The Gillis Family of Kane, Pennsylvania

The ancestors of the present family were members of the Gillis clan, who moved from Scotland to the north of Ireland at the time of the persecutions.

(I) Robert Gillis

Robert Gillis, the first member of this family about whom we have definite information, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1740, three days after the landing of his parents, and died at Hebron, Washington county, New York, in 1836. His young manhood was spent as a sailor on coasting vessels running between Boston and New Orleans and other American ports. He married (first) Jerusha Clark, of New Hampshire, (second) Sarah Stewart. Of the five children by the first wife all lived to at least eighty years of age, and one, John, died at the age of ninety-three.

Children of Robert and Jerusha (Clark) Gillis; all five lived to at least eighty years of age:

1. John Gillis, died at the age of ninety-three.
2. Four unnamed Gillis children, each lived to at least eighty years of age.

Children of Robert and Sarah (Stewart) Gillis:

1. Enos Gillis, died at Ridgway, Elk county, Pennsylvania, aged sixty-seven; a tanner.
2. Samuel Gillis, died at Wauseon, Ohio, aged eighty-four; a tanner.
3. James Lyle Gillis, of whom further.
4. Thomas Gillis, born June 10, 1794, died at Warren, Warren county, Pennsylvania; a tailor; married, had at least one child; children:
   1. At least one unnamed child.
5. Elizabeth Gillis, died at the age of fifty-five; married Elisha Ingersoll.
6. Hugh Gillis, deceased.

(II) James Lyle Gillis

James Lyle, son of Robert and Sarah (Stewart) Gillis, was born at Hebron, October 2, 1792, died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, July 8, 1881. He received a good education, attending the common school three months in the year. Although his educational opportunities were meager compared to those offered in our time, he made the most of them. In 1808 his parents went to Argyle, New York, and here he served an apprenticeship of three years at the tanner’s trade. In 1812, immediately after the declaration of war between Great Britain and the United States of America, he enlisted in the mounted dragoons, commanded by Captain C. V. Boughton. This was an independent company, and served as the escort of General Hull. When the regiment went into winter quarters, James Lyle Gillis enlisted again, this time under the command of Colonel Stone. During the year he was at Fort George with General McClure; after the abandonment of this fort he was sick and was sent to Batavia, New York. In the meanwhile Buffalo, Lewiston, Youngstown, Black Rock, and Manchester were captured and burned, and in the winter of 1813-14 Captain Boughton’s company was discharged. In the following spring Mr. Gillis again enlisted for one year, and he was in the battles of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane. He was wounded at Lundy’s Lane and his horse was shot from under him. On the seventh of August he was in charge of sixteen men sent on a foraging expedition; they were surprised and four were killed; nine, including Mr. Gillis, were captured, and they were confined at Toronto, Kingston, Prescott and Montreal. Mr. Gillis with twenty-five others was put on board the transport “Stately,” November 14, 1814, which was about to sail for England, but he and five others escaped in a boat and landed near Quebec. After wandering in the woods three days they met a Frenchman, who agreed to conduct them to a place of safety, but they were again taken by the British and kept at Halifax until peace was made in the spring of 1815. For some time after the war Mr. Gillis lived at Victor, New York, and worked with his brothers, Enos and Samuel, at tanning. In 1822 he came to Jefferson, now in Elk county, Pennsylvania, and settled in the wilderness, seventy miles from the nearest postoffice, and with no neighbor nearer than sixteen miles. Here he cleared what is now the Montmorenci farm, and built a saw mill and grist mill three miles west of Montmorenci. He was the first to manufacture lumber on a large scale in this district. In the new community he became a leader. Being appointed associate judge of Jefferson and Franklin counties, he held this office for two terms. In 1840 he was first elected to the state legislature, in which he served three terms in the house and three terms in the senate. Then in 1856 he was elected to membership in the United States house of representatives. In the same year he was a delegate to the convention which nominated James Buchanan for president of the United States; President Buchanan and James Lyle Gillis were intimate friends. The last office which he held was that of agent for the Pawnee Indians, to which he was appointed in 1859. Three years later he went to Iowa and there lived with his son, Charles B. Gillis, until the latter’s death. James Lyle Gillis was thus a leading figure in the affairs of his time and in the pioneer activities of Elk county. He was a Democrat. He attended the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his second wife was a member.

He married (first) in 1816, Mary Ridgway, of Philadelphia, who died in 1826, (second) Cecilia Ann, born in Walton, Cattaraugus county, New York, 1809, died at Ridgway, Elk county, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1855, daughter of Henry Berray, who was a farmer in Cattaraugus county, New York, died there when over eighty years old.

Children of James Lyle Gillis: the first three by Mary Ridgway and the remaining seven by Cecilia Ann Berray.

1. Ridgway B. Gillis, born at Victor, New York, February 15, 1818, died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa; he was with his father in the lumbering business; moved to Mount Pleasant in 1848; the next year he went to California as a prospector; returned to Mount Pleasant and lived on his farm; he was accidentally shot; married Margaret Bain, from Elk county, deceased; children:
   1. James R. Gillis,
   2. Mary Gillis,
   3. Hudson B. Gillis,
   4. Wade Gillis,
   5. Andrew Jackson Gillis,
   6. Charles Gillis.
2. Jeannette Caroline Gillis, born at Victor, May 2, 1820, died at Ridgway, February 22, 1892; married Jacob V. Houk, from Beaver county, Pennsylvania, deceased; he was a lumberman and merchant; child, son,
   1. An unnamed son Houk, died young.
3. Charles B. Gillis, born at Victor, April 1, 1823, died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, February 23, 1881; he was a farmer at Mount Pleasant, and was murdered by a tramp, as he was standing in his own doorway; the murderer confessed in 1911, explaining that he mistook Mr. Gillis for the marshal; he married Emma J. Howard, from McKean county, Pennsylvania; child,
   1. Emma Gillis, died young.
4. Mary B. Gillis, born at Montmorenci, Pennsylvania, August 23, 1829, died at Brockton, New York, February 8, 1895; married Samuel Porter, from Chautauqua county, New York, deceased; he was a carpenter; children:
   1. Anna Porter,
   2. James Porter,
   3. Augustus Porter,
   4. Claude Porter,
   5. Another unnamed daughter Porter.
5. James H. Gillis, born at Montmorenci, May 14, 1831, died at Melbourne Beach, Florida; a commodore of the United States navy; married (first) Lydia Alexander, (second) Ursula Z. Canfield; she is living, and resides in Syracuse, New York, in the summer and at Melbourne Beach in the winter; children, all by first wife:
   1. Harry A. Gillis, graduate of Annapolis;
   2. Lyle Gillis;
   3. Irwin Gillis, a commander in the navy;
   4. Carrie Gillis.
6. Bosanquet W. Gillis, born at Ridgway, August 8, 1835; resides in Brooklyn, New York, and is a proof reader for the New York Times; married Martha Radcliffe, deceased; children:
   1. Frank Gillis,
   2. Martha Gillis,
   3. Cecilia Gillis,
   4. Roberta Gillis,
   5. Arnold Gillis.
7. Emma Augusta Gillis, born at Ridgway, March 7, 1837; resides at Portland, New York; married James Noxon, from Chautauqua county, New York, deceased; he was a farmer; children:
   1. Mary Noxon,
   2. Seaborn Noxon,
   3. Sophia Noxon,
   4. Cecilia Noxon.
8. Robert S. Gillis, born at Ridgway, May 1, 1840, died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, September 13, 1907; president of a bank and had a large farm; married Sophia Whiting, from Mount Pleasant, and now living there; children:
   1. James Gillis,
   2. Sarah Gillis,
   3. Henry Gillis,
   4. Hugh Gillis,
   5. Ansel Gillis.
9. Claudius Victor Boughton Goodrich Gillis, of whom further.
10. Cecilia A. Gillis, born at Ridgway, April 3, 1844; married Henry Whiting; he is a retired mechanical engineer; a few years ago he became blind; they spend the winters in Florida; no children.

(III) Claudius Victor Boughton Goodrich Gillis

Claudius Victor Boughton Goodrich, son of James Lyle and Cecilia Ann (Berray) Gillis, was born at Ridgway, September 14, 1841. Having attended public school at Ridgway, he was afterward graduated from White Hall Academy, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, with the class of 1859. Immediately after leaving school in that year, he took charge of building the Pittsburgh & Erie railroad, from Sunbury to Erie. He then went out among the Pawnee Indians, one hundred and twenty miles west of Omaha, on the Loup fork of the river Platte; here he spent the summer of 1861 with his father, who was then Indian agent at this place. On June 21, 1861, he witnessed a victory in battle of the Pawnees over the Sioux; about two thousand were engaged. In the fall of 1861 he was clerk in a store in Omaha, and he remained until the following year, when he went to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and in the autumn of 1862 he returned to Ridgway. Then he became captain’s clerk on the United States gunboat, “Commodore Morris,” and was at Norfolk, Virginia, until May 3, 1864, or cruising on the James river. Then he went to Alexandria, Virginia, as clerk for Joe Styles, a government scout. Sickness necessitated his return to his home in Elk county, Pennsylvania, and he entered mercantile business. He served one term as county treasurer in Elk county, and one term as deputy county treasurer. January 18, 1876, he came to Kane, McKean county, Pennsylvania, and here he has lived from that time, being for many years engaged in the drug business. He has acquired extensive interests in oil leases; was a stockholder in and director of the Temple Theater Company until July 16, 1912, when he sold this interest. He is still a stockholder and director in the Kane Bank and Trust Company, and was stockholder and director in the White Rock Land Company.

In Masonry he has reached the thirty-second degree, being a member of Caldwell Consistory, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. His other Masonic bodies are: Kane Lodge, No. 566, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master by service; Elk Lodge, No. 379, of which he was secretary and past master by service; Kane Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; also Elk Chapter, of which he is past high priest; Bradford Council; Orient Council, No. 40, he having one term been illustrious grand master; Knapp Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar, at Ridgway, of which he is past eminent commander; Trinity Commandery, No. 58, at Bradford; Syria Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Pittsburgh; and he has been district deputy high priest. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Kane; the Grand Army of the Republic, Charles J. Biddle Post, No. 229, at Kane, and the Kane Country Club. He is a Democrat. Beside the political offices already mentioned, which he held in Elk county, he has for three years been school director in Wetmore township, McKean county, and he has now for twenty-five years, been a justice of the peace of the borough of Kane, having been elected to this office the first Monday in May, 1887.

Mr. Gillis married, December 30, 1864, Anna D., daughter of Abram and Lucy A. H. Overholtzer; she was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1838, died at Kane, July 24, 1897. She was a college graduate, and for a number of years before her marriage she taught school in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. She was a member of the Eastern Star. Her church was the Baptist. Abram Overholtzer was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 9, 1812, died at Whitehall, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1883. His wife, a native of Lancaster county, died at Kane, aged eighty-three.

Children of Abram and Lucy A. H. Overholtzer, all born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania:

1. Henry F. Overholtzer, born August 17, 1836; tailor; resides at Seguin, Texas; married Eunice Benson, from Elk county, Pennsylvania; children:
   1. Dora Overholtzer,
   2. Daisy Overholtzer.
2. Anna D. Overholtzer, married Claudius V. B. G. Gillis.
3. Louisa E. Overholtzer, born August 12, 1841; married Isaac Wolf, from Cumberland county; they reside in that county on a farm; no children.
4. Regina D. Overholtzer, born February 9, 1844; resides in Philadelphia; married Ezra P. Dickenson, deceased; he was a contractor; child,
   1. Blanche I. Dickenson.
5. Clementine Overholtzer, born August 18, 1847, died December 24, 1849.
6. George W. Overholtzer, born August 24, 1850, died at Kane, December 27, 1885; unmarried.

Children of Claudius Victor Boughton Goodrich and Anna D. (Overholtzer) Gillis:

1. James H. Gillis, born at Ridgway, March 11, 1866; druggist; resides at Kane; married Jennie O’Day, from Kane; children, all born at Kane:
   1. Marian Gillis, born June 27, 1890;
   2. Lucille Gillis, born in October, 1891, deceased;
   3. Leonora Gillis, born August 17, 1894;
   4. Marguerite Gillis, born August 17, 1894;
   5. Francis Gillis, born June 4, 1896.
2. Claudius B. Gillis, born at Ridgway, December 30, 1868; graduate of Lock Haven Normal School, class of 1889; a general insurance agent at Kane; married Lillian E. Warner; no children.
3. Anna C. Gillis, born at Kane, October 20, 1877; graduate of Kane high school, class of 1896; resides with her father; unmarried.

See: Genealogy of the Allegheny Valley Pennsylvania

Source

Jordan, J. W. 1840-1921. (1913). Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co.

This genealogy is based upon the source cited above. Only the structure and formatting have been changed for clearer presentation; the genealogical and biographical content has been preserved.