1925 Biography - W Gilliam
W. H. Gilliam came to this county over the same route that most of our residents did. His parents came from Virginia to Tennessee, where W. H. was born, 1856. His father brought his family and settled on a farm near New Burnside in 1860. William was then a small boy and was raised on the farm and educated in our public schools and neighboring colleges. He taught for a short time, and began his public career as clerk in the New Burnside postoffice. He served as deputy in the office of the Circuit Clerk and Sheriff of the County at Vienna, from 1882 till 1885, when he entered the Journalistic field, buying the "Weekly Times." Mr. Gilliam continued this work for thirty-four years. He was Postmaster under Roosevelt and Taft, and was a man of high ideals and held steadily to the right as he saw it. He had much to do with the forming of public opinion and was interested in education taking an active part in securing our high school and always lending his voice as an editor in every movement that was for the uplift of humanity. He was devoted to his church, the Baptist, a member of the I.O.O.F. He died 1919. He was married to Dimple perkins, who was born in Missouri, but reared in this county. (For family see Simpson.)
Extracted 06 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, pages 381-382.
