258 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



FOUNDER OF THE EXPORT CATTLE TRADE 



100. John D. Gillett was the dean of the fat stock men of 

 the 60's, 70's and 80's and was the originator of and sponsor 

 for the export bullock trade to Great Britain. He was bom 

 at New Haven, Conn., April 28, 1819, of French Huguenot 

 descent. His ancestor, Jonathan Gillett, emigrated in 1630 

 to Dorchester, Mass., in one of WiNTHROP's companies. On 

 being made a free man he proved his mettle by volunteering 

 to fight the Pequot Indians at New London, and was one of 

 sixteen to return from that bloody encounter. For this service 

 he received a grant of land, the Wetang Meadows. The Gilletts 

 were minute men and volunteers in the Colonial Army, fighting 

 at Lexington and many other of the northern engagements. The 

 Connecticut book of the Revolutionary War from the Adjutant 

 General's office records 49 GiLLETTS in the commands of 

 Colonel Huntington and General Wooster, among them 

 John Gillett's grandfather, Benoni. His father Eliphaz was 

 captain and sole owner of the brig "John" engaged in the West 

 Indies and coastwise trade. 



When he was three years old his father died, but his mother 

 was able to send him to the Lancastrian school in New Haven. 

 In his seventeenth year he sailed in the ship "Thomas" to 

 Georgia, where he clerked in his uncle's store, but in 1838 

 returned to New Haven where he attended the Pearl Academy 

 for three months. He then decided to cast his fortune in the 

 west, and in 42 days made the journey from New Haven to 

 Illinois, going via the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburg to 

 St. Louis and thence by stage to Springfield, 111. The last 

 twenty miles to Bald Knob, the home of another uncle, were 

 made on foot, and he made a humble start at $8 a month as a 

 farm hand for his uncle. With the first $50 saved he entered 

 40 acres of land, as at that time most of the land in Logan 

 county was for sale at government prices, prairie land not being 



