Kate’s notes:  The Rev. E. A. Gilliland was Ernest A. Gilliland, a son of John Alexander Gilliland and Lucinda Sweatland Owen. (See genealogical notes below.)

From the Decatur Weekly Herald Dispatch
Decatur, Illinois
3 February, 1894

New Pastor for Lexington

   Rev. E. A. Gilliland, who has been pastor in charge of the Christian church in Niantic, Ill., accepted an invitation to preach at Lexington last Sunday. News was received from that place that Mr. Gilliland had been engaged as pastor of the Lexington church for the coming year. This gentleman is the younger brother of Rev. J. H. Gilliland, pastor of the Christian church of this city. He is a graduate of Eureka college, and is an eloquent and logical pulpit orator. – Bloomington Pantagraph.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2012

Genealogical notes:

The Rev. Gilliland’s line can be traced thusly:
Ernest A. Gilliland> John A.>Hiram Alexander> James Gordon>John C.

One important piece of information I have not been able to find is the date/place of Rev. Gilliland’s death. The last records I have of him are a 1930 census and directory placing him in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he had become pastor of the First Christian Church in 1923. (Janesville Daily Gazette, Aug. 6, 1923)

There is a very nice outline of this family tree at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/i/l/Charles-Ross-Gilliland/index.html
“The Oklahoma Gillilands of Roger Mills County” by Charles R. Gilliland