September 7, 1923

Photo Credit - Sarasota County History Center

On this day, 88 years ago, John Hamilton Gillespie died. He was recognized at the time of his death as the father of Sarasota. His passing was heartfelt and mourned throughout the community.

The Sarasota Times eulogized him on September 13, 1923 by recounting his many contributions and adding:

“The Colonel was a great man. His passing leaves us lonely, mournful, filled with grief. Yet his noble soul will live on forever. He has blessed our food these many times with the staid ole Scotch blessing we have learned to love and revere. Now his voice is still forever and the light of his eyes are gone, but his memory is imperishable. Good bye ‘Jim,’ ye were a bonnie laddie and your heart was young.”

A procession made up of the Kiwanis Club, the Blue Lodge Masons and other civic groups led the casket to Rosemary Cemetery which he had deeded to the town in 1903. The paper reported that thousands attended to pay their respects.

A statue of Gillespie was never erected. However, in 1924, Owen Burns sold the city of Sarasota a ten-acre tract of land at a reduced price to be used only for a municipal park that would be named “Gillespie Park,” in honor of the bonnie laddie, John Hamilton Gillespie.

~ This post is an excerpt from the soon-to-be released book "John Hamilton Gillespie – The Scot Who Saved Sarasota" by historian Jeff LaHurd. Publication date is October 24, 2011.

The Jacobites Will Perform During Gillespie Week

Gary

Exciting news! The Jacobites, Florida's premier bagpipe and Scottish drumming band, has graciously agreed to perform in honor of John Hamilton Gillespie Week. On Monday's October 24th Kick-Off Party at O'Leary's Tiki Bar from 5 - 7pm, an ensemble of bagpipers will help launch the week's festivities. Then be sure to catch the full pipe and drum band along with their Highland dancers at Saturday's October 29th Palm Avenue Street Party from 3 - 7pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

Larry


The Jacobites Pipe and Drum Band was founded by Gary Reinstrom and Larry Jacobs. Gary Reinstrom, Pipe Major and moving force behind the band, has been playing the bagpipes since he was 13 years old. Gary is a professional musician whose career includes playing French horn with the Florida West Coast Symphony and with the Sarasota Pops Orchestra. He was the pipe instructor at Riverview High School and continues to give pipe lessons. Larry Jacobs is the son of a Glaswegian. He grew up listening to Scottish pipe and folk music. At age 46 Larry sought out Gary to teach him to play the pipes. A friendship ensued and when Gary was asked to lead the Patriot’s Day parade on the first anniversary of 9/11/2001 Larry and Gary formed the Jacobites Pipe and Drum Band.

Gary and Larry share a vision of celebrating the Scottish heritage of the Sarasota area and spreading the joys of pipe music. The band is promoted by the Celtic Cultural Association of Florida, Inc., a non-profit corporation, tax deductible charitable organization. 

Don't miss the exciting and always entertaining Jacobites Pipe and Drum Band on October 24 and 29. Their energy and enthusiasm promise to be contagious! www.jacobitesband.com

May Sarasota Prosper

Sarasota voted to incorporate as a town in October 1902. Fifty-three men gathered for the vote and elected John Hamilton Gillespie as Sarasota’s first mayor. For the town motto the men chose the hopeful, but prophetic, “May Sarasota Prosper.” The town seal consisted of a mullet and a rising sun over palmettos with shells at the base. Gillespie served as mayor from 1902 through 1907 and again from 1909 to 1910. He also served as a city councilman.

The town of Sarasota 1902 seal consisted of a mullet and a rising sun over palmettos with shells at the base.

John Hamilton Gillespie and The Episcopal Church

John Hamilton Gillespie in 1889

By Dr. Carl R. Stockton, church historian

 Of all the legacies left by the remarkable Scotsman John Hamilton Gillespie, his most enduring was, by his own reckoning, the founding of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota. This is acknowledged in a commemorative bronze plaque at the base of three flagpoles on the west grounds facing Gulf Stream Avenue, and copied on the inside wall at the left of the entrance doors:
   

A founder of this parish,

For many years lay reader

Devoted to its services

Ordained a deacon on 3 December, 1922…

Servant of God

Although a member of the [Presbyterian] Church of Scotland, Gillespie was familiar with The Book of Common Prayer of the Scottish Episcopal Church before he arrived in Sarasota. He was well aware that the first American bishop had been consecrated by Scottish bishops, and that the American church had modeled its first official prayer book after the Scottish revision. He had read the Episcopal service for an Anglican colonist who died in 1887, and from his arrival, he met regularly with a small group of Episcopalians in the Grable community building on Main Street. He sought permission from his father officially to become an Episcopalian, and after tutelage from the Vicar of Christ Church in Bradentown, he was confirmed by The Bishop of Florida, The Right Reverend E. G. Weed, in 1888. The photo above shows Gillespie vested in surplice and cassock with mortarboard which was appropriate liturgical dress for an Episcopal Lay Reader in 1889.

He quickly became a leader of the nascent church in Sarasota, and was appointed Lay Reader by succeeding bishops for several years. The Episcopalians had met in his house, and he donated land from his large yard to build their first, very basic building. Through his nurturing leadership, the church in 1904 became officially recognized as a mission in the Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida by the Bishop, the Right Reverend William Crane Gray.

Gillespie was married to Blanche McDaniel in the newly consecrated church in 1905. Although absent for many intermittent years, Gillespie retained an active leadership role in the church to the end of his life. He was a delegate to Diocesan convention on many occasions and was well known throughout Florida as a devoted churchman and considered a prominent leader. The highlight of his long service to the church came in 1922, when he was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church by The Right Reverend Cameron Mann. He had been prepared for ordination by the Rector of Redeemer, the Reverend Francis B. Nash, for whom he had been an assistant until his death in 1923.

Looking back at its origins in its centennial year, The Church of the Redeemer renewed its recognition of Gillespie as its principal founder, named its renovated parish hall after him, and established the John Hamilton Gillespie Society to honor his legacy and promote continuing ministries of the Church.

Sources: Oral interviews with Gillespie’s nephew, Charles Swain, in 2003; miscellaneous Gillespie papers in the Church of the Redeemer archives, and chiefly the well documented monograph, John Hamilton Gillespie by Lillian Burns, published by the Sarasota Historical Society.

The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 222 South Palm Avenue, Sarasota, Florida

Gillespie Led Drive for Golf in Sarasota

ED: Today's post is from the website Sarasota History Alive! by Mark D. Smith, former County Archivist

Photo Credit: Sarasota County History Center

The game of golf came to Sarasota when Colonel John Hamilton Gillespie arrived in 1886. Nobody in the small village of Sarasota knew what Gillespie was doing when in May 1886 he built a practice course consisting of two greens and one long fairway.

This miniature course was located on present day Main Street. Gillespie practiced there daily for many years. In 1905, he laid out a nine-hole golf course on a 110-acre tract east of his old practice course and built a clubhouse. He maintained the course at his own expense until he sold the course to Owen Burns in 1910.

John Hamilton Gillespie never stopped in his campaign to promote the game of golf.

Gillespie continued to help support and take care of the course because upkeep of a golf course can be quite an undertaking. In December 1913, Gillespie came up with the idea of organizing a golf club to help with expenses. On December 13, 1913, a meeting was held at the Sarasota Yacht and Automobile Club to organize the Sarasota Golf Club. Gillespie stated that maintaining a golf course without support from residents, as well as from visitors, is difficult. The group agreed to pay $10 per person to become charter members, and the money would go toward the upkeep of the course. The course's owner, Owen Burns, would also allow members to play for free, with the use of the clubhouse, as long as they made necessary repairs to the windmill and the lavatories in the clubhouse.

The first members of the club read like a who's who of prominent early Sarasotans. Some of these members were early politicians Hugh Browning, Harry Higel, and of course, John Hamilton Gillespie, physicians Jack and Joseph Halton, landowners Owen Burns, Ralph Caples, Honore Palmer and J.H. Lord. The club drew up rules for the organization and by-laws for playing golf on the course. To play golf for the winter season cost $10. For those who did not want to commit to an entire season, the fee structure was $5 for one month, $2 for one week and 50 cents for one day. Although Gillespie encouraged everyone to play, the course was rarely crowded.

Gillespie never stopped in his campaign to promote the game of golf. In a 1921 newspaper article, he wrote about how golf barely existed in the state at the turn of the 20th century. He said that "there was no East Coast golf in Florida then, the Jacksonville Country Club being in its infancy, and, to the credit for making golf well and favorably known in Florida and in the southern state. Tampa for a long time did not take to the game, although Mr. Plant spent considerable money on an endeavor to foster the game. It was not until Bellaire became famous as a golf course that Tampa woke up and took notice."

Gillespie continued to play on his course until his death in 1923. Although he knew that the game would grow in popularity, it was not until the Florida Land Boom of the mid-1920s that it became a popular sport in Sarasota. Two new 18-hole courses were built in Sarasota during the boom and Gillespie's old course was sold in 1924 for development and no trace of it remain today.