The Gill Farm
Section 7, Township 47, Range 33W
Mr. Allen B. H. McGee, a grandson of the late Marcus Gill, owns a part of the farm which his grandfather purchased from Dabney Lipscomb in 1854 at $25.00 per acre, and which was known in the early days as The Gill Farm. The location of this farm today would be about 123rd Street, between State Line and Wornall Road. Mr. and Mrs. McGee, in remodeling the old house, with its log walls and narrow stairway, kept so much that was original in the plan of the house that it is one of the most attractive country homes in the country. Before the old fireplace in the "parlor" of this house the five daughters of Marcus Gill were married.
On this farm is found another old cemetery. From all information obtainable this was one of the earliest burying grounds in that neighborhood. It must be borne in mind that in those early days there were no incorporated cemeteries or burying grounds in a community, but on almost every farm was what was called a "family burying ground". Later came the neighborhood burying grounds which was one of the family burying grounds of the community used by the families in the neighborhood; and later still came the little church cemeteries.
The cemetery on the Gill Farm was in use in 1846, long before the school and church at the little town of New Santa Fe were started, in the days when New Santa Fe was a Trading Post. For years there have been only a few stones on the farm to mark the site of this family and community burying ground which was in use as late as 1883. There are those living who can remember seeing the big farm wagons as they came down the road and across the field up to the Gill Cemetery on the hill. These give us the picture of one of the funeral processions, in the days of the family burying grounds when the horse-drawn wagon was used as the vehicle for carrying the dead to the grave.
It is impossible to gather all the names and dates of the early pioneers who lived in this section of Jackson County and who were laid to rest on the Gill Farm. The following list has been carefully gathered by Mrs. Max A. Christopher, from those still living who remember either attending the funeral on this farm or who recall having heard the names of their neighbors buried there, and from the inscriptions on the few tombstones found on the farm:
Baxter, four children of P. H. Baxter, who is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery and his wife, Martha McCraw Baxter (living):
Perry Rippeto Baxter, b: 1871, d: 1873
Louella Gill Baxter, b: 1872, d: 1873
Harry Ridge Baxter, b: 1875, d: 1879
Mary Edith Baxter, b: 1883, d: 1883 (one stone bears the names and dates of these four children)
Foster, James Sanford, son of Mary Jane (Foster) Gill and first husband, Sanford Foster, b: April 17, 1844, d: Sept. 3, 1858
Gill, Marcus, son of Marcus Gill and wife, Mary Jane, b: Sept. 28, 1854, d: Nov. 23, 1857
Grimsley, Kate, wife of Lowry Grimsley, a Baptist preacher
Kerr, Lemuel, son of Thos. J. and Catherine M., d: Sept. 8, 1872; age: 22 years
Kerr, America Jane, daughter of Caleb D. and Pauline Kerr, d: Sept. 1874, age: 13 months
*Lipscomb, Dabney (came to Jackson county before 1839, entered the land on which he was buried and which he sold to Marcus Gill; platted the town of New Santa Fe), b: Dec. 5, 1800, d: July 16, 1854; dates copied from tombstone
*Lipscomb, Susan D., wife of Dabney Lipscomb, d: June 18, 1849, age: 36 years, 5 moths, 7 days (copied from tombstone)
*Lipscomb, Nathan, son of D. and S. D. Lipscomb, d: Sept. 8, 1849 (copied from tombstone)
Lipscomb, Wm. W., son of D. and S. D. Lipscomb, d: Sept. 8, 1849 (copied from tombstone)
*Neeley, W. S. d: March 20, 1879; age: 47 years, 3 months (copied from tombstone)
Pasley, Mrs.
Sharp, Demarius, wife of Tilman B. Sharp, who is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, d: Aug. 15, 1870
Wilcox, Mr. ????, and son, George Wilcox, (no dates)
*Senter, Margaret, wife of N. M. Senter, d: Feb. 25, 1870; age: 55 years, 9 months, 21 days (copied from tombstone)
* moved to the New Santa Fe Christian Church Cemetery, November, 1933. All trace of this community burying ground is now erased.
EARLY RECORDS OF THE FAMILY OF MARCUS GILL
In the year 1854 Colonel Marcus Gill sold all his property at Gill's Mill, near Owingsville, Kentucky, and came, by boat, to Jackson County, Missouri, landing at Blue Mills, about six miles from Independence. Col. Gill was a grandson of Captain Thomas Gill who served in the War of the American Revolution. The following data, pertaining to this early Jackson County family, has been copied from Bible and cemetery records.
Gill, Marcus, b: April 9, 1814, in Bath County, Kentucky, the son of Samuel Chriswell Gill and wife, Sarah Malone Gill; d: Dec. 9, 1886. Married first, Sarah A. Bruton, Feb. 23, 1839; second Mary Jane Bruton (Foster), Jan. 5, 1847. Buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
Sarah Ann Bruton Gill, b: in Madison county, Kentucky, June 22, 1820, d: March 29, 1846. (The ashes of Sarah Gill and the old stone which marked her grave at the Gill Burying Ground in Gill's Mill, Kentucky, were removed to Elmwood Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri.)
Mary Jane Bruton (Foster) Gill, b: in Clark county, KY., Aug. 27, 1822, d: Sept. 1, 1894. Buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
Children (FIRST MARRIAGE):
Enoch Bruton Gill, b: in Bath county, KY., Dec. 14, 1839, d: Sept. 23, 1916. Married, first, Mary L. Lane, March 19, 1860, buried in Liberty, Missouri; second, Vina McCrum, June 22, 1880. Buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
Turner Anderson Gill, b: in Bath county, KY, Dec. 8, 1841, d: July 18, 1919. Married, first March 9, 1871, Lizzie Campbell; second, July 1909, Mrs. Ella Sites Kercheval. Was Mayor of Kansas City in 1875 and 1876. Buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
Leah O. Gill, b: in Bath county, KY., Sept. 22, 1843, d: March 16, 1908, in Ogden, Utah. Married, April 4, 1861, Jesse R. Noland in Independence, Missouri.
Sarah Ann Gill, b: in Bath county, KY., d: July 11, 1848. Buried in the family burying ground at Gill's Mill, KY.
(SECOND MARRIAGE)
Susan Bruton Gill, b: March 8, 1848, d: May 9, 1901. Married, Jan. 11, 1869, Allen B. H. McGee. Buried in Union Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri
Henrietta Catherine Gill, b: June 30, 1850, d: Jan. 29, 1852
Sally Ann Malone Gill, b: May 12, 1852, d: Dec. 17, 1887. Married, May 11, 1871, John E. George. Buried in the cemetery in Belton, Missouri.
Marcus Gill, Jr., b: Sept. 28, 1854, d: Nov. 23, 1857
William Kibby Gill, b: Sept. 24, 1856, d: March, 1888, in Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, and was buried there. No stone marks his grave or those of his two children, Marietta and Thomas, who were buried there. Married Ella Duckworth.
Mary Edith Gill, b: Jan. 19, 1859. Married, first, Jan. 1884, Nicholas T. Eaton; second, Milton McGee Vincent.
Louella Gill, b: Nov. 27, 1860. Married, December 22, 1880, John C. B. Hargis.
Mrs. Mary Jane Bruton (Foster) Gill; married, first, Sept. 2, 1840, Sanford Foster of Clark county, KY., and had two children:
Jemima Foster, b: Jan. 24, 1842, d: Oct. 14, 1926. Married Fleming B. Rice. Buried in St. Peter's Cemetery, St. Louis, MO.
James Sanford Foster, b: April 17, 1844, d: Sept. 3, 1858
Sanford Foster, d: May 25, 1844
This page was last updated August 19, 2006.