Kate's Notes: The Robert Gilliland of this biographical sketch for Lenawee County, Michigan is the same Robert Gilliland profiled

              PORTRAIT AND
BIOGRAPHICAL              
 
ALBUM
---OF---

LENAWEE COUNTY, MICH.,

CONTAINING

Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent
and Representative Citizens of the County

TOGETHER WITH

PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL THE GOVERNORS OF MICHIGAN, AND
OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

_______________

CHICAGO:
CHAPMAN BROTHERS
1888.

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Robert Gilliland is the senior proprietor of the Gilliland Electric Company, in the city of Adrian, which was established in 1882. He first established this business in the city of Hudson, this county, in the fall of 1871, upon a small scale, and enlarged his facilities as the demand required. The articles which are manufactured by this company are telelgraph insulators, pins and brackets, and while at Hudson the entire products of his factory were sold on contracts to the Western Union Telegraph Company. The business was continued nine years in that city, and then he removed his works to Mishawaka, Ind., where he remained for two years. 
   In 1882 Mr. Gilliland came to Adrian and established his present works, manufacturing himself the machinery with which the establishment was supplied. He made valuable additions from time to time, until 1887, when he added new machinery for the manufacture of telegraph and electric light supplies. Much of this valuable machinery was invented and perfected by Mr. Gilliland, and the amount of labor saved can be realized, when it is known that a single machine will perform the work which formerly required ten men. He has recently invented a machine for the manufacture of telegraph pins, which makes, when it is run to its fullest capacity, 5,200 pins per day, and the products of the establishment are still taken by the Western Union Telegraph Company. The company was at one time behind its orders 337,000 pins, while in the months of July and August there were shipped 560,000. When he first commenced the business, the annual output was 200,000, while in 1887 it ran to 2,000,000 pins. The establishment is located on three acres of ground, and consists of four separate buildings, besides five dry houses. The main building is of brick, and is two stories in height. Steam power is used, 50-horse power engines being employed. The present company, formed in the sping of 1887, is composed of Robert Gilliland and his two sons, E.T. and J.F. Gilliland, and is incorporated under the laws of the State.
   E.T. Gilliland is in company with Thomas A. Edison, the famous electirc light man, in the manufacture of electrical apparatus, at Orange, N.J., but Mr. Gilliland resides in the city of New York. The Adrian Company’s works are located near the Wabash Depot, on Dean Street, near Maumee, where they are afforded the best of shipping facilities.
   Robert Gilliland was born in Ontario County, N.Y., Aug, 1, 1822. He came to Michigan in the fall of 1863, and located at Hudson, this county.

-- Contributed and transcribed by Kate Maynard, 2009.

Afterword: No history of telegraphy or the development of the telephone is complete wihout mention of the Gillilands, but here are a few volumes for those interested in the role played by these pioneering inventors:

Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric by Stephen B. Adams, Orville R. Butler
The History of the Telephone by Herbert N. Casson
The Telephone and Telephone Exchanges By John E. Kingsbury