Person:Joel Gillette (1)

From Atlas of Lawrence County, Ohio Hardesty 1882

From Atlas of Lawrence County, Ohio 1887 D.J. Lake & Company

First called Center Township but changed to Rome Township in 1821-2, it comprises 37 Sections. The first actual settler, Joseph Miller, built the first log cabin in 1787 at what became known as Haskellville. Others who followed soon afterward were Joel Gillett, A.T.F. Fuller, Samuel Swain, Jacob Proctor and Robert Hall. James Miller, son of Joseph, was the first recorded birth. The first school, located in Section 22, was taught by Enoch Doddridge in 1815. The first sermon was preached in 1820, and in the same year James Haskell, minister, organized the first church society, Methodist Episcopal.

Thomas Walton wrote, that after he came in 1819, he settled in the township, laid out the town of Millersport for Jacob Miller, who built himself a brick house. Joel Bowen sold meat and whiskey to hands on the keel boats. He sold some very small hams that the boatmen dubbed "dog hams". It was thus that the farm became known as Dog-Ham Shoal Farm and the river shoals became known as the "Dog Ham Ripple".

The apple variety which became known as "The Rome Beauty" is credited to Alanson Gillette. As a lad of eight or nine years old his father, Joel, had given him a tree sprout which had sprung from below the graft of trees he had bought in Marietta. The sprout which the boy planted was the original Rome Beauty apple tree which is well-known to this day.

Early Settlers are: BELL, Benjamin BELL, Isaac DODRIDGE, Enoch FULLER, A.F.F. HALL, Robert HASKELL, Rev. James GILLETT, Joel MILLER, Joseph PROCTOR, Jacob SWAIN, Samuel

"About 1816 - 18, Zebulon, Joel and William Gillett located in Rome township, Lawrence County, Ohio. Their children were called cousins, hence it is assumed that they were brothers. Considerations of names and localities and of family tradition suggest that they may have been sons of John Gillett (No. 50, page 186 - a reference to the other article), since the 1790 census record indicates that he had more sons than the two who have been identified, and it is less easy to place them as sons of one of that John's brothers. Evidence to sustain or refute this conjecture is desired. The family of Joel, as collected by Mrs. Winona W. Pfander, 1644 North Glen Oak, Peoria, Illinois, follows.

Joel Gillett, born at Milford, Conn., 28 May 1778; married first, Chloa Griswold, also born in Connecticut; married second, Azuba (Pingrey) Risely, who died in Louisiana, 4 Nov. 1845. Joel and his first wife settled in Seneca County, N.Y., where several of their children were born. After living a year in Marietta, Ohio, they moved in 1817 to Rome township, where he and his first wife are buried. He was a carpenter by trade, also a shoemaker, but later in life a farmer. His son Alanson and the latter's cousin Horatio Nelson Gillett (son of Zebulon) by engrafting originated the "Rome Beauty Apple." ^[1]

From History of Rome twp, by Thomas Walton

The next below was Joel Gillett, who lived in a two story hewed log house, which stood on the river bank in front of where his son Alanson now lives. The front wall and roof of the house was covered with a yellow flowered vine called creeper or house leek. He was a strong whig. He brought some engrafted apple trees from Marietta, on which was a sprout from the roots. When he was setting them out, he jerked off the sprout and said"Here you may have this Democrat." The boy took the sprout and set it out, and it was what the far famed Rome Beauty apple, orignated from. His sons were--Alanson(who married Sarah Radford. She died and his second wife --who is now living was the widow of Dr. Wm. Paine, and the daughter of James Haskel.), Joel G(who married Nancy Radford, now lives in Texas. his son Alanson R. Gillett nearly blind is a good preacher and scholar), Roswell-- went south and died; Columbus--when I last heard of him, was a Methodist preacher in Texas. Of his daughters----Chloe, married Thomas Gardner; Candace married E.W. Wakefield; Philenda, married Henry Radford; Emma married George Wakefield. After the death of his first wife, he married Widow Risley, by whom he had a son Elisha(who married Henrietta Jones, daughter of William and Isabella Jones) and a daughter Irene who married Mark Singer, both whom live near Windsor Chapel. The Widow Risley, had two daughters, one of whom was said to be the handsomest girl in the county, and the other the most homely. After Mr. Gillett's death, his second wife went with her son in law Jacob Locey to Louisiana, and is now dead.

Joel Gillett is in Seneca Co., NY in August of 1811 according to copy of indenture he made

From am article written by Betty Burcham in the Community Herald,

In 1814, the Gillette brothers, Joel, William, and Zebulon along with their families arrived here, having been born in Connecticut, moved to New yorkand then spent one year in Mariettabefore coming down the river. William was a carpenter, blacksmith and stone mason. some of his work may be seen in the old Rome cemetery, he later moved his family on to Illinois. Zebulon, a farmer was married to Rachel Griswold, their son Capt. Horatio Nathaniel(H.N.) operated keel boats and was also a farmer, built his home about 1870 facing the river on the large farm which is still in the family. This is the home place of Mae Evelyn Hunt, Rosalie Bailes and Donald Gillette. Joel Gillette and wife Chloe Griswold arrived with his brothers and was a farmer. In 1816 he returned to Marietta and bought 100 fruit trees from the Putman nurseries. When planting the trees, he found a seedling, which he gave to his son Alanson to plant. alanson planted it a little down river from where he later built his home. The tree was first called "Gillette Seedling" then changed to Rome Beauty about 1832, being named for the township.

1. ↑ This is from the American Genealogist (that Bob referenced), Whole Number 99, July 1949, Volume XXV,No. 3, Page 200. It is in the same publication as the article "The Other Gilletts", an article dedicated to other Gillett besides the ones that descended from Jonathan and Nathan Gillett. In the same publication was another article entitled, "Gillett Items and Queries".