Kate’s notes: Researching the life of William McCalla Gilleland can be a bit frustrating for the amateur historian/genealogist, as the accounts of his life can be conflicting depending on the source of the material. As I had remarked in a preface to a transcript of William’s short biography, published  in Poets and Poetry of Texas, Gilleland’s version of events surrounding the Comanche attack that killed his parents did not mirror those of his more famous sister, Mary Jane Gilleland Fisher. Other details in that same biographical sketch called into question the accuracy of the biographer’s material. 
   Speaking only as a person who has studied the limited information available to me regarding William’s life, much of that provided by himself, I have grown suspect of any details in published sources and try to view the forest rather than the trees, as it were. From my perspective of mere reader, Gilleland comes across as a rather self-absorbed and depressed man who was prone to indulging in poetic license, even with the facts of his own life. No doubt he had a childhood scarred by trauma and deprivation and in his adulthood, illness and pain led to his search for relief in narcotics. This is not an indictment of the man himself, but a caution to any genealogists that all of this must be taken into consideration when trying to fit the puzzle pieces of his life. 
    Gilleland was fascinated with Confederate heroes and Civil War battles almost to the point of obsession, though strangely found little such creative interest in poetic memorials to the Texas pioneers of his own family or those of his wife. In fact, I have yet to read an interview or biography wherein Gilleland mentions his wife or children by name. The reference to Gilleland’s “large family” in Poets and Poetry of Texas was yet another exaggeration, quite possibly by the author, as he had but two children: a son, George, and a daughter, Kate, the former dying just a few short years after his father’s passing.
   With regard to the obituary provided below, I wish to turn my attention to the information provided about his wife, for whom no name is provided other than “the daughter of the Hon. Kenneth Anderson”. North Carolina-born Anderson had three children; two sons, Theophiles and Malcolm, entered the practice of law and became judges. The third child I assume was the daughter, Jane Bell (Belle) Anderson, who in 1847 married Henry Williams Sublett, of Hugenot origins, who died in 1859. (See: http://austintxgensoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1976.1.pdf) I have found no mention of children by this marriage, but William Gilleland had to be Jane’s second husband.
   Further confusing the issue, William’s only daughter Katie married a man also named Kenneth Anderson who, as it turns out, was a grandson of Kenneth Lewis Anderson, Jane’s father, by way of Malcolm Anderson, her brother. In essence, Katie Gilleland and Kenneth Anderson were first cousins. These connections are affirmed in a news item of 1932 regarding the 50th wedding anniversary of Katie and Kenneth Anderson. (A transcription is provided in the Gilliland Trails library.)
   I do not as a matter of rule preface obituaries at such length or with purely personal observations. Yet the rather conflicting details of his life, so dependent upon the source, should caution anyone researching this family to probe multiple sources in order to reveal certain basic facts. I am by no means an expert on this family line nor have I the time at my disposal to pen the lengthy thesis this family deserves but felt it necessary to provide some explanation for what appear to be inadequate histories and sketches scattered throughout the Gilliland Trails library.

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Austin Weekly Statesman
Austin, Texas
20 October, 1892

WILLIAM M. GILLELAND
______________

The Popular Poet, Dies in San Antonio of
Heart Disease.

   Mr. Gilleland’s parents came to Texas from Philadelphia in 1837, when the young poet was about 5 years of age. His father, Mr. Johnstone Gilleland, was in the Texas army in 1838. In 1840 both parents were killed by the Indians. They pierced William through the body and his recovery was almost miraculous. That wound in connection with the one received here in Austin by the reckless discharge of a pistol in the hands of a citizen, so shattered the hip bones that life was despaired of and he for months was lashed down to a litter. Those two wounds so undermined his constitution and weakened his nervous system that for years, he was never free of pain, only as he found temporary relief in narcotics. Notwithstanding his nervous and suffering condition, he wrote many of the most popular poems of the day, which have been published in magazines, books, and newspapers, and which are left to future generations as an imperishable monument. Up to the time of his death scarcely a week passed that he was not appealed to for contributions to the press. Mr. Gilleland had many friends all over the state who will hear with profound sorrow of his death. When a young man he was a leader of society here in Austin and very popular with the governors and state officers. At 18 years of age, at the earnest solicitation of many in Eastern Texas, he delivered his first political speech, which was pronounced by the hundreds who heard it, a masterly effort. Genial and warm hearted, intellectual and chivalrous, he held a strong place in the affections of those who knew him best. Mr. Gilleland was of distinguished ancestry. They were noble and renouned[sic]. His wife died about eight months ago. Their union was a happy one. Mrs. Gilleland was the daughter of Hon. Kenneth Anderson, who was vice president of the republic of Texas, and who held other distinguished positions of trust. She was a sweet and lovely woman, a devoted wife and mother. Ever since her death Mr. Gilleland has been so depressed in spirit that life was a burden, and his only thought and desire was to prepare to meet her. They now sleep side by side. He left two children, a son and a daughter, whose tender and loving affection soothed his pathway to the tomb. Many a sigh will be heaved and tear fall as the reader of those beautiful poems learn of his death. Mrs. Fisher, his only sister, was unexpectedly summoned by telegram, whither she went on her sad mission.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2012

Added notes: 
According to the obituary for William’s son George, both father and son died of consumption.
Johnson (Johnstone) Gilleland, William’s father, had served in Captain Tomlinson’s company of Texas troops.