PROF J. T. GILLEY. While the life of an educator is generally barren of incidents for biography, it is still true that a life devoted to this calling must have many points of interest to practical thinkers, and be of benefit to the great work of educational progress.
Prof. J. T. Gilley is one of the most popular educators of Marion County, Arkansas, and was born in Tennessee March 2, 1855. a son of one of the old and prominent farmers of this section, A. S. Gilley, who came thither from Tennessee in 1870, with his wife, Elizabeth (Little Gilley, who was also born in Tennessee, and several children. In time their family consisted of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch, J. T. Gilley, was the eldest.
He was reared to the wholesome, healthy and happy life of the farmer’s boy, and received his education in the public schools and the College of Yellville, also attending Rally Hill College in Boone County for some time, his career in these institutions being marked by hard study and rapid progress. Early in life he entered the calling of a pedagogue and has presided over some of the most difficult and advanced schools of Marion and Boone Counties with marked ability and success, and at the time is a half owner of Prairie Grove College, which has already become a well-known institution of learning under his able management. The school is well patronized and, although practically in its infancy, bids fair to rank with any similar institution in that section of the country.
Prof. Gilley was married to Miss Sarah J. David, a daughter of P. R. David, by whom he has four children: Una E., Virgie E., Oscar L. and Alzerona F. Prof. Gilley and his family are attendants of the Christian Church, are highly respected in the community in which they reside, and their home is a comfortable, pretty and hospitable one. He is a public-spirited citizen, upright, honorable and wide-awake, and gives every promise of rising to eminence in his profession.