History of Effingham County, Illinois, 1883, O. L. Baskin and Co., pages 219-220

HERMAN GILLESPIE, farmer, P. O. Watson, was born in Wood County, Virginia, April 10, 1810. His father JOHN B. GILLESPIE, was married to ESTHER JAMES in 1803, and sixteen children were born of this union, of whom the subject is the only one supposed to be living. Mr. Gillespie married MARTHA ADAMS; unto them were born six children, of whom four are living, but this wife dying, he married MARGARET FIELD, who was born in Bracken County, Kentucky, December 4, 1823. They were married November 22, 1854, and from this union four children were born, of whom AMBROSE GILLESPIE is the only survivor. This son married ALICE LOY. They have two children-CATHARINE and CHARLES EDWIN. The family have been, and are now affilitated with the Baptish and Christian Churches.

Herman Gillespie, while a young man, was at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and was for some time in the employ of the Indian traders. His grandfather, JOHN JAMES, had an interest in BLENNERHASSET's ISLAND in an early day, and when he sold his interest the mother of Herman would not sign the deed. The subject remembers when the family was driven by the Indians from their home to the block-house on the Island for protection and safety.

He came to Illinois, settling in Elliottstown, Effingham County, in 1855, then moving to Watson Township in 1865, where he has ever since lived on a farm of 120 acres under good cultivation, and a fine orchard. In early life, he made over 1,000,000 brick on his farm. In those days, the country around him was thinly settled, and neighbors few and far between.

He is a Republican in politics, and has frequently been elected Road Commissioner and School Trustee for his township.

Mr. Gillespie, when the second call for 300,000 men was issued in 1861, volunteered, and was a member of Company B, 38th Illinois Volunteers; was mustered in at Camp Butler, Springfield, Illinois, and ordered to Pilot Knob, Missouri; was in the engagement at Fredericksburg, Missouri, where he was wounded, permanently disabled, and in due time honorably discharged. He draws a pension for services rendered his country. He was mustered out of the service March 8, 1863, when he returned to his farm.

In the fall of 1829, he was employed to guard and pilot the Miami and Mississineway tribes of Indians from their reservation near Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, then known as Fort Dearborn, after the Government had purchased their lands. All there was of Chicago in those days was a few French trading posts. He was quite familiar with the Indians, and they understanding some English, and he a little of their language, was the cause of his being selected to escort them to Fort Dearborn.

Mr. Gillespie claims that he is the first one in Illinois that made the molds from which slap sand brick was made; the old method was by rolling in sand; his plan was sanding the molds.