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Letter from John M. Gilkison s/o John & Bathsheba.
Keating, Oregon Jan. 28, 1932
Dear Allies:
Your letter mailed the 17th inst, was read yesterday.
We have 46' inches of snow hers and it is had to get in or out.. Do not,
get our mail very often and yesterday was the first we have had
heard. of Murry's death. Well in his condition, the poor man in better
off.
I am glad that you have taken on the task of finding
out all you can about your Grandfathers ancestors and I suppose that I can
give more information about that than anyone now living, so I will tell
you all I know and you can file it away for future generations.
The original line of Gilkisons were Danes, but in the
9th or 10th century when the Danes overran England and North Ireland,
there was a young Danish General in the Danish Army by the name of
Gilkison. He fall in love with a young Irish colleen and married her an
settled in Dungannon, in the North of Ireland. This part of our history I,
got from an old educated Dane that was with the Oregon Lumber Co. on
Tucker Flat, in the 80's. He knew Danish history from, the earliest
civilization. His name was Charley Baker, a big fat old Dane. No doubt
that your father and Mark will remember him. He was their log scaler. But
our line has been Irish for the last 100 years. Between that date and 1812
I know nothing but as to our progeny from then on.
In your Great Grandfathers family in Ireland, there
were three sons, John, James and William, they were drafted in the British
Navy quite young. John was. killed in the battle on Lake Erie in 1812.
James and William deserted from the, British Navy and made their way to
Ohio the same year. They settled in Jefferson County when it was, mostly
woods, wild animals and Indians. James was your, Great Grandfather, not
John. He was 20 when he left the British Navy; so according, to that he
was born in 1792. He married a girl by the name of Blair, and they had
three sons and 3 three daughters. John my father was the oldest, then
William, who died in Illinois, long years ago, and your Grandfather,
James . The daughters were, Susan, who married William Hutchinson, and
died a few years ago in California. Isabella, who married Elias Sutton,
and died in Champaign, Ill. and Martha, who married Lewis Walton and died
in Iowa. Your grandfathers brother William, first married in Ohio. Her
name was Warren. They lived in Chandlersville, Muskingham Co. She
died there. They had three children, John W., Bruce and. Mina. Bruce
and Mina staid with their grandparents, Warren after their mothers death.
Both married and were still living there a few years ago. In the early 60'
a William and your Grandfather, Martha and the Suttons, with Grandmother
Gilkison, all went to Illinois. William and your Grandfather settled near
Matoon, and the Sutton a near Champaign. I have not the date of your great
Grandfathers death, but he died in Ohio several. years before they went to
Illinois. William married again after he went: there and they had a large
family of boys, who settled in that state. As to my fathers and your
grandfathers, well they are all in Oregon except my sister Marda, who
lives in Cambridge, Ohio. William Hutchenson went to California in
the 50's. They had 2 children, James and Clara. James married
in Ohio and went to Florida and in the early ______. Hutchenson sent
for his wife and daughter, Clara married David Horn, Mark knows the
history of the Horn family as well as I do. Elias and Isabelle
Sutton had a large family of boys and one girl. The boys were all railroad
men and James visited this country with aunt Susan in 1887. The
daughter, Florence, married a man by the name of Jefferies, they visited
all us about 22 or 23 years ago. The Jefferies lived at Fort Pierre,
South Dakota.
Your Great grandfathers brother, William, who came to
Jefferson County Ohio in 1812, married and settled down there and had a
large family of boys and about the time I came to Oregon in 1885 there was
a whole township of Gilkisons in Jefferson County.
Mark has the name wrong. John was the one that
was killed on Lake Erie and James was your Great Grandfather and William
was your Great Great Uncle. Now I know I am correct about this for I got
it from my Mother and my oldest sister, Martha Barrett, and they knew the
history of the Gilkisons, perfectly, from the time of their coming to
America in 1812. As to the Gilkisons in Ireland, I have no history,
except that there was a cousin of my Grandfathers that settled in
Mansfield, Ohio and he had a son that came to California in '49 and
drifted north to Oregon in 56 and 25 years ago was living at Cottage Grove
in southern Ore. I corresponded with his son, James M. Gilkison, who
at that time was managing a furniture plant in Albany.
There was another of the old cousins from Ireland that
settled in New Orleans, Lousiana. But they got the name twisted and
spelled it Gilkerson, but all the Gilkisons in America, that came form
Ireland are direct descendants of the Danish General.
The only Gilkison that I ever heard of in Ireland was a
great Aunt of mine, who was said to be the handsomest woman that ever
walked the streets of Dungannon. Perhaps some time she will have a
relative in America that will pattern after her, but so far I have failed
to find them.
The John W. son of uncle William, was a rambler.
He left Illinois in his younger days and was last heard of in Trinadad,
Colorado. I think your Aunt Clara Maharry corresponded with him at
one time, but that was years ago.
This letter will no doubt, be interesting to all the
North Powder Gilkisons. If I should run on to any more data
concerning the name, I will give it to you. I may have some among my
old papers in my home at North Powder, and the first time I am over there
I will try and see you and I may be able to help you out some more.
I just looked out and it is snowing. We only have
46 inches but we may get the 4 feet yet.
Yours very truly
John M. Gilkison Peggy's Pages
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