Margaret Rebecca (Gillespie) Quinlan (1829 - 1876)

Born 1829 in South Carolina, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Michael Quinlan — married 1 Jan 1850 in Pontotoc, Mississippi, United States

Died 23 Oct 1876 at about age 47 in Hernando, De Soto, Mississippi, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Amy Garber [send private message]

Biography

Margaret Gillespie Quinlan (or Quinland) was born in approximately 1829 to Cornelius Gillespie and his wife Jane. Her father often wrote her name "Margarette." In 1850 she married Michael Quinlan (or Quinland) who was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. ^[1] On the 1850 census they appear in Pontotoc, Mississippi. The box indicating that they were married within the year is checked. ^[2] They appear on the 1860 and 1870 censuses in DeSoto, Mississippi, ^[3]

Margaret is frequently mentioned in a letter written by her aunt Ann Gillespie Conner to Ann's daughter Charity Conner Tierce dated 16 Jul 1874. At the time Ann was visiting her brother Cornelius Gillespie in Hernando, Desoto, Mississippi. Ann writes:

My Dear Daughter, I take my pen in hand to drop you a few lines to let you know I received your long kind letter for there was so much good news in it. O Sis you don't know how glad I am when I get a letter from you for it has so much news in it you said you had never had never received but 2 letters from me since I left home. This makes the fourth so if I could write like you I would write to you every week but my mind is so flighty I can't write with any satisfaction for my hand trembles so much. Sis you wrote in your last letter than I had better come home it has been so warm here and I never go anywhere. I go to church sometimes and when we come home in the evening we take a ride out in the buggy. Crops are fine here in Hernando. Corn and cotton. I believe Margrette has the finest garden that is in the town. Charity I don't know when I will come home. Margarette talks of going to Memphis the last of this month and I will stay here till she comes back. I would of wrote to before this time but my eyes was so sore I could scarcely see a bit out of them. I don't know what was the cause of them getting sore with out I was looking at every thing I seen. Sis I am not well this morning with my bowels. Margrette has him making lots of blackberry cordials and jellies and jams. She has five gallons of blackberry cordials and she is making plum jellies. Sis Margarette said she wrote a letter to you and you never answered it and she quit writing to you. She said she thought right hard of it and she sends her best love to you and James and all the children. Charity now do write a letter to Margarette for if you was to see her you would love her more. I tell you she is so good and kind to me. Sis if you could see where Margaret lives you would say it is the purtiest finest place you ever seen. The can [?] comes in 20 yards of the house. I counted this morning 25 freight trains and there was about 14 today went by here passengers coaches there has 6 or 7 cars. Give my love to Mr. and Mrs. Tharp and tell them I wish I wish I had some of their good peaches to eat but I will try and get there before long. Give my love to all who may enquire after me. Tell Louis and Con to be good children and grandma will bring them something. Cousin Margarett is going to Memphis before long and when she comes back I will come home then. I am very well satisfied by self for she is so kind and good to me. Charity do write as often as you can to me and write all the news for my hand temples so I can hardly write. Crop are fine here so they all say. They never seen such good crops grow here in years. Tell Pat when Granma comes she fetch him a squiker [?]. Brother and Mr. Baker and Harriet joins in with me in sending our love to you all as if separately named. Sis do write as often as you can for you [illegible] and you will lose nothing. Ann Conner Sis Margrette says she would like to see them big boys of yours.

She is likely buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Hernando, Desoto, Mississippi along with her husband Michael, and daughters Margaret J. and Katie who died in infancy, but there does not appear to be a stone for her. ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ "Mississippi Marriages, 1800-1911", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V28C-LNR : 14 February 2020), Michael Quinlan, 1850.
2. ↑ Year: 1850; Census Place: Pontotoc, Mississippi; Roll: M432_380; Page: 202A; Image: 410. Source Information Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6GZ-5PC : 30 December 2015), M R Quinlain in entry for M Quinlain, 1860.
4. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKQ-5DRB : 13 December 2015), Margaret J. Quinlan, 1855; Burial, Hernando, DeSoto, Mississippi, United States of America, Spring Hill Cemetery; citing record ID 31065526, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.