Gillespie

John Gillespie, wholesale manufacturer and importer, was born in the County of Wicklow, Ireland, on the 14th of July, 1836. He is a son of John Gillespie, senior, and Mary, his wife. John received his early education from his father, and spent about five years at an academy, or “boarding school” at Dundalk, Ireland. It being the desire of his father, he commenced studying with a view of entering the ministry, but his own inclinations being in favor of commercial life, he chose the latter as offering the best field for the exercise of his natural abilities. His practical mercantile … Read more

James Gillespie, second son of James and Jane (Montgomery) Gillespie was born in James Ontario, January 6, 1824. Both parents were from Belfast, Ireland. His father was a baker by trade, and often changed his residence, living at different places in this Province and in the State of New York, settling in Picton in 1831, where James obtained such mental discipline, as the local schools of that period furnished. He worked with his father until fifteen years old; then learned the trade of a cabinet maker, and followed that business for himself until 1860, when he became a grocer and … Read more