My Genealogy Hound

CALVIN E. JILLSON. A marked feature of the business operations of the merchants of Berrien County is their enterprise, and this is one of the prominent characteristics of Mr. Jillson, well known as the owner and proprietor of the largest mercantile establishment in Stevensville. Through enterprise and industry he has established a large and lucrative trade with the citizens of the place and the farmers of the surrounding country, and is widely known as a man of reliable business dealings and excellent judgment. He gives steady employment to a cashier, book-keeper and a force of four clerks, and in his large store keeps a complete line of dry goods, boots and shoes, groceries and hardware.

The parents of our subject are Job and Eleanor Jillson, the former being a native of Livingston County, N. Y., where he was reared and married. He engaged in farming pursuits in the Empire State until about 1850, when he migrated to Michigan and settled in Sodus Township, Berrien County. Purchasing a tract of unimproved land, he identified himself with the growth and progress of the county and was numbered among its early settlers. As the years passed by, he was enabled to realize more fully the reward of his earlier efforts, and was known as one of the well-to-do men of the township. However, in 1882, he removed further West and made settlement upon a farm in South Dakota, where he remained until his death, June 22, 1893.

After locating in South Dakota, the senior Mr. Jillson was closely connected with the public affairs of Edmunds County, and in 1891 and 1892 was chosen to represent his fellow-citizens in the State Legislature, being elected to that honorable position upon the ticket of the Independent party. He always maintained a deep interest in politics, and believed that the adoption of a free-trade policy would be of material benefit to the country. In his religious belief, he for many years held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He and his wife were the parents of six children, namely: Anna, who is the wife of William Warner, a carpenter residing in Canada; Helen, a widow, who has conducted her husband’s business at Eau Claire since his death in 1890; Mary, wife of James Paul, a merchant engaged in business at Eau Claire, Berrien County; Calvin E.; Lansing, a farmer of South Dakota; and Cornelius, also an agriculturist of that State.

Upon the old homestead in Sodus Township our subject grew to manhood, meantime attending the district schools and the Benton Harbor school. At the age of twenty-two he commenced to teach school in Lincoln Township, and followed that profession for three years. After he discontinued that work, he entered the employ of his brother-in-law, P. Stapleton, a merchant of Eau Claire, Berrien County, and remained with him for two years. He then came to Stevensville, where he purchased the stock of goods owned by A. H. McMaster, and afterward added a complete assortment of dry goods, making the establishment one of the most extensive in the county. On the 18th of June, 1882, he took into the business P. Stapleton, the firm becoming C. E. Jillson & Co., and as such doing business until the death of Mr. Stapleton, which occurred in September, 1890. Mr. Jillson is administrator of the Stapleton estate.

April 11, 1883, Mr. Jillson was united in marriage with Miss Jennie M., daughter of James A. Johnson, one of the prominent residents of Berrien County. Mrs. Jillson was born in New York State, removing to Kalamazoo County, Mich., in childhood, and soon afterward coming to Berrien County, where she grew to womanhood. Their four children are named Orren B., Charles M., Pearl May and Katie. In addition to the store at Stevensville, Mr. Jillson also for one year conducted a branch establishment at Baroda, this county, and shortly afterward purchased a one-half interest in a dry-goods store at Ovid, Clinton County, this State, the other member of the firm being F. E. Hazel. In political matters Mr. Jillson is a Democrat, and has filled various positions of trust, having been Clerk of Lincoln Township for three terms. Township Superintendent of Schools for two terms, and a member of the Village Board.