with him six months and then becoming a milk wagon driver, which he continued to follow for about seven years for various dairymen of the vicinity of Appleton. He next secured the position of bus driver for the Sherman House, working for Mr. Wright until he was married, at which time he located on his present farm, which he had purchased two years before. He has forty-two acres of land, operated in a general way, although during the last few years he has given up his dairy and Holstein cattle business, on account of being incapacitated by rheumatism, and is now engaged in feeding cattle for the market. He is giving all of his time and attention to the farm, and has never found time to actively engage in politics, although he has served as school clerk, to which office he was elected as an independent candidate. In national matters he votes with the republican party. Mr. Gillespie is not a member of any religious denomination, although he was reared in the Presbyterian faith.
On April 25, 1894, Mr. Gillespie was united in marriage with Miss Lulu Ethel Taylor, who was born in Grand Chute township, January 13, 1870, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Bowe) Taylor, natives of England, where they were married about 1856. They came to America three months after marriage, and located at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where Mr. Taylor engaged in farming, although he was a mason by trade and had followed that occupation in England. One year later the family came to Appleton, and located on a property which is still known as the old Taylor homestead, and here they spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of nine children, and Mrs. Gillespie was the next to the youngest. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie, namely: Mary Christasel, born September 10, 1895; Leland Andrew, born December 2, 1899; Stanley Alexander, born July 17, 1903; and Helen Ethel, born June 13, 1906.
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1866 - 1919 (53 years)
Birth - Civil Record
