Published in The New York Times, May 14, 1903

DEATH OF E. T. GILLILAND
________________

He Was the Inventor of Appliances for
Improving Telephone Service.

   Ezra Torrence Gilliland died yesterday from heart disease at his home in Pelham Manor in his fifty-fifth year. Mr. Gilliland was a native of Adrian, Mich. At the beginning of the civil war he became an expert telegraph operator, and when the telephone was invented he became interested both as a manufacturer and improver. Chief among his inventions are the Gilliland bell, for attracting the attention of  “central”, the Gilliland switch board, now in common use, and the exchange, of which he gave the original idea.
   For many years Mr. Gilliland was in charge of the Bell Telephone Company’s experiment station in Boston and while there did most of his important work. He was one of the organizers of the Western Electric company and was also associated with Thomas A. Edison for several years.
   Of late years Mr. Gilliland had not been active in electrical work. Up to a year ago he held the Presidency of Pelham Manor. A widow survives him. The funeral will take place at Pelham Manor on Friday at 10 o’clock. Interment will be at Adrian, Mich.

-- transcribed by Kate Maynard, 2009