Kate’s Notes: There are two biographies here for one Gilleland family, that of Rev. Leland Macaboy Gilleland, D.D., and his daughter, Tanetta. This family is of Pennsylvania origins but the Rev. Gilleland’s ministry took them westward to Indiana and Michigan.
    Tragically, both the Rev. Gilleland and his wife, Lavinia, died young from typhoid fever, but members of his congregation at the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church insured that the Gilleland children -- Bertha Danforth, Tanetta Spafford, Leland Hedges and Vinnie Sarah -- would receive the benefits of a good education.
    Tanetta, second daughter of the couple and born 5 October 1874, became a noted educator and is the focus of the second biographical profile. She eventually moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where she passed away in July, 1975, attaining the age of 100 years. For a period of time the Pueblo census shows Tanetta sharing a household with a young cousin, Andrew Hedges. The Hedges family connection can be attributed to Tanetta’s sister Bertha, who married prominent physician Dr. Albert Parker Hedges, a nephew of Dr. Samuel Parker Hedges and his wife Rachel Hobart Danforth.
  Tanetta herself did not marry. Her brother Leland became a practicing physician in Plainwell, Michigan, married and had at least two children. Sister Vinnie married, on 22 August 1895, Robert Clay Burchell and had at least one son.
   The pedigree of the Gilleland children via the Danforth family tree may be found in the book, Danforth genealogy: Nicholas Danforth, of Framlingham, England, and Cambridge, N.E. (1589-1638) and William Danforth of Newbury, Mass. (1640-1721) and their Descendants by John Joseph May, 1902. This volume is available for reading via the Google digitized library.

A Century of History 

of the 

Walnut Street 
Presbyterian Church 

of 
Evansville, Indiana 

With Sketches of it's Pastors, Officers, and 

Prominent Members and Reminiscences 

of Early Times 

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

Part I. By Mary F. Reilly 

Published in 1891

Part II. By Emily Orr Clifford 

Published in 1921 

______________

KIRKPATRICK - HEIM PTG. CO. 

EVANSVILLE 

1921 

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

CHAPTER XIX. 

________________

REV. LELAND GILLELAND, D. D. 

    In 1884 Dr. Gilleland was called to supply the pulpit of Walnut Street Church. On his first appearance in the sacred desk he captured the hearts of his hearers by his earnest and enthusiastic preaching, and throughout the time that he remained with this people they never lost their interest in his sermons, and in almost every household they were the subject of conversation when the service was over. 
    It is impossible to estimate the extent of value of the good work accomplished during the six years that he remained in connection with the church. Dr. Gilleland came to Evansville from Tideout, Penn., and previous to his residence there he had lived in White Pigeon, Michigan, where he had charge of a church. Born of Protestant Irish parents, he inherited their staunch Presbyterian views from which he never departed, and few men have ever seemed to human vision, to be worth so much to the church and the world. 
    That his earthly usefulness was cut short could only be because some service more grand and fruitful than any on earth awaited him in the heavenly life. The resignation of Dr. Gilleland was received by the church with the most profound regret. He removed to Lake View, Chicago, in October, 1890, and had entered upon his work with the promise of a bright future opening before him, when he was stricken down with disease and died on March 17th, 1891. 
    It was a noble testimony to his character, as true as it was exalted, which Dr. Marquis bore at his funeral, when he said: "I think he was as little influenced by considerations of personal ambition or emolument as any man I ever knew. He never asked concerning a project or act, 'what will it do for or bring me?' but 'what will it do for Christ and for men?' He was single-eyed in that, the controlling purpose of his life was to please Him whose servant he was. It is not to be wondered at that such a man should be rich in friends, the possession of that best earthly heritage, the devoted friendship, the strong confidence and the lasting affection of the right minded and sincere. The loss to the church and the world is to be deplored when such men are summoned away from a life of usefulness to a higher and better sphere." 
    A few weeks after the death of Dr. Gilleland his wife, who had faithfully nursed him through his long and severe illness, was taken with the same disease (typhoid fever) of which he died, and in a few short weeks was laid to rest beside him, leaving a young family to be cared for by friends and relatives. The members of Walnut Street Church and the church of which Dr. Gilleland was pastor made up a handsome sum for the education of his children, which was a praiseworthy act. 
    Mrs. Gilleland was a valuable aid to her husband in his work, a pleasant companion and a loving mother, devoting herself to the comfort and happiness of her family, and the blow which severed her from her children and friends was severely felt. After her husband's death she was inconsolable, and she was ready to express herself in the words of Father Ryan: 

"My feet are weary and my hands are tired, 

My soul's oppressed. 
And with desire, I now desire 
Rest only rest ; 
And I am restless, still 
Far down the west 
Life's sun is setting, and I see the shore 
Where I shall rest." 

---------------------

EDUCATORS OF MICHIGAN

______________

BIOGRAPHICAL

______________

ILLUSTRATED

______________

J. H. BEERS & CO.
CHICAGO, ILL. 
1900

TANETTA GILLELAND, A. M., recently instructor in Natural Science at Kalamazoo College, now intructor in Latin and Science at Beacon High School, is a faithful and efficient worker, and her friendly interest in the students is appreciated by them as much as her aid in intellectual lines. As a member of the Y.W.C.A. and the Eurodelphian Society she has been especially helpful in promoting the higher interests of the school.
   Miss Gilleland spent her childhood in white Pigeon, Michigan, where she was born, and she obtained her preparatory education in various places, attending high school at Evansville, Indiana, for a time before entring Lake Forest (Ill.) University, from which she was graduated in 1895, with the degree of A.B. During part of her senior year she taught chemistry in the seminary at Lake Forest, as substitute. After graduating she taught Science one year each at Racine, Wisconsin (in the high school), and Dundee, Illinois, in the fall of 1897 accepting her late position at Kalamazoo, and in September, 1899, coming to her present incumbency at Beacon. In June, 1898, she received the Master’s degree from Lake Forest University.

Additional notes for Tanetta Gilleland:
In 1935 Tanetta is recorded as having taught foreign languages at Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado. Following her death in 1975, she was buried at Beulah Cemetery in Pueblo County.

-- Transcriptions by Kate Maynard, 2009.