MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD

AND ILLUSTRATED

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY

CONTAINING A

COMPENDIUM OF LOCAL BIOGRAPHY

Including Biographical Sketches of Hundreds of Prominent Old Settlers
and Representative Citizens of
BUTLER, POLK, SEWARD, YORK AND FILLMORE COUNTIES,
NEBRASKA,
with a Review of their Life Work; their Identity with the Growth and De-
velopment of this Region; Reminiscences of Personal History
and Pioneer Life; and other Interesting and Valuable
Matter which should be Preserved in History.

ALSO A

COMPENDIUM OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY,

Containing Biographical Sketches of Hundreds of the Greatest Men and Celebrities America has Produced
in Various Walks of Life, including Great Statesmen, Lawyers, Jurists, Scientists, Editors,
Poets, Writers, Financiers, Railroad Magnates, Army and Navy Officers, Inventors,
Speculators, Scouts, Merchant Princes, Humorists, Electricians, Educators,
Preachers, Philanthropists, Artists, Manufacturers, Abolitionists,
Explorers, All the Presidents, etc.
________________

ILLUSTRATED.
________________
CHICAGO:  
GEO. A. OGLE & CO.
PUBLISHERS, ENGRAVERS AND BOOK MANUFACTURERS.
1899

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ELWOOD C. GILLILAND, one of the leading newspaper men of York county, is editor and proprietor of the Blue Valley Journal published at McCool Junction. He was born in Hancock county, Illinois, February 28, 1870, and is a son of George W. and Mary (Smith) Gilliland, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Illinois. George W. Gilliland was a farmer, and in 1884, thinking to benefit his condition, he removed to Ellis county, Kansas, locating on a farm near Hays City, his family joining him the following year. In 1893 he removed to Davenport, Nebraska, where he still resides.
    Elwood C. Gilliland, our subject, was educated in the county schools of Hancock county, Illinois, and also at Carthage, in the same county, supplementing this with a course in the high school at Hays City, Kansas, having removed to Kansas with the family when fifteen years of age. For six years he taught school in Ellis county, Kansas, and during vacations learned the printers trade. In 1894 he went to Davenport, Nebraska, and for about two years was connected with the People’s Journal at that place. He then, April 1, 1896, leased the plant and had full charge of it until May 15, 1897. He then established the Blue Valley Journal at McCool Junction, which he has since successfully published. The Journal is an enterprising eight-page paper and is circulated extensively throughout this section. It is essentially a local paper, although broad and aggressive in defending the honest convictions of its editor.
    Mr. Gilliland was married at Davenport, Nebraska, June 9, 1897, to Florence Berkey, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of David A. and Louisa (Phillippi) Berkey, both of whom were natives of the same state.
    Mr. Gilliland is a member of the M. W. A. at McCool Junction and takes an active interest in all moves calculated to advance the interests of his home town. Both he and his wife are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church at Davenport, Nebraska.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2013