Kate's Notes: Thanks go to cousin Nancy Downard for providing the newspaper article below. Although I contacted the office of the Van Wert Times-Bulletin in an effort to obtain the very nice photo that accompanied the article it appears they were unable to locate the original.

Alonzo Gilliland, the subject of this article, was born 15 February 1879 and died in January of 1971, not quite two years after this article was published.

Times-Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio  
Thursday, Feb. 20, 1969
Transribed by Kate Maynard, 2008

Alonzo Gilliland Celebrates Birthday

Middle Point Has New Nonagenarian

By Judy Brown
Times-Bulletin Staff Writer
   
   “I didn’t plan anything,” laughs Alonzo Gilliland of Middle Point, when asked the secret of reaching 90 years of age.
   Standing tall with twinkling eyes and dark hair that is barely silvered, Gilliland, who by virtue of his birthday Feb. 15 is now the oldest man in Middle Point, does not look his age.
   “I know I’m older than I used to be,” he chuckles, “But,” he says philosophically, “I’m thankful I’m alive and in such good health.”
   Gilliland and his wife, Lois, live in a trim, white bungalow on E. Jackson St. in Middle Point. Mrs. Gilliland, slender with snowy hair, is a youthful-looking 79.
   The couple belongs to the Van Wert County Senior Citizens Club, but has not attended meetings for several years since Mrs. Gilliland stopped driving.
   Failing eyesight restrict Mrs. Gilliland from sewing, cooking, reading and gardening, but she can watch televiion, and her husband reads the newspaper to her. The Gillilands have subscribed to the Van Wert newspaper since their marriage, Nov. 16, 1911.

*  *  *

   A LIFELONG resident of Ridge Township, Gilliland was born on a 120-acre farm, three miles from Van Wert on the Middle Point Road, west of the old Ridge High School. His parents were Robert and Lydia Gilliland, and he had two brothers and a sister. His sister, Mrs. Glenn (Helen) Livingston, resides at 920 Park Street.
   He recalls that he met his future bride, the daughter of Cary and Mary Swick, at an ice cream social at church in Ridge Township. After their marriage, they lived on several different farms, “but always in Ridge Township,” until March of 1965 when they moved to town.
   Gilliland says he operated a “Common, everyday farm,” raising corn, oats and beans, pigs, cows, horses, chickens and sheep.
   Mrs. Gilliland helped her husband, “milking cows, and raising chickens and children.” The couple always had a host of cats and dogs, and miss these family pets in their present location.

*  *  *

   GILLILAND did all his farming with horses. “Tractors are alright,” he says, but he was not mechanically inclined.
   The couple belonged to the Van Wert Grange for many years, and although Mrs. Gilliland describes her husband as a homebody, he “loved the fair,” going early and staying late.
   Gilliland says he liked the horse races and stock, but did not enjoy the fair as much when it changed, “and they began having it at night.” Not so many people go now during the day, he says, “and we’re getting too old to run around after dark.”

*   *   *

   IN ADDITION to farming, Gilliland worked more than 10 years at The Borden Foods Co. and helped Wassenberg Flower Gardens during the planting season. 
   He was active in the old Beechgrove Methodist Church on Ohio 116. He and his wife now belong to the Middle Point United Methodist Church.
   He enjoys card games and shuffleboard at the Senior Citizens Club, and subscribes to several farm publications in addition to the Times-Bulletin.
   As for exercise, Gilliland says he prefers sweeping or shoveling the sidewalk to walking any great distance.
   He and his wife have twin sons, four daughters, 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Their children are Gale of Rt. 2. Ohio City; Dale of Rt. 4; Mrs. John W. (Mary) Kline of 317 N. Market St.; Mrs. Maurice (Margaret) Harman of 323 Thorn St.; Mrs. James (Louise) Tingley of Mercer County and Mrs. Burdette (Martha) Curtiss of Mount Vernon.