George L. Gilman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 790-791 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GEORGE L. GILMAN. - Among the landowners of Yankton county is 
George L. Gilman, a gentleman of ability and discernment. From 1902 
down to the present he has been identified with the county and has 
aided materially in claiming the wild land for the purposes of 
civilization. There are in his life record many elements worthy of 
emulation and which should inspire and encourage others, for he started 
out in McCook county with limited means and throughout his career has 
been dependent upon his own efforts, his prosperity being attributable 
to his diligence and perseverance.  

	A native of Connecticut, Mr. Gilman was born in West Hartland, 
his parents being Samuel B. and Harriet T. (Newton) Gilman, who were 
also natives of that state and representatives of old colonial 
families, prominent in the Revolutionary war. The father was a farmer, 
a wagon maker and carpenter. Both he and his wife always lived in 
Connecticut and there he died at the age of forty-six years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Gilman held membership in the Congregational church and he served 
as deacon for many years, being deeply interested in everything 
pertaining to the growth of his church and the extension of its 
influence. In his political views he was a Republican and was honored 
with various township offices. In the family were four children, of 
whom George L. is the eldest. Sarah E. is the wife of W. H. Williams, a 
prominent banker and business man of Winsted, Connecticut. Addie T. is 
the wife of Henry Ward Beecher, an undertaker of New Haven, 
Connecticut. Ida died in infancy. The living children were provided 
with good educational privileges, and the daughters successfully taught 
city schools. They were also proficient in music.  

	Upon his father's death George L. Gilman, who was then fifteen 
years of age, took charge of his father's farm and when seventeen years 
of age he began teaching a country school in the winter months, while 
in the summer seasons he continued in agricultural work. He taught 
altogether for six winters in the district schools and afterward for 
two years in an intermediate grade in Winsted, Connecticut. His farm 
labors were continued through the summer months and in 1881 he sold the 
old homestead and for one summer he worked for his uncle on a farm. In 
the fall of that year he went to Illinois, where he visited for a short 
time and through the succeeding winter was employed as a teacher in 
Illinois. In the spring of 1882 he removed to McCook county, South 
Dakota, where he secured one hundred and sixty acres of government land 
and on the 25th of April of that year, which was his birthday, he built 
his first house, a little shanty eight by ten feet. Mr. Gilman dug a 
well with a spade and broke seventy-five acres of land; the first crop 
of sod corn was planted with a hatchet. He remained in South Dakota for 
one year and then returned to Illinois, teaching this former school 
through the succeeding winter at Western. In the spring of 1883 he 
brought horses and machinery to his new home, employed a hired man and 
began in earnest the work of cultivating and developing his farm. He 
had in addition to his first tract taken up three hundred and twenty 
acres, making in all four hundred and eighty acres, and subsequently he 
added one hundred and sixty acres, so that he had an entire section. He 
has erected a good residence and barns and he placed two hundred and 
sixty acres of his land under cultivation. Upon that farm he resided 
until December, 1892, when he sold one-half of his land and rented the 
remainder. He then purchased one hundred and sixty acres in Yankton 
county, where he has since lived. In 1898 he erected a fine residence 
upon his home farm and has placed his land under a very high state of 
cultivation.  

	On the 10th of June, 1884, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. 
Gilman and Miss Emma O. Gaines, a daughter of Nelson and Clarisa 
(Hinman) Gaines, the former of Granville, Massachusetts, and the latter 
of Bristol, Connecticut. They were married in Cambridge, Illinois, and 
her father was the first postmaster there and also a pioneer merchant. 
In public affairs he was ever prominent and influential, supporting the 
Republican party; he was a member of the Congregational church. By his 
first wife he had three children: George, who died at the age of four 
years; Clarissa, the wife of E. G. Comstock, of Missouri; and Julia, 
who became the wife of J. W. Stewart, but both are now deceased. By his 
second wife Mr. Gaines had the following children Hattie, the wife of 
Charles Genung, of Menlo, Iowa; Emma, now Mrs. Gilman; Lucy, the wife 
of Dr. Miller, a resident of Los Angeles, California; Frank N. who is 
in business in Chicago; and Harvey S., who is a business man of 
California. For his third wife Mr. Gaines chose Amy H. Wilson, but they 
had no children. Mr. Gaines died in 1892 at Geneseo, Illinois, aged 
seventy-five years. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gilman has been 
blessed with five children: George Gaines, who was graduated in Yankton 
Academy in June, 1903; Arthur, who died at the age of fourteen months; 
Howard E. and Raymond N., who are attending school; and Alice T., who 
is now a little maiden of nine years.  

	Politically, Mr. Gilman is a Republican with strong Prohibition 
tendencies, for he is an ardent advocate of the cause of temperance. He 
and his wife are active and devoted members of the Congregational 
church, in which he serves as a deacon and trustee. He has a very wide 
acquaintance and an honorable career well entitles him to 
representation in this volume among the pioneers of the state. His life 
history shows that success is not a matter of genius, but the outcome 
of judgment, experience and diligence. Integrity has been one of the 
crowning features in his life work, and capability with unflagging 
diligence gives Mr. Gilman a place among the prosperous residents of 
Yankton county.