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Among the first Anglo American settlers to come to Texas with colonizer Stephen F. Austin, Daniel (b. 1795) and Precilla Boatwright (b. 1803) Gilleland were members of Austin's Old Three Hundred colony. The couple and their infant daughter, along with relatives in the Kuykendall and Boatwright families, left their homes in Arkansas Territory and arrived in Texas in December 1821. Making his living as a farmer, Daniel Gilleland received land grants in present Colorado and Austin counties. During the 1830s and 1840s the family moved frequently, farming in Wharton, Fayette, Washington, Harrison, and Montgomery counties. By 1847 they had settled in present Milam County. Daniel Gilleland was instrumental in the growth of the Methodist church in Texas, assisting several congregations. He and Precilla were the parents of thirteen children, three of whom died in childhood. Six Gilleland sons served in the Confederate army. The family cemetery (2.8 miles SW) was established in 1848 and serves as the final resting place of Daniel and Precilla Gilleland, both of whom died in 1873 after more than 50 years spent as pioneers in Texas. (1988) |
