The Pittsburgh Dispatch
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
July, 1890

THE CITY OFFICERS.
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Record of the Men Who Manage 
Allegheny County Affairs
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Biographical Sketches of the Persons Who Fill the
Most Responsible Positions.

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The Postmaster.

    Postmaster John A. Gilleland was born in Ohio township and remained there on a farm until grown. He then got employment in the drygoods house of the late William Semple on March 4, 1861, and remained there until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Ninety-third Pennsylvania Regiment, serving under Colonel J. P. Clark and Captain John S. Bell, in Company E, and was discharged May, 1863. Mr. Gilleland cast his first vote in the army near Sharpburg, Md. He re-enlisted in the 100-days’ service and served in the same regiment in Company B, and under the same captain and same colonel. He again enlisted in the Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served until the end of the war and was discharged in Victoria, Tex., January 1886*. This time Mr. Gilleland was a Second Lieutenant and when mustered out drew his pay, $1,195.83. After the close of the war Mr. Gilleland returned to Allegheny and again entered Mr. Semple’s service, subsequently starting a dry goods store of his own on Beaver avenue and still does business at the same place, latterly as a merchant tailor. In 1869 he married Miss Dunlap, daughter of H. M. Dunlap. Mr. Gilleland objects to the statement that he is a prominent politician, though he does not deny that he has taken a rather active part in politics. He has never been a member of Councils. He served four years, however, on the School Board, and last spring was re-elected a member of the Poor Boad. He is in his 50th year, and is powerfully built, and looks as though he might be able to stand the strain of office for many years to come.

*An obvious error on the part of the paper.

                                        -- transcription by Kate Maynard,  2011