Kate’s notes: Grace Gillilan, daughter of Coleman and Sarah Fry Gillilan, was the only child of Coleman’s line to have married and had a child. From that only child, Margaret Grace Gillilan, the family line continues today. The Gillilan pedigree from Margaret Grace can be followed thusly: Margaret Grace> Grace> Coleman> Jesse> James Jr.> James Sr.> Nathan >Samuel >John.
   Although these newspaper reports spelled the name as “Gilliland”, it was actually Gillilan, because James Sr. decided to drop the “d” from the family name. Still, they were cousins to the many Gillilands to be found in Jackson County (those being descendants of two of Nathan’s other sons, Hugh and Samuel, though there is a Gilleland family from Jackson County of another pedigree) and I would imagine that the local reporters, being quite familiar with the large Gilliland clan in the area, simply used the usual spelling of the family name.
   John Benintendi, a descendant of Margaret Grace Gillilan, provided these obituaries and the genealogical notes that follow.

The Jackson Herald
Jackson, Ohio

In Memory of
___________

   Mrs. Grace Gilliland Jones, who departed this life on Saturday, Feb. 9th, 1895, at 6:45 p.m. She was the daughter of Mr. C. and Mrs. Sarah K. Gilliland, of Sinking Springs, Ohio, and the first of the family to be removed from earth. She was born at Portsmouth, Ohio, December 23, 1869, and was in the twenty-sixth year of her age.
   In connection with the First Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, she made a confession of Christ some five years ago, and had her membership transferred to the Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Ohio, July 1, 1894. May 10, 1894, she was united in marriage to Daniel B. Jones, whom she leaves with a little babe, a father and mother, two sisters and two brothers, with other relatives to mourn her early departure. All were her friends. To know her was to love her. Bright, cheerful, loving, industrious and true, both in life and death. The twenty-third Psalm was the voiced expression of her mind and heart just before she left earth for Heaven and where she pillowed her soul, Therefore

“Trust in Jesus weeping mourner,
Fear not: He is guiding thee;
By the streams of living waters
He is leading tenderly.

“All thy tearful supplications
Fall upon his list’ning ear;
He will grant relief in anguish
And have pity on thy prayer.

“Though thy path be rough and lonely,
He will never lead astray;
He is guiding thee, with wisdom
By a straight, though painful way.

“Every step he takes before thee
Whispering comfort all the while;
He will brighten thy sad spirit
And thine hours of grief beguile.

“Trust thy savior, burdened heart;
Dwell and live not on thy grief:
‘Tis his love appoints thy sadness,
‘Tis his joy to grant relief.”
                                                                                                                W. A. H.

   The funeral services were held at the Presbyterian church Tuesday morning at 10 o’clock, conducted by Dr. Hutchison. He gave a beautiful and touching talk on the 23rd Psalm, that being the last one she spoke of. A large number of friends gathered to pay the last loving tribute to her memory, and sympathize with the husband and family.

**************

The Jackson Sun
Jackson, Ohio
February 13, 1895

A Fair Young Life Ended.

   Though expected, the announcement of the death of Mrs. Dan B. Jones brought sadness home to many firesides in this community. Mrs. Jones died at 7 o’clock last Saturday evening. She leaves a husband and a little babe. The funeral services were held at the Presbyterian Church yesterday morning at 10 o’clock, Rev. Hutchinson officiating.
   Few young persons in this city have been more deservedly popular than Grace Gilliland Jones, and it seems almost impossible of realization that she is dead. It was such a little while ago, when the flowers were blooming and the air full of the music of bird voices, in the lover’s month of May, that she joined hands with her husband and began, hopefully, with him, to tread the pathways of a new life. Her tenderness and devotion were all that any man could wish, and she was rearing the sacred edifice of a happy home when she was called to enter the far mysterious land, whence none return.
   Her life story has been but brief, but it comprised all things a noble woman considers worth possessing – a pure love, the sacred seal of motherhood, and to die in the arms of the beloved.
   Cruel and bitter seems the decree that takes away our beloved, but the Power that gave hath the right to take again – and some day it may all be clear to us, who see it not so now.

-Obituaries contributed by John Benintendi
-Transcriptions by Kate Maynard, 2012

 Additional genealogical notes from John Benintendi:

I am a descendant of Coleman and Sarah Fry Gillilan - great great grandson. Coleman had 4 children; the eldest daughter was Grace Gillilan. The three others were Bertha, Robert and Harry. Grace Gillilan married Daniel B. Jones on May 17, 1894. From that marriage, Margaret Grace Gillilan was born on January 29, 1895. Margaret Grace married Everett Taylor and had one child, John Robert (1913-1972). Margaret divorced Everett and married James Knox Hansee, Sr. From this marriage there were 6 children - Elizabeth Ann (1920-1964), Mary Margaret (1923-1974), James Knox Jr. (1926-1999), Bertha (1931-1932), Sally (1934 -stillborn) and Sally (1936- ). Elizabeth Ann had one child that married and has two daughters. Mary did not have any children. James Knox Jr. married and had 4 children (3 living) and has 6 grandchildren. My mother, Sally Jane Hansee, married and had 6 children (all living) and has 18 grandchildren.