THE DEATH OF ABIA SWIFT LIPPINCOT GILMAN
Daughter of Rev. Thomas Lippincott; Widow of Winthrop S. Gilman
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 14, 1902

The following death notice is from New York Tribune, of March 3:
"On Sunday, March 2, 1902, at the house of her son-in-law, Commander Richard Graham Davenport, U.S.N., Washington, D. C., in the 85th year of her age, Abia Swift, widow of Winthrop Sargent Gilman of New York. Funeral service at the brick Presbyterian Church, Fifth Avenue and Thirty-Seventh Street, at 10:30 a.m. of Wednesday, March 5."

Mrs. Gilman was the widow of Winthrop S. Gilman, a member of the firm of Godfrey & Gilman, merchants of Alton in the early days. It was in the warehouse of this firm that Lovejoy's last press was stored, and where its defenders took refuge from the mob that slew Mr. Lovejoy on the night of November 7, 1837.

NOTES:
Abia Swift Lippincott Gilman was the daughter of Reverend Thomas and Patience “Patty” Swift Lippincott, who married August 15, 1816. On July 3, 1817, their first child – Abia Swift Lippincott – was born in Lumberland, New York, where Lippincott was working for a lumber dealer. On October 28, 1817, when Abia was three months old, the Lippincotts left Lumberland to seek a new home in the West. They traveled in a one-horse wagon, and then joined a party of 25 people in a flat-bottomed boat. After reaching Shawneetown, Illinois, they took a wagon and drove for nine days, reached the Mississippi River on January 17, 1819, and took a ferry across the river to St. Louis. At St. Louis, they were welcomed by Mr. Lippincott’s brother, Samuel. Thomas Lippincott first worked as a clerk in St. Louis, and became acquainted with Colonel Rufus Easton. The Colonel asked him to take goods to establish a store in his newly found Alton in Illinois, which he laid out in 1817. They formed a partnership as Lippincott & Co., and Thomas loaded his goods onto a boat, and disembarked at Alton. Once at Alton, he heard of the flourishing town called Milton near the Wood River (which was more populated at the time), and decided to set up his store there.

The Reverend and his wife established the first Sabbath School in the State of Illinois at the small settlement of Milton. Within a few months after his arrival, he received a commission as Justice of the Peace. An epidemic fever occurred at Milton, caused by the damming of the Wood River for saw mill purposes. Patience Lippincott became sick with the fever. Rev. Lippincott placed her in a buggy and drive ten or twelve miles a day into the country, away from the unhealthy Wood River. At first, she improved, but when they reached a friend’s house on Silver Creek in St. Clair County, near Shiloh, she took very ill. She died October 14, 1819, nine days after giving birth to a son, which did not survive. The Reverend buried his wife in the old cemetery at Shiloh, and returned to Milton with his daughter Abia. He married again to Henrietta Maria Slater, who died in September 1820, of the same malarial fever (she is possibly buried in the Milton Cemetery). Lippincott then fled Milton, along with most of the other inhabitants of the town. Lippincott moved to Edwardsville with his daughter, Abia, and worked in the Edwardsville Land Office. He married again on October 21, 1821 at Edwardsville, to Catherine Wyley Leggett. The Reverend and Catherine had three children: Charles Ellet Lippincott (1825-1887); Mary Jane Lippincott Saunders (1826-1901); and Alexander Lockwood Lippincott (1830-1852). Catherine died in 1850, and is buried in the Upper Alton Oakwood Cemetery. Rev. Lippincott married again November 27, 1851, to Lydia Fairchild Barnes. Rev. Lippincott died in 1869, and Lydia Lippincott died in 1873. Both are buried in the Upper Alton Oakwood Cemetery.

In 1834, Abia Swift Lippincott, then 17 years of age, married Winthrop Sargent Gilman, a prominent resident of Alton. Gilman was in business with Captain Benjamin Godfrey, founder of the Monticello Ladies Seminary in Godfrey and financier of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. It was in their warehouse that Rev. Lovejoy’s press was stored, and where it was attacked by pro-slavery rioters in November 1837. A few years after the death of Rev. Lovejoy, Winthrop and Abia moved to New York, where he became a leader in business and religious circles. Winthrop died October 3, 1884, in Palisades, New York. On March 2, 1902, Abia Swift Lippincott Gilman died in New York. Both are buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. They had nine children, with only 5 surviving their parents: Arthur Gilman (1835-1836); Arthur Gilman (1837-1909); Helen Abia Gilman Noyes (1843-1917); Virginia Gilman (1845-1845); Alice Ives Gilman (1848-1927); Emily Hoffman Gilman Noyes (1854-1930); Mary Elizabeth Gilman (1857-1857); Edith Lippincott Gilman (1858-1859); and Serena Hale Gilman Davenport (1859-1942).