Bio of GILFILLAN, Hon. John Bachop (b.1835), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

HON. JOHN BACHOP GILFILLAN - Vol II, pg 122-127
The name of Hon. John Bachop Gilfillan will ever be inseparably connected with
the history of Minneapolis as that of one of the founders and promoters of the
grade school system of the city and steadily through all the years which have
elapsed since he instituted that work he has remained the champion and friend of
the cause of public education in its basic phases and in the higher field of
learning. Along various other lines, too, he has made valuable contribution to
the progress and upbuilding of municipality and commonwealth, not the least of
his service having been performed in connection with the task of upholding the
legal and moral status of the state. Having early determined to engage in the
practice of law, he dedicated his powers to his chosen calling with a singleness
of purpose that has gained him merited distinction and high honor as a
representative of the bar of the Northwest. In his career New England birth and
training, including liberal educational development, have been grafted onto
western enterprise and opportunity, which, according to an eminent American
statesman, has produced the strongest and best in American citizenship.
John Bachop Gilfillan was born February 11, 1835, in Barnet, Caledonia county,
Vermont, and the blood of the sturdy Scotch race flows in his veins. His
paternal grandfather, Robert Gilfillan, arrived in the new world in 1794, while
the maternal grandparents, John and Jean (Arbuckle) Bachop, came to America with
their respective parents from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1795, and were married in
this country March 15, 1804. Robert Gilfillan, the father of the Hon. J. B.
Gilfillan of this review, was born in Barnet, Caledonia county, Vermont, June 6,
1798, and wedded Janet Bachop, whose birth occurred in Barnet in 1805. He passed
away on the 12th of January, 1891, having for about six years survived his wife,
who was called to her final rest on the 8th of July, 1885.
The youthful experiences of John B. Gilfillan were those of the farm bred boy of
that age and period. There is something in the early rising, the difficult tasks
and the strenuous labors of the farm that results in self-reliance and
independence of spirit as well as physical strength, and Mr. Gilfillan seemed to
have acquired all that he could obtain from the farm in the way of thorough
preparation for the later responsibilities and duties of life. He attended the
district school of the neighborhood during the winter seasons until he reached
the age of twelve years, when the family home was established at Peacham,
Caledonia county, where he became a pupil in the Caledonia County Grammar
School, which was chartered and endowed by the state in 1795. The latter was not
a town school but an independent institution-the earliest in Vermont and on a
grade with the noted New England academies of that period. Mr. Gilfillan
displayed special aptitude in his studies. His rapid progress enabled him at the
age of seventeen years to become a teacher and through that means he was
preparing to enter Dartmouth College, but seemingly trivial events ofttimes
shape a career and so it was in the case of Mr. Gilfillan, who in October, 1855,
accepted an invitation to visit the family of Captain John Martin at St.
Anthony, Minnesota, Mrs. Martin being his sister. He hoped to obtain a school in
this locality and thereby add to the fund which he was assiduously putting aside
with the hope of pursuing a course at Dartmouth College. He had no difficulty in
obtaining a position as teacher here, but gradually the lure and charm of the
west drew him from his previously formed resolution of becoming a Dartmouth
student. Instead he planned to enter upon the practice of law and while teaching
devoted his leisure hours to the mastery of Kent, Blackstone and other
commentaries. When his school term was finished he became a law clerk and
student in the office of Nourse & Winthrop and afterward of the firm of Lawrence
& Lochren and by 1860 had won admission to practice at the Hennepin county bar,
while in the same year he was licensed to practice before the Minnesota supreme
court and the United States supreme court. He at once entered into partnership
with James R. Lawrence, with whom he was associated until the latter joined the
Union army during the Civil war. Mr. Gilfillan continued to practice
independently until 1871, when he joined the firm of Lochren & McNair, under the
style of Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan, at which time the junior partner
transferred his office to the west side of the river. There was no change in the
partnership relation for fourteen years, at the end of which time Mr. Lochren
was called upon for judicial service, being appointed and afterward reelected
judge of the state district court. Subsequently Judge Lochren was made
commissioner of pensions during the administration of President Cleveland and
finally received appointment as judge of the United States district court, thus
serving until his retirement. Following Judge Loehren's elevation to the bench
and the demise of Mr. McNair, Mr. Gilfillan became associated in law practice
with Henry C. Belden and Charles A. Willard, under the firm name of Gilfillan.
Belden & Willard, which relationship was maintained for another period of
fourteen years, or until Mr. Belden was appointed judge of the state district
court, to which position he was later elected. Mr. Gilfillan then practiced in
partnership with Charles A. and Stephen Willard, under the firm name of
Gilfillan, Willard & Willard, until the former was appointed judge of the
supreme court in the Philippine Islands, where he served until appointed by
President Taft to succeed Judge Lochren, who retired as judge of the federal
district court here when Charles A. Willard returned from the Philippines. Mr.
Gilfillan was then in practice alone until the time when he put aside
professional duties in order to devote his attention to the supervision of his
personal affairs. During the last years of his active professional career he
acted principally in an advisory capacity.
The recognition of Mr. Gilfillan's legal powers led to his election to the
office of city attorney of St. Anthony soon after his admission to the bar, his
incumbency in the position continuing for four years. In 1863 he was chosen
county attorney of Hennepin county for a two years' term and was reelected to
that office in 1865, in 1867 and in 1869, so that he served altogether for four
terms, or eight years. In the meantime the practice of the firm with which he
was associated had become very extensive and important and for many years
Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan ranked at the very top among the prominent law firms
of the state. In this connection a contemporary writer has said: "Its reputation
as to the laws governing real estate was preeminent. In its probate and equity
practice it had some cases so notable that they settled the law in this
department and in each of these the position taken by Mr. Gilfillan was
sustained by the courts. In probate practice the Emerson will case, the Pinney
will case and the Washburn will case attracted wide notice. The members of the
firm were also attorneys, in their partnership capacity, of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha and the
Minneapolis Eastern Railways and as such transacted a vast amount of important
and laborious business, the largest part of which was conducted by Mr. Gilfillan
and with almost invariable success. His practice was frequently interrupted by
official and other engagements but it was his main pursuit and was resumed after
every interruption as soon as the opportunity offered." Aside from his
activities as a member of the bar Mr. Gilfillan came into business prominence
through financial circles, serving for two years as president of the First
National Bank and afterward becoming chairman of its board of directors.
When he had become well established in practice and felt justified in
establishing and maintaining a home, Mr. Gilfillan was married on the 20th of
January, 1870, to Miss Rebecca Corse Oliphant, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania,
who passed away March 25, 1884. In their family were five children, of whom
three sons and a daughter survive. On the 28th of June, 1893, Mr. Gilfillan
wedded Miss Hannah Lavinia Coppock, a native of Ohio, and their social position
has ever been a most enviable one.
In a resume of his usefulness as a citizen aside from his active practice at the
bar there is particular reason to note what Mr. Gilfillan has accomplished as an
advocate and promoter of educational interests in Minnesota. Reared in that
section of the country which first took cognizance of the value of intellectual
development and training, he came to the west as a teacher, finding here the
typical school of the pioneer district. In 1859 he successfully agitated the
subject of establishing graded schools in Minneapolis. Early in that year he had
organized the Mechanics Institute in St. Anthony for literary culture and became
one of its officials. It was about that time that he drafted a bill for the
organization of a school board in St. Anthony, under which a system of graded
schools was established, constituting the foundation upon which has been built
the present excellent school system of Minneapolis. Receiving appointment as a
member of the first school board, he continued to act in that capacity for
almost a decade and his opinions and plans were of the utmost value in placing
the schools upon a thoroughly substantial basis. In 1880, through appointment of
Governor Pillsbury, he became one of the regents of the State University and
remained in the office for eight years, on the expiration of which period he was
especially requested to remain in an advisory capacity and not entirely sever
his connections. Owing to the fact that he was on a tour of Europe for an
indefinite time he declined reappointment as regent. Throughout the intervening
period he has never hesitated to embrace any opportunity whereby he might
further the cause of public education in any of its helpful phases in the state.
During the ten years that Mr. Gilfillan was a member of the state legislature,
from 1875 to 1885, he was chairman of university and university lands committee.
It was during this period that the old experimental farm, which had originally
cost eighty-five hundred dollars, was sold for nearly one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars and the proceeds invested in the present experimental farm and
the present buildings erected thereon. The real work of this deal was done by
Mr. Gilfillan. One hundred and fifty-five acres of the present farm near Lake
Como was purchased for two hundred dollars an acre and later ninety-four acres
was bought for three hundred dollars an acre. Mr. Gilfillan was also
instrumental in bringing to the university Dr. Cyrus Northrop, a professor from
Yale. He was one of the committee to go to New Haven looking for a president,
and being acquainted with Professor Phelps, then dean of the law department of
Yale, he went to him for advice and was directed to Dr. Northrop, who has been
so instrumental in building up the State University. In 1908 Mr. Gilfillan
compiled the "History of the University of Minnesota" for the Minnesota
Historical Society. He has published a pamphlet entitled: "Who Named
Minneapolis?", in which he gives all the evidence obtainable relative to the
controversy between those claiming that Charles Hoag or George D. Bowman named
the city, he believing the former merits the honor.
Another strongly marked characteristic in the life of Mr. Gilfillan has been his
deep and abiding interest in political affairs and his sense of obligation in
this connection. He believes that the citizen who enjoys the privileges and
opportunities offered in the community, who has the protection of its laws, the
benefit of its schools and the chance to profit by its civic development, owes a
debt of allegiance that should find immediate payment in service for the general
good and he has always acted according to that belief. From early manhood he has
supported the republican party and his opinions have long carried weight in its
councils. In •1875 he was chosen to represent his district in the state senate
and reelection continued him in the upper house of the general assembly for a
decade, while in many ways during that period he left the impress of his
individuality and ability upon the legislation of the state. In the earlier
years of his connection with the senate he was chairman of the committee on tax
laws and taxes and he compiled these laws into a code which is even yet the
basis of the revenue system of Minnesota. From the time when he entered the
senate he was a member of the judiciary committee and acted as chairman thereof
for eight years. He was also chairman of the finance committee for a time and at
the head of the committee on the university and university lands. The final
adjustment of the difficulties arising in connection with the state railroad
bonds was brought about by Mr. Gilfillan, who clearly pointed out the flaws in
the bill which had been introduced, so that a new bill was at once passed by the
legislature. This bill was based upon a compromise between railroad companies
and the state, by which the state would pay fifty cents on the dollar. In many
other ways he aided in shaping public policy to the advantage of the great
majority of the citizens of the state. Further endorsement of his capable
service came to him in the fall of 1884, when he was elected to the forty-ninth
congress, where he studied national problems with the same thoroughness and
conscientious purpose that had marked his work as an assemblyman. On his
retirement from office he traveled abroad for two and a half years, in company
with his family, visiting the various European countries, as well as Egypt and
the Holy Land. On the occasion of the Queen's jubilee in London, in 1887, he
occupied a seat in Westminster Abbey and he was also present at the funeral
service of William I of Germany at Berlin, in 1888. Mr. Gilfillan has reached
the venerable age of eighty-eight years. His well directed purposes, his native
ability and his highly developed talents have made him indeed, a forceful and
valued factor in the affairs of Minneapolis and the state, and though now well
advanced on the journey of life, his interest in the general welfare is yet keen
and absorbing and out of the rich stores of his wisdom and experience he gives
for the benefit of others. He has extended generous financial assistance to
numerous charitable organizations and needy individuals and on the 6th of June,
1901, made a gift of fifty thousand dollars to the board of regents of the
University of Minnesota to be used in helping needy and deserving students to
continue the course in that institution. This fund has been available for about
twenty years and during that time two hundred and fifty students on an average
have been aided each year. So honest have these students been and so promptly
have they returned their loan with interest that the fund now amounts to one
hundred and six thousand dollars. Mr. Gilfillan's interests have always centered
in those channels through which flows the greatest good to the greatest number
and he enjoys in unusual degree the high esteem and friendship of those who know
him.