My Genealogy Hound

JAMES R. GILLETT, one of Rockport’s most enterprising and energetic business men, is a native of Marshall County, Ill., his birth occurring July 31, 1854, Isaac Gillett, his father, was born in Steuben County, N. Y., December 12, 1824, being one in a family of eleven children born to Michael and Laura (Mix) Gillett, both natives of Connecticut. In 1886, Isaac moved with his parents to Michigan, where he learned brick-making, which was his occupation until 1850. In 1848 he married Lucy Miner who died in 1852, after bearing two children, Jasper and Elmira. In 1850 he engaged in the grocery business at Henry, Ill., but in 1854 came to Rockport, and the spring following again engaged in the grocery business which he has successfully continued to the present time. In 1853 he married for his second wife Mrs. Eliza (Bullock) Shackleford, a lady who has borne him two sons and one daughter: James R., Thomas C. and Anna L. The oldest of these, James R. Gillett, is the immediate subject of this sketch. He was raised and educated in the town of Rockport, and in 1869 became a partner of his father in the grocery business, and this is one of the strongest and most successful mercantile houses in Rockport. In January, 1877, he married Rosa, daughter of John F. Richardson, and Lillie B. and Carrie are the names of his two children. Mr. Gillett is a Republican in politics; a member of the I. O. O. F. and K. of P. fraternities and Mrs. Gillett belongs to the Presbyterian Church.