My Genealogy Hound

A. W. Gills, one of the most thorough going, wide-awake business men of this section of the county, and a genial, pleasant gentleman, is a native of Fulton County, Ky., and came with his parents, who were natives of Virginia, to what is now Clay County, Ark., at the age of nineteen years. They settled near his present residence, where the mother died in 1870, and the father two years later. Later A. W. Gills purchased this farm. In addition to his agricultural interests he also erected a cotton-gin, and about the 1st of October, 1886, commenced ginning cotton, with a capacity of nine bales per day. In September of the same year he started a stave factory and corn mill, all of which he now runs with steam under the same roof, the stave business being the principal industry, the factory having a capacity of 8,000 staves per day. He regularly employs from thirty to thirty-five men and ten teams. This has been the means of building at least half a dozen houses in his neighborhood. He still carries on his farm of 180 acres, which he has well supplied with good stock. Mr. Gills was married in 1882 to Miss Claude Gwin, whom he met in Missouri, and whose parents are now living there. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being attached to the Eastern Star Lodge, and is also a member of Chalk Bluff Lodge No. 72, I. O. O. F., and of the K of H. In politics he votes with the Democratic party.