Person Page - 1146

     Lenore Mae Gilliland was born on 5 January 1926 at Riverside, Riverside Co., CA. She was the daughter of Gaylord Elgin Gilliland and Mabel Lucille Hughes. Lenore Mae Gilliland died on 1 June 2008 at Riverside, Riverside Co., CA, at age 82. She was buried in June 2008 at Olivewood Cemetery, Riverside, Riverside Co., CA, Find A Grave Memorial# 39374820.

     Lynne W. Gilliland married Alice Traber. Lynne W. Gilliland died before 6 June 1900 at Hamilton Co., OH.

     Virginia Corine Gilliland was born on 23 January 1922. She married Harold Kelly Bailey. Virginia Corine Gilliland died on 16 May 1985 at Buckingham, Buchanan Co., VA, at age 63.

     William Letta Gilliland was born circa 1810 at Donegal, Ireland. He married Lucy Sarah Wright. William Letta Gilliland died on 21 May 1866 at Hereford, Herefordshire, England.

     Mary Gillis married Milford Clute.

     John Richard Gillispie was born in 1858 at Missouri. He married Geniza Elizabeth Rentfrow. John Richard Gillispie died on 11 May 1947. He was buried in May 1947 at Fairview Cemetery, Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE, Find A Grave Memorial# 21030835.

     Lilbert John Gillispie was born on 14 August 1891 at Laredo, Grundy Co., MO. He was the son of John Richard Gillispie and Geniza Elizabeth Rentfrow. Lilbert John Gillispie began military service Pvt., Medical Corps, U.S. Army, WW I. He married Ola Margaret Windle, daughter of Joseph Edgar Windle and Adeline Rosella Houck. Lilbert John Gillispie died on 1 July 1950 at Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE, at age 58. He was buried in July 1950 at Fairview Cemetery, Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE, Find A Grave Memorial# 21106475.

     Charles Edgar Gillmore was born on 15 November 1872 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. He was the son of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Charles Edgar Gillmore died on 13 May 1880 at Barton Co. (probably), MO, at age 7.

     Clyde Ephraim Gillmore was born on 18 November 1885 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. He was the son of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Clyde Ephraim Gillmore married Mattie M. Walker on 27 January 1909. Clyde Ephraim Gillmore died on 4 January 1977 at Tarrant Co., TX, at age 91.

     Clyde William Gillmore was born on 13 December 1928 at Wagner, Wagner Co., OK. He was the son of Guy H. Gillmore and Evelena Irby. Clyde William Gillmore died on 18 October 2000 at Montrose, Montrose Co., CO, at age 71 dates per SSDI, last residence New Castle, Indiana.

     Deem Abbott Gillmore was born on 2 June 1922 at Washington, D.C.. He was the son of William Bruce Gillmore M.A., LL.B. and Vivienne Abbott. Deem Abbott Gillmore died on 6 January 1998 at age 75.

     Edgar Egbert Gillmore was born on 15 February 1925 at Oklahoma. He was the son of Jacob Elmer Gillmore and Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver. Edgar Egbert Gillmore married Mary Lou Brown on 27 January 1945 at Guymon, Texas Co., OK.

     Elmer Bruce Gillmore was born on 25 March 1918 at Guymon, Texas Co., OK. He was the son of Jacob Elmer Gillmore and Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver. Elmer Bruce Gillmore died on 21 September 1925 at Hooker, Texas Co., OK, at age 7. He was buried in September 1925 at Hooker Cemetery, Hooker, Texas Co., OK.

     Ephriam Bradley Gillmore was born on 15 June 1843 at Macoupin Co., IL. He was the son of William Gillmore and Jane Nesbit. Ephriam Bradley Gillmore married Mary Emily Hunt, daughter of Thomas Hyder Hunt and Rachel Mary DeVault, on 25 December 1867 at Pittsfield, Pike Co., IL. Ephriam Bradley Gillmore died on 1 January 1914 at Lubbock, Lubbock Co., TX, at age 70. He was buried in January 1914 at City of Lubbock Cemetery, Section 4, Lot 33B, Lubbock, Lubbock Co., TX.
Note: THE GILLMORE SUPPLEMENT, remarks by William Bruce Gillmore.

Our first Gillmore ancestor in America was one of two brothers who migrated from Northeast Ireland. They were of the McGilmore Clan in County Down. They landed at Charleston, South Carolina in 1765 and settled in that state. Some of the next generation followed the frontier into Eastern Kentucky, and the third generation went on west.

The Gillmore who designed the fortifications of Charleston Harbor may have been one of these families, but I have been unable to establish that fact.

In Western Kentucky lived one who has come down to us as Judge Gillmore. He had a large family, and some of his sons went to Texas, fired by the enthusiasm of Andrew Jackson, Davie Crockett, Austin and others who fought for Texas independence. One of the boys died in the Alamo. He probably signed the muster rolls with his X as his first name is forgotten. Another son who fought in Texas returned to Kentucky and later moved to Sangamon County, Illinois and reared his family there. He was called Captain, but whether the title was real or honorary, I do not know. If there is a record it is in the Archives of Texas. It is not in Washington.

His younger brother, William Gillmore, later joined him in Sangamon County, and there married Jane Nesbit, the daughter of George Nesbit, in 1840. George had died and his family was raised by his brother William Nesbit, who never married.

William Gillmore seems to have been a gay and care-free lad who never learned to read or write, but who had a wide reputation as a fiddler. He would go a days journey any time to play for a dance for which service he received five dollars if the dance broke up at midnight or ten dollars if it lasted until dawn. That seemed to have been more lucrative than working on a farm at fifteen dollars per month.

It is said that while the Nesbit family liked him, they were not enthusiastic about his marriage to Jane. Her Uncle William seems to have forgiven her, as her son Ephriam Gillmore was one of the heirs mentioned in his will. I inherited the William part of my name from him.

Of this union four children were born, my father, Ephriam Bradley Gillmore being the second child.

Jane Gillmore died in 1846, and very soon afterwards her baby, Henrietta died. Jane's sister, Ellen Nesbit, who married Wiley Mitchel, Sr. took Jane Gillmore and raised her. William Gillmore, not being able to care for the little boys, left them with his brother, Ephriam, and went off to Texas. Not being able to read or write, it seems that no one heard from him. Apparently, Ephriam was not surprised at this, because when he found that he could not raise the boys for domestic reasons, he took them to Macoupin County and placed them with a prosperous farmer, one Pasquel Reader. Since Reader was from Kentucky, it is reasonable to assume that they knew something about each other.

The understanding was that the boys were to stay with Reader until they were twenty-one, and were then to each receive a team of horses, a wagon, and a set of harness. That was the customary start that a farmer gave his sons.

In 1867, Ephriam B. Gillmore learned from some friends, the Sacre brothers, home on a visit from Texas, that his father, William Gillmore, had married again in Texas and had several children. They invited him to return with them to Texas and be re-united with his father. After contemplating the apparent neglect of his father, and the fact that they would be strangers, together with the fact that he was contemplating matrimony in a few months, he did not accept the invitation.

In 1916, I went to some expense, having an attorney run down several clues concerning some of the descendents of William Gillmore without success. During the 1920's and 1930's, my brother, Clyde Gillmore, whose work took him into all parts of Texas, found many Gillmores. Some had the red hair and red whiskers and the long face, characteristic of our family, but he found none who knew that he was a descendent of our Grandfather, William Gillmore.

So our knowledge of our Gillmore ancestors is very limited. Father's Uncle Ephriam Gillmore had one son Harvey Gillmore. He visited Father once in Barton County, Missouri, in the 1870's. At that time he and his father still lived in Sangamon County, Illinois. They raised and bought horses and Harvey drove them west and they were sold to traders who drove them west via the Santa Fe Trail.

It was probably about 1868 that my father learned from a Methodist circuit rider who made the Reader home his headquarters for a few days, that he had a sister, Jane Gillmore, living with her Uncle Wiley Mitchel, in Sangamon County. He went to see her, and in 1869, when he was preparing to move to Missouri, he went and got his sister, Jane, and took her with him to Barton County and she lived with us until she died in 1884. I have some recollections of her as a kindly aunt.

In my research, I have been unable to find any connection between our family and the New England Gilmores. Many branches of this family have been ably outlined by Pasquel Gilmore of Bucks Port, Main, in his Genealogy, a copy of which document is in The Library of Congress.

In America, the name has been variously spelled, Gilmor, Gilmour, Gilmore and Gillmore. According to tradition coming down to us from Judge Gillmore of Kentucky, his family always used and preferred Gillmore, and we have always used that spelling.


PASQUEL READER

I feel that this brief record of the Gillmore ancestry would be incomplete without a word concerning Pasquel Reader, the man who raised our Father, and the only father he ever knew. He could remember seeing his real father once as a child.

I write without notes from childhood memory of the stories my father liked to tell, and many names have long been forgotten. Mr. Reader was a man of small stature and wiry constitution who believed hard work was a cure for the ills of the world. They seem to have been Presbyterians of the dour variety. They did not whistle or play noisily on Sunday. They seem to have been a kindly and closely knit family, but without any show of affection one to another. John and Ephriam were carefully looked after as to all their physical needs, but I doubt that they were ever shown any affection.

Mr. Reader was the kind of a man whose word was his bond. He insisted upon strict integrity. Not to keep one's word was an unpardonable sin. He was always called Squire Reader. Whether or not he ever held an office, I do not know, but he settled all neighborhood disputes with the authority of law. All strangers were made welcome at his board and itinerant Ministers were invited to make his house their home while in the vicinity.

He raised one orphan boy who was grown about the time that father and his brother were taken into the home. For many years, he gave shelter to two homeless Irishmen who worked when they were needed, or for other farmers, and did very much as they pleased except for the one restriction that their drinking must be done some place else, and no whiskey was brought to the farm.

The Readers had four children, if memory serves me correctly. There was James who was father's age and they grew up as brothers. They kept in touch with each other, and always addressed each other as Brother. James went to college and after trying the Ministry, became a Physician. He lost an eye in early youth while trimming hedge. He married late in life and had no children. I think that he was practicing medicine in Colorado at the time of his death.

George, the youngest child, also went to college for a while, but it seems that he did not take to hard work. He and father exchanged letters occasionally, always addressing each other as Brother. George had several children. One daughter was married and lived in Kansas City for a while, and visited us several times. George, Jr. lived with us one year in Kansas City and worked there.

There were two girls. One's name was Elizabeth, and it was to get her husband started in business that Reaser assisted him in buying the saw mill, in which John Gillmore was killed. He was sent one afternoon, when they were short-handed at the mill, to assist in carrying lumber from the saw. No one knows what happened, but he fell against the saw and bled to death before help could be summoned. The other daughter married a farmer and they lived in an adjoining community.

When Mr. Reader took the Gillmore boys he had an understanding with their Uncle Ephraim, that they were to be raised as farmers, given the educational advantages of the community, and at twenty-one were each to receive a team of horses, a wagon, and a set of harness. That was the customary way in which a farmer started his sons out for themselves.

Because of this agreement, Mr. Reader never forgave himself for John's death. He had not kept his word. In lieu of John's inheritance, he gave my father forty acres of land, which land father sold for five hundred dollars when he was getting ready to move to Missouri.

When the Civil War was in progress, Mr. Reader was a staunch Southern supporter. In 1863 Union Officers were sent throughout the north holding meetings and encouraging the young men to enlist in the Army. Squire Reader would follow them about, and after they had made their appeal he would ask permission to speak, and then tell the boys the other side of the story.

This practice eventually got the Squire into trouble with the Authorities, and his arrest was ordered. He was locked up in Carlinville. A posse of hot heads undertook to make a jail delivery. While they were battering down the jail door with a telegraph pole, the Sheriff took his prisoner out the back way and put him on a train. Then the boys tore up the railroad track, but the train backed out and was shuttled about and the prisoner delivered to Springfield.

He could be free on his parole, which he refused to give for several months. He was broken in spirit and his health was failing when he gave his parole to save his life. He was so humiliated that he could not live there any longer. He went to Texas and refused to return. He died there at an advanced age.

Before this trouble arose, he sent his own boys to Canada to avoid the draft. Father was approaching his twentieth birthday. Reader felt that he may not have given father all the schooling that the agreement called for, so he sent him to the neighboring community where one of the Reader girls was living. He could live at her house and go to school to the Squire's Nephew, where there was a better school and there would be no danger of his being kept out to help on the farm in case of an emergency. He told Father to consider himself twenty-one and take his inheritance and go away if he wished to avoid the draft.

During that winter at school, Father, the teacher, and the
teacher's brother, a young man who was also a student, planned to pool their resources and start for California as soon as conditions would permit in the Spring of 1863.

So, about the first of April 1863 they left Macoupin County in a covered wagon, with two teams and a saddle horse. They went to Council Bluffs, Iowa and waited there for a party to form for mutual protection in crossing the plains. In due time the train set out, some fifty wagons, under a Captain who with a number of out-riders was taking a herd of horses to the California market. He had previously made several such trips and knew the hazards of the West. They followed the Platte River to Ft. Russel (Cheyenne, Wyoming) then over to Sweetwater, to Evanstone, thence down the valley to Salt Lake City. From there they crossed the range twice and by August came into Paradise Valley, Nevada.

A rancher wanted help to put up River Valley hay which commodity was at a premium. He offered five dollars a day and board. To boys who were accustomed to a wage of fifteen dollars a month, that was real pay. Father decided to stay until haying was done and then with his saddle horse join his partners in California. Their reports on California were not encouraging so he followed the mining camps in Nevada, Idaho, and Montana until he heard that the war was over and it was safe to return home.

(Note: In 1867, When Ephraim B. Gillmore was ready to go home to Illinois from Montana Territory, he took a steam boat at the head of navigation on the Missouri River for St. Louis. It was loaded with miners going to their homes in the east. He left the boat at Brownsville, Nebraska to visit the Coones, Mitchells and other relatives who lived in the vicinity. From Omaha he was able to go by train back to Carlinville, Illinois.)

He got home in May 1867 and found the Reader farm in deplorable condition, so he took over. On Christmas Day of that year he went over to Pittsfield in Pike County and married Mary Emily Hunt, and the next year they lived with Mrs. Reader and father worked the farm.

In the spring of 1869 they, with the Hunt family, got in a covered wagon and with their baby, Lillie, started for Barton County, Missouri.


MORE ON PASCAL (PASCHAL) READER by Don Reader

Paschal Reader was born in 1812, possibly in Tennessee or Virginia. He came to Macoupin County with his parents in 1830 from Overton County (now Pickett), Tennessee. Paschal's father Jeptha Reader took up farming as he had done in Tennessee, and also served as an officer in the state militia during the Black Hawk war. He died in 1839 and his grave is in the Reader cemetary, just outside of the village of Reader, west of Carlinville.

In 1837, in Macoupin County, Paschal married Margaret Rafferty. We have the family bible pages of Paschal, in which he recorded all the birth dates and death dates in the family including his parents, siblings and children up through the 1850's. Alas, no marriage dates were recorded. Paschal and Margaret had the following 10 children, of whom 6 lived to adulthood. The boys who carried on the Reader name were James K. Polk, George Washington, and William Donelson Reader.

Jeptha H. Reader          (1839-1842)
Elizabeth T. Reader     (1840-????) +      A. B. Peebles
Nancy Jane Reader          (1842-1899) +     John Hagaman (1836-1912)
Martha Emaline Reader     (1843-????) +      George Orr
Mary Virginia Reader     (1845-1845)
James K. Polk Reader     (1846-191?) +     Lou(ise?) E. Poley
George Washington Reader     (1847-1930) +      Emily Smith (1857-1926)
William Donelson Reader     (1848-19??) +      Lucy J. Albin
Harriet Caroline Reader     (1851-1853)
Joeseph Reader          (1853-1853)

Paschal was a well-to-do farmer in what became Western Mound township, acquiring a large amount of rich farmland from the federal government. He was an officer in the state militia along with his father Jeptha, taking part in the Black Hawk war. He later became a Justice of the Peace, and a state legislator. He was called "Squire Reader" and was known to be a firm but fair dispenser of justice, settling many local disputes with an iron hand. He was also very active in Democratic politics. Although having a large family himself already, he took in two young Gillmore boys, John and Ephraim, whose mother had died and whose father left them with an uncle who was unable to care for them. Paschal raised these two boys as his own, but that is another story.

The Civil War proved to be the downfall of Paschal, as he was very much against it. Whether it was because of his Tennessee origins, his Democratic party affiliation, or concern for his three young sons, he took an active part in protesting the Union Army recruiters. When the Army recruiters came to the area, Paschal would find out where they were and show up. Waiting until the recruiters had finished their appeal, Paschal would stand up and ask the gathered crowd if he could say a few words so they could hear "the other side." Eventually he was arrested for "anti-Union" activities by the sheriff of Macoupin County. While being held at the jail in Carlinville, some hotheads got wind that a Southern sympathizer had been arrested and formed a mob to break into the jail, presumably to lynch him. While the mob battered down the door of the jail with a telegraph pole, the quick-thinking sheriff got Paschal out the back door and onto a train to take him to Springfield. However, the mob heard about this and tore up the tracks in front of the train. The train then backed up all the way to Litchfield before switching to another track to go on to Springfield.

My grandfather, Ernest Reader, son of G. W. Reader, wrote that Paschal was held in "the Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC," but I suspect that he was not taken any further than Springfield. In prison he proudly refused a parole for many months, but eventually acceeded to the wishes of his captors and signed it. He returned home a broken man, in both spirit and health. Resolving to leave Illinois after the war, in 1867 he left by wagon to visit his brother-in-law Joseph Rafferty who had already moved to Lancaster in the Dallas area and to seek land for his family in Texas. However, he caught pneumonia and died there in 1868. He was buried in Texas, but his monument was erected in the Reader Cemetery on the old homestead and is the tallest one there. We have the 1868 diary of G. W. Reader in which he describes not only the day his father left Macoupin County, but also his own trip to Texas a few months later after the family got word that Paschal was ill.


Information from Patty Cook, Oklahoma City, OK.

Ephraim suffered with Bright's Disease (a form of kidney disease characterized by the presence of albumin in the urine) and died while visiting their youngest daughter.

Jacob Hunt and Michael DeVault lived in this area (Pittsfield?) on farms. They lived with Mrs. Reader and worked the farm.

In the spring of 1869 they with the Hunt family got in a covered wagon and with their baby Lillie started for Barton Co., Missouri.

     Ethel Emily Gillmore was born on 1 January 1914 at Alex, Grady Co., OK. She was the daughter of Jacob Elmer Gillmore and Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver. Ethel Emily Gillmore married Robert A. Pippin, son of William Jordan Pippin and Olive Eve Julian, on 25 July 1934. Ethel Emily Gillmore and Robert A. Pippin were divorced before 1964. Ethel Emily Gillmore married Kenneth Donald LeGate, son of Elisha LeGate and Edwina Barnum, on 25 May 1964 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Co., OK. Ethel Emily Gillmore died on 28 October 1999 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Co., OK, at age 85. She was buried in 1999 at Jones I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Jones, Oklahoma Co., OK.

     Etta Evelyn Gillmore was born on 15 February 1925 at Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Jacob Elmer Gillmore and Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver. Etta Evelyn Gillmore married Robert Burns Lee, son of Cloyd Lee and Attie Aletta Poorman, on 3 February 1945. Etta Evelyn Gillmore and Robert Burns Lee were divorced in 1950. Etta Evelyn Gillmore married Julius Fred Harmon, son of Walter Fred Harmon and Annie Beinhauer Vanicek, on 28 June 1950, Three children to this marriage.

     Guy H. Gillmore was born on 15 December 1892 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. He was the son of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Guy H. Gillmore married Evelena Irby, daughter of Christopher Irby and Rachel Roberson, on 22 September 1909 at the home of A. A. Kemp, Guymon, Texas Co., OK, In addition to the four children who survived, an infant son was lost in 1912, and an infant daughter in 1913, both at Montrose. Guy H. Gillmore and Evelena Irby were divorced. Guy H. Gillmore married Ethel S. Stuck on 11 January 1947. Guy H. Gillmore died on 1 July 1968 at Los Angeles Co., CA, at age 75.
Note: In the 1940 Census, Guy was living in Arapahoe County, Colorado on a farm with Ann Sawery (listed as the cook) and Ann's one-year-old daughter, Delma Jean Sawery. Both Guy and Ann are shown as married.


Information from Patty Cook, Oklahoma City:

Guy lived four miles from Lancaster, California. He lived in Delta when his father passed away in 1914. Guy and Lena were married at the home of A. A. Kemp. in Guymon, Texas Co., Oklahoma at 4:00 pm on a Wednesday. The preacher of the First Church of Christ in Guymon officiated.

     Guy Leon Gillmore was born on 9 October 1925. He was the son of Guy H. Gillmore and Evelena Irby.

     Jacob Elmer Gillmore was born on 27 March 1877 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. He was the son of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Jacob Elmer Gillmore married Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver, daughter of Egbert Wilson Weaver and Sarah Martha Herring, on 29 August 1909 at the home of her parents, Dague Community, Hooker, Texas Co., OK, ceremony by Rev. Martin. Jacob Elmer Gillmore died on 7 April 1957 at age 80. He was buried in April 1957 at Britton Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Co., OK.

     Julia Hunt Gillmore was born on 4 October 1881 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Julia Hunt Gillmore married William H. Patterson on 12 January 1912. Julia Hunt Gillmore died on 6 January 1975 at age 93.

     Lide Otho Gillmore was born on 12 March 1876 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Lide Otho Gillmore married Ernest Elmer Frost on 11 April 1909 at Hooker, Texas Co., OK. Lide Otho Gillmore died on 25 February 1937 at age 60.

     Lillie Etta Gillmore was born on 3 December 1868 at Macoupin Co., IL. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Lillie Etta Gillmore married Joseph T. Collom on 18 October 1897 at Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO. Lillie Etta Gillmore died after 24 April 1940 at Arlington, Fairfax Co., VA.

     Lula Bell Gillmore was born on 3 March 1874 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Lula Bell Gillmore married Charles Sylvester Collins, son of James Harvey Collins and Caroline Orendorff, on 24 December 1896 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. Lula Bell Gillmore married (?) Gregory after 1912 at Baca Co. (probably), CO. Lula Bell Gillmore and (?) Gregory were divorced before January 1920. Lula Bell Gillmore died on 24 March 1933 at Oklahoma at age 59.

     Mary Emily Gillmore was born on 3 April 1884 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Mary Emily Gillmore married Ronald Hilton Martin, son of Thomas Jefferson Martin and Pandora Corinne Arnett, on 3 June 1908 at the home of her parents, Guymon, Texas Co., OK, Ceremony by Rev. John E. Lovett. Mary Emily Gillmore died on 15 June 1980 at West Covina, Los Angeles Co., CA, at age 96. She was cremated on 17 June 1980 Ashes scattered over Pacific Ocean.

     Merl Edwin Gillmore was born on 15 June 1915. He was the son of Guy H. Gillmore and Evelena Irby. Merl Edwin Gillmore died on 7 January 1993 at Jefferson Co. (probably), CO, at age 77 dates per SSDI, last residence Wheat Ridge.

     Nora Rachel Gillmore was born on 14 December 1871 at Lamar, Barton Co., MO. She was the daughter of Ephriam Bradley Gillmore and Mary Emily Hunt. Nora Rachel Gillmore married William James Brooks on 26 February 1909 at the home of her parents, Texas Co., OK, ceremony by Rev. K. McNier. William was first married to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ella Croghan (1881-1902) on 29 AUG 1894 at Eureka, Humboldt County, California, and had a son Claude James Brooks (1896-1981) and a daughter Mamie "May" (1898-1979) who married Austin Taylor in 1917 and lived at Mill Valley. May later remarried to Alfred Gunnell.


unknown newspaper, May 1909:

Brooks-Gillmore Wedding

Married at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. W. J. Brooks and Miss Nora Gillmore, on Sunday, May 23, 1909 at 10:30 a.m.? ? Miss Nora Gillmore is well known in Texas county as an accomplished teacher and brilliant young lady.? ? She has taught several years in Oklahoma, and has just closed a successful term at Prairie Rose.? ? Miss Nora graduated at the Lamar High School, Lamar, Mo., and taught for a number of years in Barton county.

Her friends there together with numerous friends in Kansas City, (where she lived for several years) all join in wishing her a happy wedded life.

Mr. J. W. Brooks is an expert machinist and has a permanent position as master machinist at the round house at Fort Bragg, California.? ? He also has a fruit farm near town where they expect to live.

The house was appropriately arranged for a quiet home wedding, Rev. K. McNier officiating.

Those present were the family and a few immediate friends of the bride.

Dinner was served at 11:30 after which the groom and bride, with a number of young people were taken to Optima where they took the train starting for their home beyond the Rocky Mountains going by the way of Kansas City.? ? A number of the bride's friends from Gordon were at the depot to bid them good bye and to assist in the showering of rice which was so beautifully displayed as the train rolled into the depot.

All friends join in wishing them a safe and pleasant journey and a happy wedded life filled with joy and love.

A Friend.


NOTE: The 1900 Census shows William's occupation was a railroad brakeman and the 1910 Census shows he was a night watchman at the round house.?

Nora Rachel Gillmore lived on 20 April 1910 at Ten Mile River Twp., Mendocino Co., CA, age 40, with husband William and the two children from his first marriage.¹ She lived on 9 January 1920 at Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO, age 48, divorced, seamstress, with her mother in her household.² She lived on 10 April 1930 at 1310 East Eleventh Street, Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO, seamstress in overall factory.³ She died on 2 September 1939 at Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO, at age 67

Obituary -- The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri; 03 SEP 1939; Page 5; (Newspapers.com):

Mrs. Nora G. Brooks

A Heart Attack on Vacation Fatal to Kansas Citian

The excitement of a trip to the world's fair at San Francisco and her first vacation on several years, proved too much for Mrs. Nora Gilmore Brooks, 65 years old, 806 East Eleventh street. Accompanied by her son, Harold G. Brooks, Jefferson City, and two friends, Mrs. Brooks suffered a heart attack as the party motored across Kansas and died late yesterday at Stockton, Kas.

Mrs. Brooks was an employee of the Burlington Overall Manufacturing company. Besides her son, she was accompanied by Miss Roberta Hackman, 6320 Pennsylvania avenue, and Mrs. Grace Stahl, Parkville, Mo. The party left Kansas City Friday night.

     Opal Irene Gillmore was born on 30 November 1910 at Stonington, Baca Co., CO. She was the daughter of Jacob Elmer Gillmore and Verdia Ellena Mae Weaver. Opal Irene Gillmore married Jesse William Buchanan, son of Charles Hunt Buchanan and Annie Margaret Pinion, on 2 December 1928 at Mountain Valley, Kiowa Co., OK. Opal Irene Gillmore died on 1 February 1941 at DeRidder, Beauregard Par., LA, at age 30.

     Note: S.A.R. number 105289. Vance Eldon Gillmore was born on 8 December 1909 at Stonington, Baca Co., CO. He was the son of Clyde Ephraim Gillmore and Mattie M. Walker. Vance Eldon Gillmore died on 20 September 1997 at Tarrant Co., TX, at age 87 dates per SSDI, last residence Ft. Worth.

     Vivian Fay Gillmore was born on 22 June 1918. She was the daughter of Guy H. Gillmore and Evelena Irby.

     William Gillmore married Jane Nesbit.