Tag Archives: Gilchrist

Virgil James Gilchrist

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Virgil James Gilchrist
birth: 28 Mar 1900 in Richland Twp., Fulton Co., IN to William Jefferson Gilchrist & Millie Artemicia Mow
death: 08 Apr 1971 in Jeffersonville, Clark County, IN
burial: Walnut Ridge Cemetery, Jeffersonville, Clark Co., IN

marriage: 25 Oct. 1927 in South Bend, St. Joseph Co., IN
Alcie Elizabeth O’Dell
birth: 25 Oct 1903 in Montgomery County, IN to William Franklin O’Dell & Virginia Margaret Phelps
death: 18 Mar 1972 in Jeffersonville, Clark Co., IN
burial: Walnut Ridge Cemetery, Jeffersonville, Clark Co, IN

Children of Virgil James Gilchrist and Alcie Elizabeth O’Dell:

  • Claudia Marie Gilchrist m. Robert Eugene Deen
  • Margaret Jean Gilchrist m. Frank Duane Killebrew
  • Wilma Opal Gilchrist (11 Dec. 1930 – 01 May 2012) m. 27 Aug 1955 to Samuel Cline Gill
  • James Bruce Gilchrist (01 Jan 1933 – 04 Jan 2004) m. Katherine Joanna Wishard
  • Living
  • Robert Allen Gilchrist m. Patricia Sue McAllister

Virgil James Gilchrist lived in:

  • 1900-1927 Fulton County, IN
  • 1928- 1939 St. Joseph Co., IN and Fulton Co., IN
  • 1943-1945 New Albany, Floyd County, IN
  • 1945- 1954 Jeffersonville, Clark County, IN
  • 1957-1971 Jeffersonville, Clark County, IN
  • 1939-1943 Vinita, Craig County, OK
  • 1954-1957 Reidland, McCrackin County, KY

Other Information:

Virgil dropped out of high school in the first part of his senior year and began his life’s work in construction. For a short time he took a job in IL, working on a horse farm and helping to train trotters and pacers. He loved sulky racing and frequently took his family to fairgrounds and race tracks where these horses were raced. He never bet on the horses, but simply loved to watch them run. Living in Jeffersonville, IN he often took out-of-town visitors to Lexington, KY to tour the thoroughbred horse farms in the days when visitors were allowed to walk through the barns and stables. In his younger days, Virgil was on the construction crew that built the football stadium at Notre Dame University in South Bend. During his working life, he worked as a carpenter and later as construction superintendent, building schools, churches and place of business. From the 1940s until his death, Virgil was very active in the Methodist Church, serving as lay leader, chairman of the official board, choir member and Sunday School teacher. He started teaching a class of junior high school students at Park Place Methodist Church and continued with that class until those students had children in junior high school. He was lovingly called “Pop” Gilchrist by that group, and at the time of his death, the class built a picnic shelter on the church property and named it in honor of Virgil J. Gilchrist. He loved working with young people, and he loved the Lord he served so faithfully.

Submitted by: 
E Ann Grubb
Your Email: eanng1177@gmail.com

William Jefferson Gilchrist

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William Jefferson Gilchrist
birth: 31 Mar 1869 in Richland Township, Fulton Co., IN to Thomas Gilchrist & Phoebe Keely
death: 20 Dec 1943 in South Bend, St. Joseph Co., IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Richland Center, Fulton Co., IN

marriage: 31 Dec. 1898 in Fulton County, IN
Millie Artemicia Mow
birth: 02 Jul 1880 Fulton County, IN to David B. Mow & Catherin Buehler/Beehler
death: 19 Sep 1920 Richland Township, Fulton Co., IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Richland Center, Fulton Co., IN

Children of William Jefferson Gilchrist and Millie Artemicia Mow:

  • Virgil James Gilchrist (28 Mar 1900 – 08 Apr. 1971) m. 25 Oct.1927 in South Bend, St. Joseph Co., IN to Alcie Elizabeth O’Dell
  • Byron Bruce Gilchrist (27 Jan 1903 – 07 Jan 1998) m. 18 Aug. 1928 in South Bend, St. Joseph Co., IN to Emma Berneice Pfeiffer

William Jefferson Gilchrist lived in:

  • 1869 – 1902 Rochester Township, Fulton Co., IN
  • 1902 Richland Township, Fulton Co., IN
  • In his later years he lived first with his son, Virgil and his family in Floyd and Clark Counties in Indiana, and then until his death, with his younger son, Byron and family in South Bend, St. Joseph County, IN.

Other Information:

Will GILCHRIST attended the old Burton Evangelical Church until the
family moved to Richland Township. Then he became very active in the Grand
View Evangelical Church in the Whippoorwill Community, serving in the
capacity of Sunday School Superintendent of that church for many years.

Will was described as “the sweetest-tempered, most gentle man in the
world,” by one sister of Elizabeth (O’DELL), Will’s daughter-in-law.
William was a handsome man, probably just under 6′ tall and of sturdy
build, but not heavy.

William always seemed to be standing at a distance from other people in snapshots, and most usually, he would be positioned to the right side of the photo. Will’s son, Byron GILCHRIST, in June, 1996, gave this report, “That right eye was injured from a severe bump Dad received and the bone deterioration that the injury caused. As a boy,
he hit himself in the eye with the leg of a milking stool. He had reached
across the back of one of the cows to get the stool down from where it was
hanging on the barn wall. The cow shifted her stance; he lost his grip on
the stool and a leg of the stool hit him in the eye. There was a clinic in
Michigan where Dad spent several weeks in treatment. He lost the sight in that eye, and maybe he did position himself that way in pictures to hide it or so that he could
best see the others people in a group.” The wedding picture of Will and Artie Gilchrist reveals a distinct difference in the appearance of that eye and the left one.

Although Will grew up on a farm and continued to maintain his father’s farm after Thomas was not able to do it, Will’s first love was carpentry. He did not want to be a farmer, but felt obligated to carry on for his father. He taught both of his sons to do both kinds of labor and both of them earned their living in construction work, but farmed enough to provide food for their families.

Submitted by: 
E. Ann Grubb
Your Email: eanng1177@gmail.com

Thomas Gilchrist

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Thomas Gilchrist
birth: 14 Apr 1839 – Jefferson County, IN to James Gilchrist & Mary Anderson
death: 26 Apr 1926 in Richland Twp., Fulton County, IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Leiters Ford, Fulton Co., IN

marriage: 11 June 1862 – Fulton County, IN
Phoebe Keely
birth: 04 Nov 1846 – Indianapolis, Marion Co., IN to  James Keely & Mary A. McKee
death: 04 Dec. 1895 – Rochester Twp., Fulton Co., IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Leiters Ford, Fulton Co., IN

Children of Thomas Gilchrist and Phoebe Keely:

  • James K. Gilchrist (10 May 1863 – 29 Feb 1906) m. 03 Jul 1889 in Muskingum Co., OH to Theresa E. Miller Painter
  • William Jefferson Gilchrist (31 Mar 1869 – 20 Dec. 1943) m. 31 Dec. 1898 in Rochester, Fulton Co., IN to Millie Artemicia Mow
  • Mary Anderson Gilchrist (13 Sep 1875 – 05 Jul 1949) m. 26 Feb 1893 in Rochester, Fulton Co., IN to John Ault

The following children are buried with Thomas and Phoebe Gilchrist, but there has been no documentation to prove they are their children; the markers on these graves give only the first name of each child.

  • Sideny (10 Mar 1876 – 28 Oct. 1876)
  • Nellie (17 Mar 1888 – 13 May 1889)
  • Edward L. (11 Jan 1890 – 25 Feb. 1890)

Thomas Gilchrist lived in:

  • 1839- Abt. 1850 Thomas lived in Hanover Twp., Jefferson County, IN
  • 1850 – 1902 Rochester Township, Fulton County, IN
  • 1902 – death in 1926 Richland Township, Fulton County, IN
  • 1846 -1853 Phoebe Keely Gilchrist lived in Indianapolis, Marion County, IN
  • 1853- death in 1895 Fulton County, IN

Other Information:

James Gilchrist, the father of Thomas and James Gilchrist conveyed nearly all of his farmland to his two sons and his daughter, Jennet Campbell in 1860. In 1881, the two brothers divided their 180 acres between them. When Thomas married, he and his wife remained in his parents’ home in Rochester Township. In 1890 James conveyed his share of the property to Thomas and Phoebe “for one dollar plus love and affection,” reserving for himself a life estate on the land that had belonged to him. Thomas sold the farm in 1902, after James’ death in 1897, and purchased 122 acres on the north side of the Tippecanoe River in Richland Township. On this property he built a log home where he remained until his death. In 1898 William Gilchrist, Thomas’ son, brought his bride to live with Thomas and Phoebe. William remained there after Thomas’ and Phoebe’s deaths, and for several years thereafter.

Submitted by: 
E. Ann Grubb
Your Email: eanng1177@gmail.com

James Gilchrist

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James Gilchrist
birth: 04 Nov. 1798/99 – Scotland
death: 13 Oct. 1876 – Rochester, Fulton County, IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Leiters Ford, Fulton County, IN

marriage: 13 Aug. 1826 – Jefferson County, IN
Mary Anderson
birth: 08 Sep. 1799 – Johnstone, Dumfries, Scotland to Thomas Anderson & Elizabeth Bridget Beck
death: 01 Jan. 1877 – Rochester, Fulton County, IN
burial: I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Leiters Ford, Fulton County, IN

Children of James Gilchrist and Mary Anderson:

  • Elizabeth Gilchrist (25 Jan 1828 – 17 Jan 1835)
  • James Gilchrist (1832 – 1897)
  • Jennet Gilchrist (16 Jun 1835- 04 Oct 1865) m. 19 Jan 1860 in Rochester, Fulton Co., IN to Christopher Campbell
  • Thomas Gilchrist (14 Apr 1839 – 26 Apr 1926) m. 11 June 1862 in Fulton County, IN to Phoebe Keely

James Gilchrist lived in:

  • Recorded in both his first and second papers for citizenship, James Gilchrist was “a native of Lennockshire, Scotland (assumed Lanarkshire). He arrived at Port of Baltimore in late June 1821.
  • 1826 Jefferson County, IN
  • 1845 Fulton County, IN

Other Information:

James and Mary Gilchrist were members of the Carmel Associate Presbyterian Church in Hanover Township, Jefferson County, IN. Their first child, Elizabeth is buried in the cemetery there in the block of graves of the Thomas Taylor family, neighbors of the Gilchrists and also natives of Scotland.

Apparently James and Mary Gilchrist were well thought of in the Fulton County area where they lived. The obituary for James includes the following tribute:
“…Never was a neighborhood blest with more honest, accommodating
and useful neighbors than were Mr. and Mrs. Gilchrist. They died as
they had lived, loved and esteemed by all, and are at peace with God…”

Submitted by: 
E. Ann Grubb
Your Email: eanng1177@gmail.com