George Charles Gillespie

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George Charles Gillespie was born on the 18th of October, 1834 in Syracuse New York. He was the son of Alexander and Mary Gillespie. Alexander and Mary were emigrants from Scotland.

 

Alexander moved the family to Chicago most likely sometime in the 1840s. George had 4 siblings; John, Katherine, Margaret and Jennie.

 

New York state, the northern part, and Chicago were nothing like they are today. For instance, Chicago in 1830 had 4,000 people living there. However, by the mid 1800s Chicago’s population exploded due to trade via the waterways to 90,000 and northern New York state could be classified as a wilderness during that period.

To the left is a picture of George, probably in his late teens to early 20s.

 

 George was afflicted with Asthma and it has been told that a sea captain friend of the family suggested he go sea to cure the problem. So, George followed his advice and left Chicago to become a seaman sometime around 1850.

 

He reportedly set sail from New York for San Francisco via Cape Horn. This trip was in uncharted waters during this time period and likely lasted 3 – 4 months.

 

 

In 1848, California was practically uninhabited and was unable to provide the needs for such a population explosion. Many of the recent arrivals having amounts of gold in their pouches, were on the brink of starvation. The need for supplies in California and passage to rapidly transport passengers from the East to the West side of the country grew to such an extent that it brought the Californian "Clippers". Of which, between 1850 and 1854 one hundred and sixty were built, the majority being launched in or near New York and Boston.

 

 These magnificent sailing ships, the fastest of their kind, sailed with the intention of obtaining commercial supremacy over the sea and while reaching for this goal set many speed records for sailing ships, of which some have still not been broken. Even steam ships took some years to beat these passage times.

 

The prospect of becoming rich in the goldfields was very attractive to many of the officers and crewmen who came in on these ships, as a result of this a great number of sailing ships were abandoned as the crew went off to the mines. Many of these ships became hulks and were transformed into hotels, stores, hospitals and even prisons.

 In 1849, only two clipper ships had entered San Francisco harbor from New York, but with the discovery of gold, all that was about to change. And, as history would have it, that was right about when George took the job of a seaman.

And, this was to be the case with George’s first and only trip as a crewman aboard a Clipper Ship. Once they arrived in the harbor of San Francisco bay, the entire crew and captain abandoned ship for the gold fields located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range.

 

George didn’t stay many years searching for his “pot of gold,” as miners rarely were fortunate enough to strike it rich. He headed out for the “Promised Land,” Oregon. We believe he traveled via the Applegate trail based on his arrival at Yamhill Oregon and subsequent marriage to a young lady by the name of Angeline Fedelia Jackson (born 2/17/1844), who recently emigrated from Iowa.

Shortly after their marriage, George and Angeline moved to The Dalles, Oregon. In January of 1862 they had their first child, Mary Agnes, who was followed in 1864 by another daughter, Elnora Anna.

George Charles Gillespie and Angeline Fedelia Jackson were married on the 3rd of May, 1860 in the pioneer town of Yamhill, Oregon. They were married by the famous pioneer Minister James McBride, as documented on their record of marriage.

 

Nora and Mary Gillespie 1866

This period of time was extremely difficult and dangerous for the early pioneer settlers of the west. The Indian wars were reaching their highest levels and massacres of pioneer families and Indian villages were continuously headlining the Newspapers of the major U.S. cities. Interestingly, during this period, George seemed to have an innate ability to communicate and live alongside the Indians of the west, most notably, the Nez Pierce. In fact, George had a very close friendship with the famous Indian leader, Chief Joseph. He was known to have taught a number of Scottish songs to the Nez Pierce and have sung with them on a regular basis. George’s uncanny ability to establish a genuine comradery with the Indians would prove very beneficial in the future.

 

His son, John Edward Gillespie, would write later in his life, “I can remember back when Mother and Father would bring things in the house at night to guard from the Indians and how my older sister would cry with fright. They would bar the doors and no doubt watch close all night. The Indians often came to council with my father as they had great faith in him.”

 

Shortly after John Edward was born the Gillespie family moved to homestead a large piece of property on the Grande Ronde River by the end of 1873. This was a beautiful area of Oregon, situated outside of La Grande Oregon. We know that the homestead was 12 miles east of La Grande, south of Imbler and north of Cove, Oregon.  Their homestead was their little piece of paradise in the “Promised Land.”

 

George drew a picture of his homestead back in the mid 1870s and it has been passed along through the generations. Over the last 135 years, the hand drawn picture has degraded somewhat but the homestead, on the right, and the barn on the left, as well as the surrounding mountains, are still clearly visible.

The Gillespie’s were quite happy with their beautiful homestead on the Grande Ronde River. However, trouble between the Nez Pierce and U.S. Government had been brewing for some time. The Government was continuously taking the Indians’ land during this period and one night a young Nez Pierce brave appeared at the door. He spoke with George about the Nez Pierce Indian’s decision to go on the war path. He told George that he must take his family away and that in “two suns” the attacks would begin.

 

George took his family under the cover of darkness to a nearby U.S. Fort. The Indian assault began and continued for some time.

 

George rode out alone to his homestead, leaving his young family at the Fort. When he saw the devastation and carnage inflicted upon his neighbors, as well as his own homestead which had been burned to the ground and their livestock slaughtered, he grabbed what few personal belongings he could and returned to the Fort.  Shortly thereafter, when it had settled down somewhat, he led his family away from their Grande Ronde River Homestead, never to return again.

The Gillespie’s eventually ended up in Wawawai, Washington. There they built another homestead. It was now the early 1880s and they remained there for some time. Census records indicate that they may have moved to Bellvue Idaho in the early 1890s. What we do know is that George’s beloved Angeline developed uteran cancer about the same time.

 

It was heard at that time that doctors in California could cure uteran cancer, in fact many types of cancer. So George decided to take Angeline to California to try and save her life. We know today that there was no cure for uteran cancer in those days and Angeline never made it to California. They did make it as far as Riddle Oregon, where they had to stop, as Angeline could not travel any further. There she died on the 14th of April, 1893, at the age of 49.

 

Based on George’s letters, he was terribly grief stricken with the loss of Angeline and really never seemed to recover. He wrote about her in his letters up until his death in November of 1910.

 

George stayed in Riddle, Oregon for a time but eventually returned to Washington. He had mentioned in his correspondence with his sister that he had a Silver Mine there and apparently returned to mining. He also talked about making large amounts of money during his life, most likely this would have been the results of the mine rather than homesteading.

George C. Gillespie, a pioneer of Oregon and a former resident of Wheeler County died at the home of his daughter. Mrs. Shackleford of Clarkston Idaho on November 15, 1910.

Mr. Gillespie had lived past the age at which men ordinarily drop out of the ranks, being well up in the 70's at the time of his death.

He leaves to mourn his loss four children:   J. E. Gillespie, of Heppner, Mrs. Shakelford, of Clarkston, Idaho, Mrs. Davis of Enterprise, Ore., and Mrs. Kitchen of California and numerous grandchildren.

A man of a generous, straight, forward nature and a friend to everyone, his passing will be learned with regret by all who knew him.

By his death another name has been stricken from the ever lessening roll of our old pioneers.   His work is done and done well "as a shock of corn, fully ripe for the harvest" the stern Reaper found him.

We are very proud of our grandparents, George & Angeline Gillespie. They will always remain in our hearts as the true pioneers that they were, pioneers who founded the west and this great country of ours. We have truly been blessed to be able to call them Grandma and Grandpa.

 

 In loving memory,

 

      The Gillespie Family

We know that towards the end of his life he was stricken with a number of ailments typical of aging. He was unable to work his mine and work was hard to come by and he eventually came under the care of his children, John and Nora. He died on the 15th of November, 1910, of a severe stroke. He died penniless and still grief stricken over the loss of Angeline.

 

He was buried in an unmarked grave at Clarkston Vineland Cemetery. In the 1980s a receipt for the burial and grave site were found, whereby the unmarked grave could now be located. Appropriately, a memorial was placed on the site of his grave.

 

 George Charles Gillespie’s obituary reads as follows:

 Brittany & Alicia’s Great, Great, Great Grandfather