Early Gillett Ancestors 



 
    The Gillett family has been in America since 1630, about ten years after the landing of the Mayflower
 at Plymouth.

    Bill Gillett from Iowa reported the following:

    The first known member of the family was believed to have come from the town of Bergerac, Guyenne
 Province, France with the introduction of Rev. Jacques de Gylet.  The Rev. de Gylet was  born about 1520.
 He was banished from France and his property confiscated when he continued to preach the Gospel.
   
    The Rev de Gylet fled to Scotland with his family where they resided for quite a few years.  This was
 during the reign of King Henry II.  The family later moved to England.

    Rev. Jacques de Gylet's son, Richard, was born in 1551 at Cadle Hadden, Dorset, England.  The son of
 Richard Gylet was Rev William Gyllett, who was a preacher of the Gospel.  He was born in 1574.  In England
 he was instituted to be Rector of Chaffcombe, County Sumerset, on February 4, 1609/10.  The Rev. William
 Gyllett died April 2, 1641 at the age of  67.


      
 
              The church where Rev. William Gyllett was instituted to be Rector of    
     Chaffcombe, County Sumerset,  England, on February 4, 1609/10 (taken abt 1985) 
                                                                       
     Rev. William Gyllett had several sons and daughters, including Jonathan and Nathan Gillet who were
 members of a company of 140 Puritans from the counties of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Sumersetshire,
 England who left England on March 20, 1630, on the ship “Mary and John” for Dorchester, Massachusetts.
 They arrived in Nantucket (now Hull) Massachusetts, on May 30, 1630.

     Hull Massachusetts is located on a peninsula in Boston Bay where the Atlantic Ocean enters the harbor to
 the city of Boston.  This was only 9  ½ years after the first Pilgrims from the “Mayflower” settled the first
 permanent colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts.   The Gillets, like the other Puritans left England for the
 Colonies because their present monarch, Charles I, ruled as an absolute and irresponsible monarch in England.
 The Puritans and other dissenters were crushed with cruelty.  In most cases the people leaving England at
 the time were well educated men and women.  Leading the group was the Rev John Warham of Exeter and the
 Rev. John Maverick was the teacher.
 
     And then there was Jeremiah, another son of Rev. William Gyllett.  One of his direct descendant after
 9 generations is none other than Alanson Otho Gillett.   Jeremiah was born about 1608 in Chaffcombe,
 Sumerset, England.  On May 14, 1674 he was awarded fifty acres of land for his services in the Pequot War.
 The Pequot War was an armed conflict spanning the years 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an
 alliance of the Massachesetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American
 allies (the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes).  Hundreds were killed:  hundreds more were captured and sold
 into slavery to the West Indies.  Other survivors were dispersed.  At the end of the war, about seven
 hundred Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity.  The result was the elimination of the Pequot as
 a viable polity in what is present-day Southern New England.

     This means Jeremiah was in America at least part of the time between 1634-1638, but was back in England
 in 1641 at the time of his father’s death.  Very little is known about Jeremiah other than he received the
 colonial grant and he was the father of one son, Jeremiah Gillet, who was born about 1650.  Both Jeremiahs 
 are our direct ancestors.
     This son, Jeremiah, resided first in Simsbury, Connecticut and then Wethersfield, Connecticut.  He
 received the land his father received as a grant for fighting in the Pequot War.  He was also a sergeant
 in the colonial service.  Jeremiah married Rachel Kelsey and was the father of eight children, one of whom
 was John Gillett.  On March 24, 1707/08, Jeremiah died in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

     The next 3 generations of our Gillett’s, John, William, and John remained in Connecticut from 1673 to
  early 1800s.   However, in the early 1800s, three of John’s sons, Zebulon, Joel, and William left
 Connecticut and eventually moved to Lawrence County, Ohio.  Joel, our direct ancestor, was a carpenter and
 shoemaker by trade.  William was a carpenter, blacksmith, and stone-cutter.  Some of his work can still be
 seen in the Rome Cemetery in Lawrence County, Ohio.  William later moved to Illinois where he died.
 
     There was a Joel Gillett who served in the Continental Army as an ensign in colonel Huntington's
 regiment from Harwinton, Connecticut.  He had a disability as a result of “hardships sustained while
 captive on a prison ship, impairing his health and constitution”.  This information is from the American 
 State Papers (Pension Claims).  In the Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army, Joel Gillett
 of Connecticut is listed as having become a sergeant in 1775, then an ensign in 1776.  He was taken prisoner
 at Long Island on August 27, 1776.  This couldn't have been our Joel Gillett, because he was born in 1778,
 according to the records we have.  Also, we don't have a record of the Joel Gillett who fought in the
 Revolutionary War.

     Joel Gillett married Chloe Griswold in 1799 and they started the movement out of Connecticut by moving
 to the state of New York around the turn of the century (1800).

     At least five of their eight children were born in Seneca, NY.   They traveled to Marietta, Ohio around
 1816, where they stayed one year.  From there they traveled down the Ohio River to Lawrence County, Ohio
 where Joel remained the rest of his life.
 
     Joel Gillett was considered to be one of the first white men to settle in some level bottom land which
 was called Rome Township.  The land was Quaker Bottoms.  In charting the Ohio River, there is a listing of
 a Gillet's Landing, a few miles upstream from Huntington Beach, West Virginia.
 
     Joel brought with him from Marietta some 100 apple tree sprouts to start an orchard.  One sprout did not
 suit him, so he threw it to his son, Alanson, and said, “here, you may have this Democrat.”  From this 
 sprout came a new variety of apples which was called “Gillett's Seedlings.”  In 1930s the name was changed
 to the “Rome Beauty”  in honor of  Rome Township.  (There are several versions of this story, but the result
 is that Alanson is credited with starting the new Rome Beauty apple.  Alanson was the brother of
 Joel G. Gillett, our direct ancestor).
         
     Several documents that address the founding and propagation of the Rome Beauty apple can be found on the
 Rome Beauty page: 
Rome Beauty Apple

 
     Joel Gillett was a strong Federalist.  He lived in a two-story, hewed house, which stood near the Ohio
 River in Lawrence County, Ohio. The front wall and roof of the house were covered with a yellow flowered
 vine called a creeper or house leak. Joel's brothers, Zebulon and William, also made the trip to
 Lawrence County.
  
     Joel and Chloe (Griswold) Gillett were the parents of eight children, including:  Alanson, Joel Griswold,
 and Columbus.  
 
     Alanson planted the apple sprout that became the first Rome Beauty tree.  He also built three steamboats
 and engaged in boating a great part of his life, operating a freight and tow business around New Orleans and
 Shreveport.  In 1855 he sold the business and started farming in Lawrence County, Ohio.  

     Columbus was thought to be a Methodist preacher in Texas.  Later a letter to his brother Alanson in 1870
 was written from California near Los Angeles.  (see Columbus's letter to Alanson in 1870 on the Columbus
 Letter page:)  
Columbus's Letter 1870  
     Joel G. Gillett (our direct ancestor) was born about 1812 in Seneca County, NY,  and died about 1875 in
 Barry County, Missouri, at  age 63.   He was a carpenter and farmer.  When he was about 4 years old he
 traveled with his parents to Marietta, Ohio.  About a year later they traveled down the Ohio River to 
 Lawrence County, Ohio.
                                
     As a youth he worked on Tom Gardner's farm.  Tom was married to Joel's daughter, Chloa Gillett.
 A letter from Chloa's daughter can be found on the Kate Cox Letter page: 
Kate Cox's Letter                                                                                               
     In Columbus's letter to Alanson he asked about Tom Gardner and A.R.(Alanson Ross) Gillett.  Alanson Ross
 was Joel G.'s son and Alanson Otho's father.   According to the letter, Alanson Ross had been in Texas with
 Columbus at one time.

     In 1833 Joel G. married Nancy (Ann) Radford when he was about 21 years old.  About that time he purchased
 160 acres for $160.  They started selling that land in 1847 and completed the transactions in 1856.  The
 total transactions netted $1,795.  All four of their children were born in Lawrence County, Ohio, the oldest
 being Alanson Ross (born 1834) and the youngest being Benson O. (born 1849).
                                                                                                    
     Alanson Ross was Alanson Otho's father.  Benson O. Gillett was the great-grandfather of the Bill Gillett
 from Iowa who supplied invaluable information about the Gillett ancestors.

     Sometime before 1860 Joel G. and his family left the area for Louisiana or Texas.  His brother, Columbus
 Gillett, was a Methodist preacher in Texas and his sister, Emma Gillett, had gone to Texas also.  According
 to Columbus's letter to his brother, Alanson, Joel G.'s son,  Alanson Ross (A.R.), had made his way from 
 Ohio to Texas also.  Alanson Ross had married Elizabeth Richards in 1857 before leaving for Texas.  Their
 first son, Joseph T. was born in 1863 while in Texas.

     The next record of Joel G. Gillett came from Barry County, Missouri in 1869 when he obtained 160 acres
 of land in the Shoal Creek Township.  During this period the Civil War was going on and normally a listing
 of 160 acres represented fighting for the North, but no record was found of his being involved in the War.

     The 1870 census of Barry County listed J.G. Gillett as a farmer living with his wife, Ann, and son
 B. O. Gillett.  His holdings in addition to his real estate was $400.  Living on the same land was their
 son-in-law, Joseph Graham.  His holdings were $200. Joseph was the husband of their daughter, Sarah.  No
 record of what happened to Sarah.

     Joel G. and Ann Gillett had numerous land transactions, a total of 19.  The last transaction was when 
 Ann sold land in Cassville to her son-in-law, Joseph Graham, for $200. 

     The 1880 census for Shoal Creek Township of Barry County listed Ann Gillett as being a widow living next
 to Joseph Graham, her son-in-law, and Alanson Gillett, her son.  Living with her was her granddaughter,
 Minnie A. Gillett and a servant, Elijah Mackey.  This granddaughter married George Meen (some records say,
 “Green“),  a Choctaw Indian, on September 21, 1892 in Purdy, Missouri.  Benson Owen Gillett signed for them
 to verify their ages.  Joel G. had died five years earlier in 1875.

     The children of Joel G. and Ann Gillett were Alanson Ross, William E., Sarah A. and  Benson Owen Gillett.
                                                                                                  
     Alanson Ross was born in Lawrence County, Ohio in 1834.  He married Elizabeth Richards in Lawrence
 County, Ohio in 1857.  Later in his life it was reported that he was a blind circuit rider Methodist
 preacher. It is not known if he was born blind or became blind later.
  
     According to Columbus' letter to his brother, Alanson in 1870, Alanson Ross had been with him in Texas,
 but had left. The 1860 U.S. Census shows Alanson Ross and Columbus in Williamson County, Texas.  Alanson
 Ross' first child, Joseph T. Gillett, was born in 1863 when they were in Texas. 
 
     Nina Gillett (Alanson Ross' granddaughter through Eugene) in a letter to Vern and Helen Gillett in 1976
 wrote the following: 
               
    “Aunt Nellie (Alanson Otho's sister) said in 1934 that there  
      were 4 children born before her that had died during the    
      Civil War.   She indicated that it must have been from an 
      epidemic or some other tragedy.  She heard that her parents  
      (Alanson Ross and Elizabeth) were down in Mexico or down 
      near the Mexican border“. 
  
    Alanson Ross' 2nd living child, Nellie, was born in 1869 in  Missouri.  This means that the 4 children
 who died as infants in Texas occurred between 1863 and 1869. 
 
    The U.S. Census indicates that Alanson Ross and Elizabeth were in Saracoxie Township, Jasper County,
 Missouri in 1870.  In 1871 their 3rd living child, Alanson Otho, was born in Barry County, Missouri.
 Also in 1871 he performed the marriage of his brother, Benson Owen Gillett and Susan E. Waltrip.
 Land transaction records in Barry County, Missouri indicate that Alanson Ross and Elizabeth were in Barry
 County, Missoui in 1876.  Their 4th living child, Eugene, was born there in 1877 and according to the U.S.
 Census, they were still there in 1880.  The lure of the west took them to Oklahoma Territory near Guthrie
 shortly after the famous "89ers" Run on April 22, 1889.  They were listed in the first Territorial census
 taken in Oklahoma Territory on June 10, 1890.  Later in 1900, they were listed as living with their son,
 Alanson Otho, in Marshall Township, Platte County, Missouri.  Another source indicates that Alanson Ross
 died near Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1900.  His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1917 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma and is buried
 in the Old Sapulpa Cemetery.
    
      Alanson Ross and Elizabeth Richards Gillett had four children who survived infancy:   Joseph T,
 Nellie, Alanson Otho, and Eugene Francis.