From: Commemorative and Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Settlers. Illustrated. Chicago: J..H Beers & Co., 1898

Transcribed by Kate Maynard, 2008.

   EDWARD I. GILLILAND is classed among the enterprising citizens of Karthaus township, Clearfield county. He does not confine his energies to one line of operation, but is a successful farmer, merchant and lumberman at Potterdale. His prosperity has been attained along the line of well-tried maxims of honesty, preserverance and diligence, and to his own efforts is due the position he has achieved in business circles.
   Mr. Gilliland was born in Centre Hill, Centre county, June 9, 1845, the fourth child and third son of John and Lydia (Smith) Gilliland. His grandfather, Joseph Gilliland, was descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors who came to America prior to the war of the Revolution. About 1800 he removed from Chester county, Penn., to Centre county, and was one of the first pioneers of Penn’s Valley. He purchased his land from the Potters, who had secured it by grants given them by the government. Here Joseph Gilliland opened up a farm, reared his family, and became a well-known citizen of the community.
   John Gilliland, the father of our subject, was born in 1806, and reared on the family homestead, secured the greater part of his education under the direction of Timothy Ladd, and when eighteen years of age began teaching school, which profession he followed some eighteen years. He then turned his attention to merchandising, and in connection with a partner purchased the store of the Penn Valley Trading Co., continuing business until the financial panic of 1857, when he lost all he had. He then removed to Clearfield county, where he died, in 1888, at the age of eighty-two years. He was a prominent supporter of the Democratic party, and held a number of township offices. Both he and his wife were Presbyterians. He married Lydia Smith, who was born in 1808, and died in 1889. Her parents were William and Hannah (Lytle)  Smith, the former of whom was a son of William Smith, Sr., who served as an officer in the Revolutionary war. He afterward located on a farm in Lancaster county, Penn., and operated a mill. He was a prominent and popular citizen, and served as justice of the peace for a number of years. William Smith, the maternal grandfather of our subject, engaged in teaching in early life, and afterward followed merchandising in Huntingdon county, Penn. About 1808 he removed to Smithfield (which in that year was incorporated into the borough of Bellefonte), Centre county, where he again followed merchandising and subsequently taught school. He died in Boalsburg. John and Lydia (Smith) Gilliland had six children: Hannah; Joseph, a partner of his brother; William S., a physician of Karthaus; Edward I.; Mary; and Robert C., of Snow Shoe, Centre county.
   Edward I. Gilliland attended the common schools until fourteen years of age, but his educational privileges were very meagre. After his parents’ removal to Clearfield county he aided in the cultivation of the home farm. When fifteen years of age he began working in the lumber woods during the winter, and was thus employed for many years. In 1864, in response to an advertisement, he secured employment on the “Monticello,” a ship sailing from New London, Conn., engaged in the whale fisheries, and chartered to take the Hall Arctic expedition to the northern regions. For eighteen months he was on that vessel, and then returned home, following lumbering through the succeeding winter. In the spring he shipped on the first steamer ever engaged in the American whale-fishing trade, and went to Hudson and Repulse bays, returning late in the autumn of the same year. In the following summer he resumed farming, and in the winter engaged in lumbering. In 1870 he began clerking in the store, and for twelve years he was engaged in farming and lumbering, the farm property which he operated being still in his possession. Later our subject came to Potterdale, where he entered into partnership with his brother Joseph in the mercantile and milling busiiness, under the firm name of Joseph Gilliland & Brother. They have one of the best general stores in this section of the county, and their sales amount to about $15,000 annually. As lumber merchants and farmers they are also successful and their honorable dealing and careful management have brought to them a merited competence.
   In 1870 Mr. Gilliland was united in marriage with Miss Hanna C. Hertlein -- born in Clearfield county, October 12, 1850, died at Karthaus, Penn., September 19, 1897-- a daughter of Lorenz Hertlein, who came from the Kingdom of Wurtemberg to America about 1830, purchasing a tract of raw land in Karthaus township, Clearfield county, whereon he made his home until his death, in 1889. He was a leading Democrat, filled many townhip offices, and was a member of the Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Gilliland have a family of nine children: Rosa M. (wife of F. G. Evans, a farmer), John L. (a bookkeeper), Frank, William E., Bertram P., Estella M., Laura, Ralph and Bernice. Mr. Gilliland was reared in the faith of the Democratic party, and he has ever since affiliated with it. His wife was a member of the Lutheran Church, and both are people of the highest respectability.