Gilpin, Joseph B.

Born: 1825-09-25 Virginia

Died: 1878-07-03 Quincy, Illinois

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

Joseph B. Gilpin was born into a Quaker family. He moved from Maryland to Quincy, Illinois, in 1844. He studied law with Calvin A. Warren & Onias C. Skinner and was admitted to the Illinois bar. Gilpin then began to work in real estate, where he found financial success. In 1850, Gilpin was living in Quincy’s North Ward and owned $1,500 in real property. Gilpin married Mary A. Cleaves in 1852 in Adams County and the couple had at least three children. By 1860, Gilpin and his family were living in Quincy’s Sixth Ward, and he had amassed $40,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $6,500. He served for the Union in the U.S. Civil War, enlisting as a captain, and rising to a major, becoming chief of commissary of the Department of Missouri. After the war, he returned to his real estate business.

Daily Quincy Herald (IL), 6 July 1878, 1:4; U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); The History of Adams County, Illinois (Chicago: Murray, Williamson & Phelps, 1879), 404, 707; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), North Ward, Quincy, Adams County, IL, 217; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Adams County, 16 September 1852, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 6, Quincy, Adams County, IL, 318; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Ward 6, Quincy, Adams County, IL, 17; U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2009).