Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 576 - 577 

GEORGE A. GILMORE, cashier of the bank of G. C. Robbins & Co., of Mt. Hope, is a worthy representative of a good old New England family, the members of which several generations ago were among the early settlers of that part of the country. He was born in Kenosha County, Wis., April 20, 1846, and is a son of Almer and Eleanor (Bishop) Gilmore.

            The father of our subject was born in Vermont, and in that beautiful State was reared to a life of usefulness and labor. As soon as he reached years of maturity he became engaged for himself as a farmer and a lumberman. When a young man he removed with his parents to Wisconsin, and in the city of Chicago was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Bishop, a native of the North of Ireland. They subsequently settled on a farm in Kenosha County, Wis. Later, for three years, Mr. Gilmore was employed in the lumber business in Cook County, Ill. Then he became a resident of Beloit, Wis., for awhile, and in the spring of 1858 migrated from that city with his family to Athens, Ga., where he became a contractor and builder.

            After the war Mr. Gilmore moved to Atlanta, Ga., and was actively engaged in the same business until July, 1884, when he came to Kansas with his wife, and they now make their home with their son, our subject. They are people of exceptional integrity,and are held in general respect. They have one other son, Herman K., a resident of Macon, Ga.

            Our subject was twelve years of age when his parents went to live in Georgia, and he continued to make his home with them until after the war. He received a good common-school education, and was on the eve of entering the freshman class of the university at Athens, Ga., but at that date the Civil War was in progress, and all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were forced to take part, and our subject, though then not quite sixteen, preferred to volunteer rather than be conscripted, and in 1863 he became a member of Company H, 9th Regiment Georgia Volunteers, C. S. A. He served until the close of the war, when he was mustered out as Sergeant. The 9th Georgia Volunteer Regiment was under Gen. Hardee, and was in front of Sherman in his march to the sea. The father and brother of our subject were also in the service of the Confederate army, and at Savannah, the night of the evacuation, our subject and his father, and one other man, spiked the guns of three batteries.

            After the war Mr. Gilmore engaged with his father in contracting and building, and superintended the erection of the Governor's residence at Atlanta, which is still used as such. In 1875 he returned to his old home, Beloit, Wis., and was employed as a designer by the F. N. Davis Manufacturing Company. In 1879 he came to Kansas and purchased a section of land in Reno County, four miles west of Mt. Hope, and in the year 1880 removed his family to the Sunflower State, where they have since resided.

            In 1878 Mr. Gilmore was married to Mrs. McCommons, nee Thorp, a native of New York, and a daughter of Herman S. and Emeline Thorp. Her marriage with Nathan McCommons took place in Wisconsin. He was a dealer in horses, and took many trips to California, and after marriage his wife accompanied him on one of his excursions to that State. He died in the city of Rockford, Ill., leaving an estate valued at $10,000. To him and his wife was born one daughter, Carrie, now the wife of T. F. Halverson, County Attorney of Stafford County, Kan. Mrs. Gilmore, a woman of superior business tact, is a member of the banking firm of G. C. Robbins & Co., and is the owner of 480 acres of land. Her union with our subject has been blessed by the birth of one son, Roy Thorp.

            Mr. Gilmore is heartily liked in this community, and his well-known ability makes him a desirable man for public office, but he persistently resists all efforts of his many personal friends to induce him to take an active part in the administration of town or county affairs. He is a firm Republican and has voted with that party ever since he attained his majority. He has a kindly heart, as open to all generous impulses as his purse is to all measures of public improvement and private charity. Both himself and his wife are influential members of the Congregational Church, of which he is one of the Trustees.

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