ROBERT Q. GILLILAND. This prominent citizen of Ozark County, Missouri, was born here on the 22d of October, 1845, a son of Robert and Eliza (Kane) Gilliland, who came from Tennessee to this county in 1842, and settled in the northwestern part of this county, near Thornfield, on a farm.
Both parents were born in Tennessee, and to that State the paternal grandfather, Robert Gilliland, removed in the early history of the State. Robert Gilliland, the father of the subject of this sketch, settled on a tract of Government land and made his home in the neighborhood where he first settled until his death, which occurred in 1891. In politics he was a Republican, and during the Civil War was a member of the Missouri State Militia. As a farmer he was successful, and as a citizen was public-spirited and helpful, and as a neighbor was kind and obliging. His wife was a daughter of James Kane, a native of Tennessee, who came to Ozark County about 1842 and settled in the same neighborhood in which Mr. Gilliland settled, and there spent the rest of his days. Mrs. Gilliland died in February, 1894. She bore her husband six children: James, who resides in this county, was a soldier during the Civil War in the Sixteenth Missouri Cavalry; Robert Q.; John H., who was also a soldier of the Sixteenth Missouri Cavalry; Rebecca is the wife of William E. Welch; William H. is living near the old home, and Eliza is the wife of G. W. Johnson.
Robert Q. Gilliland was reared and educated in Ozark County, and when the war opened joined the Forty-sixth Missouri Infantry, and but shortly after was discharged on account of disability. In 1868 he was elected sheriff and collector of Ozark County, was reelected in 1870, and two years later was chosen to represent the county in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly. He was successively elected county sheriff in 1876 and 1878, was then elected circuit and county clerk, a position he filled by reelection for eight years, without oppo-sition. In all he has been sixteen years in office, and during that time he has successfully managed a farm, which is located in the vicinity of Gainesville and consists of 320 acres, 150 acres being under cultivation. Mr. Gilliland was married to Miss Josephine Forrest, a daughter of Samuel J. Forrest, of this county, who is one of its pioneers and lives near Isabella. Mrs. Gilliland was born in this county, and has borne her husband the following children: John H., Samuel H., Lena, Charles, Edgar, Byron, Otis and Orena. Mr. Gilliland is a member of Robert Burns Lodge, at Gainesville, of the A. F. & A. M., for years and is a prominent member of the order. He has been successful in everything that he has undertaken, and in private as well as in public life numbers his friends by the score.