258 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
FOUNDER OF THE EXPORT CATTLE TRADE 
100. Joun 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 born 
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 HunTINcToN and GENERAL WoosTER, among them 
JoHN GILLETT’s grandfather, Benont. His father ELIPHAZz 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, Ill. 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 
