Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of John Gillespie

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Descendants of John Gillespie

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN² GILLESPIE (WILLIAM¹) was born Abt. 1753, and died April 07, 1822 in Transylvania County, NC. He married JANE HARVEY August 13, 1779 in Botetort County, VA, daughter of WILLIAM HARVEY and REBECCA CARUTHERS. She was born April 17, 1762, and died April 26, 1808 in Transylvania County, NC.

Notes for JOHN GILLESPIE:
John Gillespie, son of William and Mary Gillespie, was born in Virginia about 1753. He was married in Botetort County, Virginia on the 13th day of August 1779, to Jane Harvey, daughter of William and Rebecca Caruthers Harvey. Jane was born April 17, 1762. It has been reported that John fought in the Revolutionary War, But I have never found any evidence that supports that claim. Soon after the Revolutionary War, John, his wife Jane, his parents and other members of the family left Virginia and traveled to the Pendleton District of South Carolina.
After living a few years on Georges Creek, near the present town of Easly, South Carolina, John moved again, this time to East Fork. East Fork is the East Fork of the French Broad River and is near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina. John Gillespie was a gun maker by trade, and after building a home on East Fork, he also built a gun shop where he and his three sons made the famous Gillespie Long Rifles.
John Gillespie's gun works were on a hill west of the river, at what became the Harve Whitmire place. Nearby was a small stream named "Boring Branch", where the rifling for the gun was made. The metal for the rifle barrels first was made in thin bars, then heated until soft enough to be tractable. When the heated bars were taken out of the furnace, they were bent around a small rod and the edges welded together, a few inches at a time. The rifles were muzzle-loaders, with first the powder put in through the barrel, then the wadding packed with a ramrod, and finally the bullet greased and wrapped In a "patch" of cloth. Each gun, being made by hand, had to have bullets made to its specific requirements.
John and Jane Harvey Gillespie were the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters. Jane Harvey Gillespie died in 1808, and John died a few years later in 1822, after going alone into the old Toxaway section, on what he had insisted on referring to as his "last hunt". He was right. When he did not return home at the time he was expected, his sons went to look for him, and three days into Toxaway, they found him, dead. He was carried home and buried in the old family cemetery on the other side of the hill from the gunworks, and is near the present day East Fork Baptist Church. Until the WPA cleaned the cemetery during the depression of the 1930's, his gravestone, which evidently was broken or covered over at that time, was well preserved and plainly marked with the date of his death.

More About JOHN GILLESPIE:
Burial: Gillespie Family Cemetery, East Fork, Transylvania County, N. C.

More About JANE HARVEY:
Burial: Gillespie Family Cemetery, East Fork, Transylvania County, N. C.

More About JOHN GILLESPIE and JANE HARVEY:
Marriage: August 13, 1779, Botetort County, VA

Children of JOHN GILLESPIE and JANE HARVEY are:

2.	i.	REBECCA³ GILLESPIE, b. July 30, 1780; d. July 28, 1860, South Carolina.
	ii.	MARY GILLESPIE, b. February 07, 1783.
3.	iii.	WILLIAM GILLESPIE, b. December 28, 1785; d. September 23, 1851, Transylvania County, NC.
4.	iv.	MATHEW GILLESPIE, b. July 23, 1788; d. May 16, 1871, Henderson County NC.
5.	v.	ROBERT HARVEY GILLESPIE, b. February 01, 1791, South Carolina; d. May 29, 1881, Transylvania County, NC.
6.	vi.	ISABEL GILLESPIE, b. March 30, 1796, South Carolina; d. May 30, 1880, Mills River, Henderson County, NC.

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