The Rock Hill Herald of Dec. 2, 1886 reported – “On Tuesday morning, the gin house of Mr. George C. Gill burned. It was located on his plantation near Fishing Creek Church. He also lost four bales of cotton.”
City Directories and History: This historic home was constructed in the early 19th century but appears to have even earlier construction techniques and major changes that on first observation reflect a mid 19th century style. There were also substantial updates and later additions from circa 1890’s. The home was originally built on the Old Mountain Gap Road and had a north-south orientation. It has a long history of association with the Jordan family including Dr. George W. Jordan, who reportedly attended his patients on the second floor of the dwelling.

Misc. exterior images of the Gill – Jordan home – 2013
Early construction technics include the hewn rafters, wide bedded single board walls, and pine pole rafters in a form commonly appearing in Chester County in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The floor plan of the house and placement of windows also is indicative of an early 19th century form, the hall and parlor style that ran out of vogue in the first quarter of the 19th century. Comparing this information with that furnished by Chester County’s historian, Mr. Thomas Mayhugh, who states the line of ownership progressed from; “Samuel Knox to Robert Hemphill “schoolmaster” in 1796, Estate of Robert Hemphill to Christopher Strait Gill in 1836 – Deed book BB – 21, before – 1836 Robert Hemphill and after 1836 – Gill House.” It would therefore appear that the house itself was most likely constructed by perhaps Robert Hemphill prior to it’s acquisition by the Gill family in 1836.
THE FIRST GILLS IN CHESTER COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA By Elmer Oris Parker (Courtesy of the CDGHS – Bulletin)
The family ties that existed between the first members of the Gill family who came to present Chester County in the 1760s has been a matter of much speculation and uncertainty since the demise of those who could have provided the answers. The solution to this puzzle has now emerged. The eminent antiquarian Dr….., information relating to the American Revolution in the South, and in particular to the battle of Kings Mountain, and General Thomas Sumter and his men. When Draper returned to Madison he continued his efforts by engaging in extensive correspondence with any and all elderly persons believed to possess information in the form of recollections with old participants in the war. It was his desire to produce a definitive history of the battle that proved to be turning point in the war and a life of the great partisan commander Sumter……. Unfortunately, his life of Sumter never was completed but the raw data which he had collected for its preparation is now available on microfilm in many large libraries and in state archives for reference use by any interested researcher.

HERITAGE PLAT MAP by Mayhugh showing many of the Gill – Walker – Mills tracts along South Fork Creek and the Saluda Road.
One of Draper’s correspondents provided the solution to the Gill mystery. Mrs. Lucinda Jane Morrow, widow of John Alexander Morrow (1797-1869), of Plantersville, Dallas County, Alabama, wrote in part in June 1877: “I was born & raised & married in So. Carolina. My maiden name was Gill. I am the daughter of Abraham Gill who lived & died on Fishing Creek 10 miles northeast of Chesterville. My mother’s maiden name was Agness Walker—her Father was wounded in the Revolutionary War & died from the wound at last. Col. John Mills’ wife & Col. George Gill was (sic) cousins to my Father. Col. [William] Bratton lived five miles from Father’s near where there was a Battle ground [Huck’s Defeat] but I was only 15 years of age when my Father and Mother died in six weeks of each other so what I know about the incidents of the Revolutionary War are mostly from History.” In April she had written Draper, “I an 75 years of age. My husband has been dead 8 years. He has only one brother living. I would like to oblige you but my frame is fast sinking away.”
A word of clarification seems appropriate—in this period the use of the term “cousins” meant first cousins. Col. John Mills’ wife according to contemporary records was Mary Gill (1758-1341), daughter of Robert Gill (1720-1804) and his wife Eleanor (1721-1801). Col. George Gill (1761-1344) was a son of John Gill (c. 1727-1797) and his wife Sarah Duncan. Capt. Abraham Gill (1765-1815) was a son of George Gill (c.1730-1795), a clock maker and silversmith by trade. Hence, it is readily apparent that if Mary Gill, Col. George Gill, and Capt. Abraham Gill were all first cousins, then their Gill fathers were brothers.
It is generally accepted that the Gills emigrated from Northern Ireland and settled first In New Jersey. If Hugh Cooper (1720-1793), a weaver, was a native of County Armagh, and settled in Somerset County, Hew Jersey, and as alleged was a brother-in-law to Robert Gill, then it is likely that the Gills followed the same route. The Gills by the early 1760s had removed to eastern Pennsylvania. John Gill migrated to present Chester County before April 1767, when he was granted 500 acres by North Carolina on Croft’s Branch of the South Fork of Fishing Creek, west of present Highway 72 and a mile south of the York County line. He became a planter and eventually sold part of this grant to Hugh Cooper’s brother-in-law Christopher Strait (1739-1816), and to his own son-in-law Josiah Porter (c. 1750- 1814). The younger of the brothers, George, migrated to present Chester County before April 1763, and settled on land on Gum Log Branch of the South Fork of Fishing Creek that he bought from Robert and Mary Norris. He followed the trade of clock maker and silversmith. The older of these three brothers, Robert, arrived before May 1770, when he bought a grant from Robert Glover and his mother Susannah, widow of George Glover, located where the old Saluda Road, now Hwy 72, crosses the South Fork of Fishing Creek, and on which he opened a blacksmith shop. His two-storied log home stood south of the creek and west of the road. Ab Lucinda, and son of George Gill, later acquired the Glover tract and a part of an adjoining tract granted to his uncle Robert Gill in 1771. He resided there until his death in a old log house constructed before the Revolution that was still standing in 1958.
It is not within the scope of this paper to give details or treat fully the families of these three Gill brothers. Robert and Eleanor are known to have had Thomas (married Agnes), John (married Nancy Agnes Dick), Margaret (married James Crawford), Robert Jr. (married Elizabeth Kelsey), James (married H….ary Louise Gaston), Archibald (married Mary Mills, Catherine and Agnes Denton), Mary (married Col. John Mills), and Eleanor (married Samuel Kelsey Jr.). Two other children—a Jane and a William—have been claimed, but not proven. John and Sarah were parents of Thomas (married Hannah Cresswell), Rachel (married Josiah Porter), James (married Mary Ann Fox), Col. George (married Margaret Strait, and Jane Cooper, John (married Elizabeth Wallace), Robert, Sarah (married John Porter), Nancy Agnes (married Thomas Jenkins), and William (married Sarah Wallace).
Lucinda Jane Gill, who provided the answer to the Gill question, was the youngest of the children of Abraham Gill and Agnes Walker. The others were: Robert Walker (married Eliza —? —————— ), Mary N. (married William Wylie Bradford), Eli (married Mary ? —– ), and Josiah Henry (married Mary Bradford). Lucinda’s maternal grand father Robert Walker, according to his commanding officer Col. Edward Lacey, was at the battle of King’s Mountain “shot through the body, near the heart, by one in his view, and having his gun loaded at the time, he after this took deliberate aim and shot his opponent dead.” He survived the war and lived until 1793, but according to Lucinda his wound was a contributing cause of his death. From Lucinda’s statements we may deduce that she was born late in the year 1800. She was baptized in Fishing Creek Presbyterian Church on September 6, 1801, when about a year old.

#2346 Gill – Jordan Rd., was another family home in the community.
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