HISTORY
OF
MONTGOMERY COUNTY,
TOGETHER WITH

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH VALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS,
PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER
AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST PART,
OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

BY H. W. BECKWITH,
OF THE DANVILLE BAR; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF
WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO.
_________________

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
_________________

Chicago:
H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.
1881.

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   Samuel Gilliland, farmer, Crawfordsville, was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, about 1809, and was the tenth child in a family of eleven by John and Hannah (Michaels) Gilliland. When he was sixteen he left home and went to Butler county, Ohio. There he lived six years, got most of his education, which was obtained in the common schools, and December 20, 1832, was married to Polly Tronsdale. Next year he emigrated to Montgomery county, and settled on the Terra Haute road, five miles southwest of Crawfordsville. He had been there before and purchased eighty acres of land for $300. This, with a two-horse team and a little household furniture, was all the property he had at that time. He lived on this farm forty-five years, and then in 1878 moved to his present residence, on the same turnpike, two miles south of Crawfordsville. His wife died in 1844, and on March 9, 1848, he was married to Sarah Miller. She died in May 1870. By the first wife he became the father of five children: John T. (deceased), Lydia Jane, Anna Laura, wife of Emmons Busenbark; Margaret, wife of John Remley, and William, who died in infancy. The second bore Mary Ellen, wife of William Smith; Martha E., married to Edward Ray; Nancy Isabelle, Samuel M. (deceased), James B., William C. and Henry E.  Mr. Gilliland was county commissioner of Montgomery county sixteen or seventeen years. He was first appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Mulligan, and after that was several years successively elected. He was in office when the war came on, and exerted his influence to pay by concurrent taxation the heavy expenses of the county incurred by hiring men to fill the quotas, and was chiefly instrumental in bringing about that policy. By procuring men in this way the county avoided the draft at every call, and by the pay-as-you-go plan the war was but a little while ended until it was out of debt. This made taxes burdensome for a few years. Mr. Gilliland himself paid $1,000 a year, but his foresight was afterward freely acknowledged in the most satisfactory manner. At the time, however, his term expiring, he was not reelected, so strong was the popular willingness to sacrifice future good to present convenience. But at the end of three years he was recalled by the people to his old position on the board. Mr. Gilliland was one of the corporators of the Crawfordsville and Southwestern Gravel Road Company; he is a heavy stockholder in it, and has been superintendent a good many years. He owns 1,200 acres of land, all lying in Union township, worth $60,000, and has $15,000 in ready cash, and is entirely free from debt. This has all been accumulated by hard labor and successful management. He first settled in the woods, and has done his full share of sturdy toil in clearing off the forests and improving land. He has been a democrat from his youth up, and cast his first presidential vote for Gen. Jackson, in 1832.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2012