California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


JOHN GILL. A capable and enterprising agriculturist, John Gill is industriously engaged 
in the prosecution of a calling upon which the support and wealth of our nation is largely de- 
pendent, being pleasantly located in Stanislaus county, about a mile north of Newman. A son 
of the late Samuel Gill, he was born August 2, 1842, in Pickaway county, Ohio. 

A native of Ohio, Samuel Gill was reared to agricultural pursuits, and during his earlier life 
was engaged in farming in that state. Migrating to Iowa in 1863, he followed his chosen oc- 
cupation in Ringgold county for nine years. Coming from there to California in 1872, he took 
up land in Tulare county, and was there employed in stock-raising until his death. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Lukens. who spent her entire life in Ohio, dying in early womanhood. She bore 
him three daughters and two sons, John, the special subject of this sketch, being the fourth 
child in order of birth. 

Educated in the common schools of Ohio, John Gill subsequently obtained a practical knowledge 
of the various branches of agriculture on the home farm. In August. 1864, at the age of 
twenty-two years he enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio Regiment Infantry, 
and served till the close of the war. He participated among other engagements in the battles of 
Franklin and Nashville. He was afterward engaged in farming with his father in Iowa, and 
came with him to California in 1872, settling in Tulare county, about twenty-two miles east 
of Visalia, where he was engaged in stock-raising and stock-dealing for twenty years. Going 
to Fresno, in 1892, Mr. Gill was employed in business as a vineyardist for two years, having 
eighty acres of land set out with grapes. Removing to Stanislaus county in 1894, he traded 
his vineyard for three hundred and twenty acres of land, lying a mile east of Hills Ferry, where 
he resided several years. In October, 1903, Mr. Gill, having previously sold his ranch, rented 
the farm which he now occupies, and is devoting its one hundred and sixty-two acres to the 
raising of alfalfa, which is a most profitable crop for this section of the state. 

In Ringgold county, Iowa, Mr. Gill married Catherine Bellamy, a native of Kentucky, and 
they have five children living, namely: Mrs. Laura May Osborn. residing near Portersville, 
Tulare county; Robert M., of Stanislaus county: Mrs. Alice Kate Dolby, of Stanislaus county; 
Mrs. Edna Belle Walhouse, of Livermore, this state, and J. Roy, at home. Politically Mr. Gill 
is a steadfast Republican, supporting the principles of that party by voice and vote.