 homas Gillum was born 10 October 1807 in Virginia. Little
is known of his childhood circumstances. His biography can be found in one
of the early Jay County histories, but one or two items therein bear commenting
on. While Thomas was still a child, his father moved the Gillum family to
Ohio. Possibly to Coshocton County, since that is where he and his brother
Samuel could be found in the late 1820s. Also in the vicinity were a Moses
and Elizabeth Downs Gillum and a Susannah Gillum (who may have been the mother
of Thomas and Samuel). On December 14, 1830, Thomas Gillum married Sarah
Davis Black, widow of Gerrard Black, who had died the previous year. Gillum
would later claim, years after her death, that Sarah had been a sister of
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. There is no truth to this
assertion, but I do consider it an interesting insight into the man's character.
According to a history of Coshocton County, Ohio, Thomas and his brother,
Samuel, founded the town of Van Buren in Monroe Township in 1836. They hoped
to be the founders of a thriving, prosperous community, but it did not come
to pass and they soon abandoned the project. Van Buren is now known as Spring
Mountain. In 1839, Thomas Gillum brought his family, including a number of
step-children retaining the name Black, to Jay County, Indiana. His wife
Sarah died February 6, 1849 at the age of 50. One of her sons, Charles A.,
aged 22, died about three weeks later. Sarah had given birth to five children
by her first husband and went on to bear at least five more by her second.
One is known to have died in childhood. Thomas Gillums surviving children
were James, Sarah, William Riley and Andrew Jackson. Sarah married George
Fish, the first postmaster of Jackson Township. William Riley Gillum married
Nancy Kay, daughter of James and Nancy Shelton Kay. Thomas Gillum died on
January 3, 1866. He and his wife are buried in the Pingrey Cemetery.
Submitted by Richard Fowler |
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