Biography - HARRISON GILL
It is fitting that in the biographies of the early settlers of the
county some mention should be made of Harrison Gill, who entered among the
first land here and lived near Camargo.
The grandfather of Mr. Gill was born in Ireland. He came to America and
settled in Virginia. His son, Samuel Cresswell Gill, removed from Virginia
to Kentucky and settled in Bath county. Here, on the Licking river, he built
Gill's mills, a noted point in that part of that state. He married Sarah
Malone, by whom he had a large family of children, of whom Garrison Gill was
the oldest, born in June, 1808.
On arriving at the age of twenty-one he found himself in possession of a few
hundred dollars, which his father advised him to invest in western lands. He
accordingly traveled on horseback to Illinois, first to his uncle, Thomas
Gill, in Cumberland county. He found his uncle busy shingling the roof of a
house, and he told young Gill if he would help him finish the shingling he
would go with him to Coles County in search of land. The first point above
Charleston where they found any one living was Major Ashmore, at the mouth
of Brushy Fork. North of that he came to an Indian camp, a French and Indian
trading point, where Hugo, or Bridgeport, now is. His uncle mischievously
informed the Indians that Gill was a young Kentuckian who had come for the
purpose of taking to himself an Indian wife. He selected his land, the
northwest quarter of section 35 and the west half of the southwest quarter
of the same section. The railroad reservoir, east of Camargo, is now on
these tracts. He returned immediately to Palestine and made his entry. The
patents for the land, now in the possession of George C. Gill, of Camargo,
were signed on the 8th of March, 1830, and bear the signature of Andrew
Jackson. This was the first land regularly entered in the territory
composing what is now Douglas county. Most of the land is still in his
possession. He returned to Kentucky soon after selecting the land.
At the age of twenty-eight he married Georgia Ann Landsdowne, a native of
Virginia.
Mr. Gill was elected sheriff of Bath county, Kentucky, in 1860, and from
1862 to 1864 was judge of the county court.
In early life Mr. Gill was a Whig. On the breaking out of the war he became
a Union man. Mainly through his instrumentality the Twenty-fourth Kentucky
Regiment was recruited at the Springs in 1862. In the fall of the same year
the Springs was also the headquarters of Gen. Nelson, who ordered all the
home guards of Kentucky to rendezvous at that point for the defence of the
eastern portion of the state.
From the fall of 1863 to the fall of 1869 Mr. Gill resided near Kentucky,
having been driven from his home on account of his Union sentiments.
Extracted 16 Jan 2020 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, pages 258-259.
