Kate's Notes: Captain Coleman Gillilan, a descendant of James Gillilan Sr. of Greenbrier County, WV, is a subject of several articles to be found throughout the Gilliland Trails library and his photogrpahic portrait may be found in the album for "Descendants of James Gillilan, Jr., and Margaret Boggs".
   Prior to reading the biographical sketch below, I had been aware that Captain Gillilan and his wife Sarah had three children -- Bertha, Robert and Harry -- who had not married nor had issue. These siblings are buried together at Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth, Ohio. I had not been aware, however, that the Gillilans had another child, Grace, wife of Dan C. Jones, and who died at the age of 25. Her child, also named Grace, means that this line did not die out with the passing of Bertha but I have no further information on the elder Grace's marriage to Jones nor the fate of her daughter.

Representative      
     Men of Ohio
_________

1900-1903
_________

By 
JAMES K. MERCER
AND
EDWARD K. RIFE

_________

COLUMBUS, OHIO
JAMES K. MERCER, PUBLISHER.
_________

FRED J. HEER, PRINTER.
1903.

*****************

Captain Coleman Gillilan

Was born in Jackson County, Ohio, November 19, 1837. His parents were Jesse Gillilan, a native of Greenbrier County, West Virginia, and Elizabeth (Coleman) Gillilan, a native of Ireland. Captain Gillilan received a common school education, qualifying himself for the work of teacher, but responded to the second call of Lincoln, and he and Captain M. Mannering recruited Company A, Fifty-sixth O. V. I., in which he was mustered in as second lieutenant November 8, 1861, for three years. While on duty at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee, he was taken sick with typhoid pneumonia and sent home, and on July 31, 1862, he resigned on surgeon’s certificate of disability. The summer and fall of 1863 he spent with the army in West Virginia. In July, 1864, he was commissioned by Governor Brough to recruit a company for the One Hundred and Seventy-third O. V. I. On July 27, 1864, appointed Captain of Company C, and discharged with the company June 26, 1865, at the close of the war.
   After his return from the army, he went into the mercantile business at Wales, Ohio, with Emerson McMillan, now of New York City. Then he taught two terms of select school at Wales. In 1866 he went into business with Richard Lloyd & Co., shoe dealers, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and was with them until 1870, when he became a salesman for J. L. Hibbs, who was engaged in the shoe and hardware business. In 1876, he went into the retail mercantile business in Thurman, Ohio, with Charles Smith, and was there from 1877 until 1880.  Then he became a partner in the firm of J. L. Hibbs & Co., and remained for three and a half years. From 1883 to 1889 he was with W. F. Thorn & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. He then went into the shoe and rubber business on commission and from 1889 to 1894 had a boot and shoe agency in Portsmouth, Ohio. He has been salesman for Manss Brothers, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the boot and shoe business ever since. On February 14, 1890, he was appointed a member of the Board of Managers of the Ohio Penitentiary and was reappointed for five years last April. On August 27, 1868, he was married to Mrs. Sarah K. Fry*, daughter of John Amen. His eldest child, Grace, the wife of Dan C. Jones, died at the age of twenty-five, and left one daughter, Grace. The other children of captain Gillilan are Bertha Sisson, Robert Starkey and Harry Coleman.
   He belongs to the G. A. R. He is a member of Bailey Post, Portsmouth, Ohio; also of the Ohio Commandery Loyal Legion, Cincinnati, Ohio; belongs to Cavalry Commandery, Knights Templar Mason, Portsmouth; is a Past Council, River City No. 11, United Commercial Travelers of America. A steadfast Republican in politics, he is a member of the Republican State Central Committee and a consistent member of the First Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, Ohio. In all these relations he has reached active and honorable stations, fulfilling every day his duty to the religious, patriotic and commercial concerns of life.

* In various records Sarah's surname has been spelled Fry or Frye.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010