Yolo County
Biographies
JONATHAN WISEMAN GILLIAM
Four miles south of Madison lies the valuable farm property which for years has been
owned and operated by Mr. Gilliam, a pioneer of 1856 in the Sacramento valley.
Through the energetic and capable manner in which he has developed the place it
has been transformed into one of the most attractive homesteads in Yolo county. The four hundred and twenty acres lie in a body and
provide a fertile tract for the cultivation of grain. In common with many of
the residents of the county, Mr. Gilliam has taken up horticulture to a certain
extent and one of the conspicuous features of his ranch is a fig orchard
comprising twenty acres. A neat residence furnishes the family with a
comfortable home, and there are also substantial barns and granaries for the
shelter of stock and the storage of grain.
The Gilliam family is of English
extraction and was, it is thought, founded in America by James Gilliam, who
became a planter in Virginia. Taylor Gardner Gilliam, a son of James, was born
and reared in the Old Dominion, but in early manhood
became a farmer in Tennessee, and from there about 1844 removed to Missouri,
purchasing a tract of farm land in St. Clair county. Thereafter, until his
death at fifty-six years, he made agriculture his vocation and St. Clair county the scene of his activities. The Democratic party had in him a stanch ally,
but at no time was he active in politics. A deep religious spirit characterized
his life and made him an earnest worker in his chosen denomination, that of the
Baptists. In that church his wife, Mary, was also an active member. A native of
Tennessee, she was reared and married there and accompanied her husband to
Missouri, where she died at forty-nine years of age. The family of which she
was a member originated in Scotland, but has been represented in America for
several generations, and her father, Thomas Meddor,
was a native of Virginia.
During the residence of Taylor
Gardner Gilliam in Tennessee his son, Jonathan Wiseman, was born in Macon county, October 5, 1837. When he was seven years of age the
family became residents of Missouri and when he was sixteen, after the death of
his father, he started out to earn his own livelihood. Work as a farm hand was
superseded by clerking in a general store at Osceola, St. Clair county, Mo., where he remained a short time. In 1856 he made
the overland journey to California with his brother-in-law, T. T. Barnes, and
during a part of the trip he drove an ox-team. On his arrival in Yolo county he secured a squatter’s claim. With the utmost
frugality he labored and saved until he was in a position to purchase land, and
since then he has been the owner of his present homestead near Madison,
meanwhile making agriculture his chosen occupation and also giving to
horticulture a degree of time and thought. A man of great energy and tireless
perseverance, the success he has achieved represents his unaided labors and
entitles him to the respect of acquaintances. Though great wealth has not come
to him, he is in the possession of a competency and has been enabled to
surround his wife and children with the comforts of life. In addition, he has
been able to contribute to educational and religious movements and especially
to the work of the Christian Church, in which he officiates as a deacon.
Politically he is independent, voting for men and measures rather than for
party, and at all times carefully considering the welfare of his community.
In his struggle to gain financial
independence Mr. Gilliam has had the capable assistance of his wife, formerly
Mary Ann Howard, and a native of Missouri, but since 1868 a resident of
California. Side by side they have labored to rear to usefulness and honor
their five children, Mary Emma, Frances Lurany,
Mildred Eudora, D. Howard and John William, and the entire family
have the esteem of associates and the warm friendship of those by whom
they are most intimately known.
Transcribed
By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History
of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J.
M. Guinn, Page 509. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies