BIO: Joseph GILLILAND, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 889 & 890.
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  JOSEPH GILLILAND, a leading member of one of the prominent old families of 
Centre and Clearfield Counties, Pa., who is engaged in a general mercantile 
business at Karthaus, was born January 6, 1841, at Sprucetown, Centre County, 
Pa., and is a son of John and Lydia (Smith) Gilliland.
  John Gilliland was born at Spring Mills, Centre County, July 15, 1806, and his 
death occurred March 5, 1888.  His parents were Joseph and Catherine (Cowden) 
Gilliland, and his grandfather was James Gilliland, a native of Ireland.  The 
Gillilands moved from Chester into Centre County, where Joseph Gilliland 
settled, acquiring land in Potter Township, which was the old family homestead 
and was retained as such until 1906, when it was disposed of.  John Gilliland 
lost a leg in early youth but nevertheless he became a useful and very active 
man and although he was forced to use a crutch, became so accustomed to its use 
that he could walk faster than others who had full use of both limbs.  For 
eighteen years he taught school, riding back and forth on horseback.  He then 
went into the mercantile business, buying the Penn's Valley Trading Company, 
under the firm name of Boozer & Gilliland, which later became J. & R. Gilliland 
and continued until 1857, when he took up his residence in Karthaus Township, 
where he had up to this time, conducted a branch store.  In politics he was a 
Democrat.  He married Lydia Smith, who was born March 11, 1808, at Boalsburg, 
Centre County, Pa., and died in Karthaus Township, Clearfield county, January 
22, 1889.  She was a daughter of William and Hannah (Lytel) Smith.
  William Smith, the grandfather of Mrs. Gilliland, was an officer in a 
Pennsylvania regiment in the Revolutionary War and afterward engaged in farming 
and also operated a mill, in Lancaster County, where his son, William Smith, 
Jr., was born.  The latter engaged in teaching during his early manhood and 
later conducted a store at Warrior's Mark.  In 1808 he settled at Smithfield, 
now a part of Bellefonte, where he followed merchandising for a time and later 
resumed teaching.  His death occurred before the marriage of his daughter, he 
and his wife passing away at Boalsburg.
  Four sons and two daughters were born to William and Lydia Gilliland, namely:  
Hannah Catherine; Joseph; William Smith; Edward I., who was engaged in numerous 
business enterprises at Pottersdale prior to his death, on July 19th, 1906; Mary 
Ann, who lives at Karthaus; and Robert Cowden, who resides at Snow Shoe, Centre 
County.
  Joseph Gilliland attended school at Centre Hill until he accompanied the 
family to Karthaus Township, in 1857.  After his marriage in 1866, he engaged in 
farming near Salt Lick and worked at lumbering during the winter seasons.  He 
continued to live on that farm until the fall of 1869 and then removed his 
residence to a hotel at Salt Lick, continuing his farm activities and also 
operated the hotel from 1869 until 1873, when he sold the same.  He then became 
a clerk for Dr. J. W. Potter, at Pottersdale, remaining until 1877, when he 
disposed of property he still owned in this vicinity and then engaged in 
operating a mill and general store in partnership with his brother-in-law, 
Joseph Yothers.  In the spring of 1882 he bought his partner's interest and 
continued the mill and store for six years, when he sold to R. L. Potter and 
returned to Salt Lick.  In 1889 he bought store buildings there and with his 
brother, Edward I. Gilliland, conducted a mercantile business until the spring 
of 1898, when he disposed of the same to James Hunter, and then moved to Lock 
Haven, where he lived until October 31, 1908, then moving to Karthaus.  In the 
following March he bought his present store from Joseph A. Heckendorn and still 
continues in the mercantile business at this point.  During his residence at 
Lock Haven he was in the cigar manufacturing business and while there he and 
Aaron Kyler established the second laundry in that city.  He has always been a 
man of business enterprise and is widely known through this section of the 
state.
  Joseph Gilliland was married May 17, 1866, to Miss Adeline Yothers, who was 
born in what is now Karthaus Township, and died December 30, 1878, and her 
burial was at Keewaydin, Covington Township.  She was a daughter of Joseph and 
Elizabeth (Reiter) Yothers, people of German extraction, who came to Clearfield 
from Centre County.  Two daughters were born to this marriage, Lydia Elizabeth 
and Clara Bell.  The latter is the wife of James Heaney and they live at 
Vintondale, Cambria County, and they have had four children:  Adeline G., born 
October 24, 1892, who died at the age of one year; Anna Lucetta, born August 1, 
1894; Joseph G., born March 12, 1898; and Mabel E., born November 30, 1904.
  Mr. Gilliland was married secondly in October, 1880, to Miss Lucetta B. Lucas, 
of Snow Shoe, Centre County.  Her father, John Lucas, was in the War of 1812, 
and was wounded in the battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, and was 
afterward known at Perry John Lucas.  He was awarded a medal by Congress as one 
of Commodore Perry's veterans.  His death occurred in September, 1858, at the 
age of sixty-nine years.  In National politics.  Mr. Gilliland votes with the 
Democratic party but in local affairs is independent.  From 1877 until 1881 he 
was postmaster at Pottersdale.  He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church.