The T. E. Gillespie Family

By Alice Gillespie Singleton

In January, 1896, Thomas Earnest Gillespie and his wife, Lillie Alice (Lenahan) Gillespie came from Prairieville, Kaufman County, Texas, to Jacksonville, and both lived here the rest of their lives. Thomas Earnest was born in Rockwall, Texas, June 2, 1869, and Mrs. Gillespie was born in Byhalia, Mississippi, March 25, 1872. Her father, Henry Lenahan, and her mother, Mariah Quinn, had come directly from Ireland, each in a different time and situation, but they met and were married after arrival in the United States.

During the Civil War, her father made shoes for the Confederate Army. Her parents died in Memphis, Tennessee, during a terrific epidemic of yellow fever, leaving two little girls, Mollie and Lillie, to be reared and educated by their older sister, Rosa, and her husband, John S. Court of Memphis-Springdale Community. In 1891, Lillie Lenahan came to Prairieville, to visit her sister and family, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Jack. Here she and Earnest Gillespie met and fell in love. On March 19, 1893, they were married by Reverend Will Jordan. Gillespie's parents and grandparents with all their families, except one daughter, had moved to Texas from Tazewell, Virginia, in 1858.

The children of T. E. and Lillie Alice Gillespie are Ruby (Mrs. Lloyd E. Elliott) of Dallas, Marvin Earnest, president of Highlands State Bank of Baytown, who married Angelita Perez; and residents of Jacksonville who are Alice (Mrs. George Singleton), a retired school teacher, Lowell ("Gillie"), owner of Gillespie Motors, who married Janette Holmes, and Frank Burts, manager of theatres here and in Rusk, who married Katie Groft. A child, Horace, died at an early age.

T. E. Gillespie was a retail merchant. In 1896, he was in the drug business with Ambrose Johnson, his brother-in-law. Later he had his own grocery store for years, then changed to variety store merchandising. While operating his grocery business, he bought a lot and had his own brick building constructed. That building still stands at 209 Commerce Street. After retiring from mercantile dealings, he went into the insurance business and continued his farming and cattle interests.

He was a Jacksonville school trustee for many years, and during the mayor-alderman city government period, served several terms on the city council. Much later, he was tax-assessor and collector for the Jacksonville Independent School District.

Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie were Methodists and their children were brought up in the Jacksonville Methodist Church. Mrs. Gillespie had joined in Springdale, Tennessee, in 1889. Earnest had been a member long before coming to Jacksonville, and had helped to organize a Methodist Church in Kaufman County. In 1952, the local official church board of stewards paid tribute for his long and faithful service as a church member and steward. He and his wife were dedicated to the Lord and remained true to their faith.

T. E. Gillespie grocery store at 209 E. Commerce Street as it appeared in 1918.

Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Gillespie in photos made about 1940.

The T. E. Gillespie permanent home, 324 North Bolton Street, where it stood until recently.