Biography

1792 - 1881

The Honorable James Lyle Gillis, considered the "Patriarch of Elk County,” was the son of Robert and Sarah (Stewart) Gillis of Hebron, Washington County, N.Y., born October 2, 1792; he attended public schools; worked as a tanner, 1808-1811;  served in the War of 1812 with a cavalry regiment; action at Fort George, Chipewa, Lundy’s Lane (where he was wounded), was captured, imprisoned, escaped, recaptured imprisoned through surrender; moved to Victor New York briefly, then moved to Ridgway, Pa., in 1822.  Gillis was appointed associate judge of Jefferson County by Governor Porter; was a member of the state House of Representatives, 1840 and 1851; a judge of Jefferson County in 1842; member of the state Senate in 1846-1848; wrote the bill that formed Elk County; served as a mail agent in San Francisco, California; elected as a Democrat to Congress, 1857-1859; was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1858; appointed agent for the Pawnee Indians; moved with son Charles to Iowa in 1862,  died in Mount Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa, July 8, 1881; interment in Forest Home Cemetery. He married Mary Ridgway of Philadelphia, a close relative of financier Jacob Ridgway, 1816.  She died in 1826, and Gillis married (2) Cecilia Anne Berray.