JEROME B. GILL FAMILY   

Jerome B. Gill was born November 22, 1828, to Phillip and Lucinda Henderson Gill, the father being a native of Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia.  The family pioneered Carroll County, Illinois, in 1841. Jerome married Christiana Ruble, April 25, 1863, and they located near her parents, John and Julia Parkinson Ruble, in Jo Davies County, Illinois.

In 1885 the Jerome Gills came west where her first cousin, John C. Ruble, had established in 1878, near what would be the village of that name in Plymouth County.  They were accompanied by her sister and husband, Rachel and Henry Ruble (marriage of first cousins.) Their possessions were transported in a covered wagon and the young Gill daughter, Edith, did the cooking over an open fire.  Christiana Gill and her sister accompanied the wagon party in a top-buggy and Christiana did not abandon her silks and plummed hats for the privilege of being called a pioneer.

Jerome B. Gill died March 16, 1894. The Civil War veteran of Co. A., 45th Ill. Infantry is buried in Crathorne Cemetery.  In the 1890s the family home was Section 18, Washington Township.

The Matriarch of the family, Christiana (Nannie B.) Ruble Gill, was born in Jo Davies County, Illinois, on February 9, 1844.  Two of her brothers lost their lives on southern battlefields, and with her husband and brothers-in-law being veterans of the conflict, it was a family passion to relive again and again the major battles of the Civil War.  Christiana Gill died June 23, 1929.

Forty years later, in 1969, Miss Maude MacKinnon lovingly pieced a quilt from the colorful velvet and velour hats by which Christiana Gill was remembered. This heirloom quilt was presented to a sixth generation grandson on the Doty line. 

~Source: Merrill Centennial 1872-1972, pp. 180-181