The Gilley Family: More Photos of Early Cooksville Settlers

Descendants of the Gilley family recently visited the Village of Cooksville again and shared more stories and photographs of their ancestors. Several Gilley brothers migrated to Wisconsin in the early 1840s and 1850s and settled near Cooksville in the Town of Porter.

The visiting Gilley descendants were Diane G. Scholl of Decorah, Iowa, descended from George Gilley, and Janet Hancock of Hendersonville, North Carolina, descended from John Gilley; both were accompanied by their husbands. The materials they donated are now filed in the Cooksville Archives.

Edward Gilley (1811-1897)

A previous Cooksville News Blog of May 25, 2016, told the story of Edward Gilley (1811-1897) with his vivid description of his new Wisconsin home written in an 1845 letter to his sister in England.

Edward was one of four Gilley brothers, three of whom came from England to settle in Wisconsin.

Edward arrived in the area in 1843, from his home in Northumberland County, England, and settled on 80 acres of land that he immediately purchased and began to farm just east of the newly established Village of Cooksville (1842).  He married in 1854 and purchased more farmland.

The brick Edward Gilley House (built c.1880) still stands on the farm, now owned by the Viney family. 

Edward's brother George Gilley(1819-1888) came with him to begin a new life in the Wisconsin Territory on the land that the U.S. government had begun selling in 1837.

In 1855, a third brother, John Gilley (1817-1856) migrated with his family to Cooksville, but he died the following year. All three brothers and several other family members are buried in the old Cooksville cemetery. A fourth brother, William, remained in England.

Lydia Gilley (1826-1912) , George's wife

l to r: Francis, William, Edwin and Joseph Gilley, sons of George and Lydia

Another son of George and Lydia: Chester Andrus Gilley

One of George's sons, William (1862-1946), married a Stebbins daughter and farmed at the historic Stebbins-Tofsland Octagonal Barn in Porter Township.

Both Edward Gilley and George Gilley, who were active citizens in their communities, have biographical sketches in the Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock County, Wisconsin, published in 1889. (Other Cooksville and Town of Porter residents also have brief biographies in the album.)

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[Thanks again to Diane Gabrielsen Scholl of Iowa, and Janet Hancock of North Carolina, for sharing more Gilley family photographs and stories, which are now part of the Cooksville Archives.]