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Cornelius Gilliam (April 13, 1798 – March 24, 1848) was a pioneer of the U.S. state of Oregon who was best known as the commander of the volunteer forces against the Cayuse in the Cayuse War. A native of North Carolina, he served in the Black Hawk War and Seminole Wars before settling in Missouri. There he served in the militia against the Mormons, was a county sheriff, and a member of the Missouri State Senate before immigrating to the Oregon Country.

Early life

Cornelius Gilliam was born in North Carolina on April 13, 1798. Born in Buncombe County, he was the son of Epaphroditus and Sarah Ann (née Israel) Gilliam. According to one of Gilliam's daughters, Martha Collins, he began working as a slave catcher while in his teens. Collins said that her father was highly successful at forcing slaves back into captivity and was elected sheriff on the strength of this reputation.

In North Carolina he married Mary Crawford in 1820, and they had eight children, six of those daughters. He fought against the Native Americans in 1832 during the Black Hawk War in the Midwest, and in 1837 in the Seminole Wars in Florida. During the Seminole War he served as a captain. Following the war he settled in Missouri where he continued his military service as a captain in the state militia during the battles with the Mormons in 1838. That year he was elected to the Missouri Senate to represent District 12, and was re-elected in 1842 to represent District 10. In Missouri, Gilliam was also the sheriff of Clay County.

Oregon

In 1844, he headed west over the Oregon Trail to the unorganized Oregon Country. Gilliam was in charge of the wagon train at the beginning of the journey, though the wagon train later split into smaller groups. After the Whitman massacre in 1847, the Provisional Government of Oregon organized a force of about 600 and made Gilliam colonel to prosecute the Cayuse. In 1848, he led his forces east to engage the Native Americans, arriving at The Dalles in February. His forces pressed on to the Whitman Mission, arriving in March.

Death and legacy

Gilliam then headed back to The Dalles to resupply that settlement and then on to Oregon City to report to Governor George Abernethy when he was accidentally shot and killed in what is now Morrow County on March 24, 1848. His body was returned to Oregon City by Henry A. G. Lee and he was buried in Polk County at the Dallas Cemetery. Gilliam County, Oregon is named for him. The ship Cornelius Gilliam was also named for him; it was used in World War II in the U.S. Merchant Service.

See also

• Oregon Rifles

References

1. ^ Corning, Howard M. (1989) Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 100.
2. ^ "Col Cornelius 'Neal' Gilliam". Find A Grave. August 31, 2007. Retrieved May 24, 2009.
3. Gilliam, Martha Elizabeth; Lockley, Fred (1916). "Reminiscences of Mrs. Frank Collins, nee Martha Elizabeth Gilliam". The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society. 17 (4): 359. JSTOR 20610053.
4. Rogue River War. GlobalSecurity.org, accessed September 25, 2007.
5. Missouri State Legislators 1820–2000. Missouri State Archives. Retrieved on May 23, 2009.
6. ^ Cogswell, Philip Jr. (1977). Capitol Names: Individuals Woven Into Oregon's History. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society. pp. 103–104.
7. Thwaites, Reuben Gold. (1906) Early Western Travels, 1748–1846 A Series of Annotated Reprints of Some of the Best and Rarest Contemporary Volumes of Travel, Descriptive of the Aborigines and Social and Economic Conditions in the Middle and Far West, During the Period of Early American Settlement. A. H. Clark Company. Vol. 30, p. 174.
8. ^ Fagan, David D. 1885. History of Benton County, Oregon: including its geology, topography, soil and productions, together with the early history of the Pacific Coast, compiled from the most authentic sources : a full political history ... incidents of pioneer life and biographical sketches of early and prominent citizens : also containing the history of the cities, towns, churches, schools, secret societies, etc. : D.D. Fagan.
9. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 137.
10. "Cornelius Gilliam (Steamship: 1942)". Retrieved March 3, 2020.

External links

• Susan Badger Doyle: Cornelius Gilliam in the Oregon Encyclopedia

v t e Pioneer history of Oregon (1806–1890)
Topics	American Fur Company Columbian exchange Executive Committee Ferries Hudson's Bay Company Oregon & California Railroad Oregon boundary dispute Oregon Country Oregon Lyceum Oregon missionaries Oregon Spectator Oregon Territory Oregon Trail Oregon Treaty Organic Laws Pacific Fur Company Provisional Government
Events	Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company Champoeg Meetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act Holmes v. Ford Rogue River Wars Constitutional Convention Modoc War Great Gale of 1880
Places	Albina Applegate Trail Barlow Road Canemah Champoeg Elliott Cutoff Fort Astoria Fort Dalles Fort Vancouver Fort William French Prairie Linn City Meek Cutoff Methodist Mission Oregon City Oregon Institute Philip Foster Farm Thomas and Ruckle Road Tualatin Academy Whitman Mission Willamette Trading Post
People	George Abernethy Jesse Applegate Ira Babcock Sam Barlow François Blanchet William H. Boring Elijah Bristow Tabitha Brown Matthew Deady Abigail Scott Duniway Thomas Lamb Eliot Philip Foster Peter French Joseph Gale Cornelius Gilliam David Hill Chief Joseph Joseph Kellogg H.A.G. Lee Jason Lee David Thomas Lenox Asa Lovejoy Morton M. McCarver John McLoughlin Joseph Meek Ezra Meeker James D. Miller John Minto Robert Newell Joel Palmer Osborne Russell Sager orphans Levi Scott Eliza Hart Spalding Henry Spalding William Vandevert Elijah White Marcus Whitman Narcissa Whitman Geo. H. Williams Ewing Young
Transportation	Columbia Lot Whitcomb Canemah Colonel Wright Gazelle Oregon Steam Navigation Company
Oregon history	Native peoples history History to 1806 Pioneer history Modern history

• 1848 deaths
• Missouri sheriffs
• Cayuse War
• People from Gilliam County, Oregon
• Members of the Provisional Government of Oregon
• American people of the Black Hawk War
• American people of the Seminole Wars
• People who traveled the Oregon Trail
• People from Polk County, Oregon
• Missouri state senators
• 1798 births
• Deaths by firearm in Oregon
• Accidental deaths in Oregon
• People from Buncombe County, North Carolina
• Firearm accident victims in the United States
• 19th-century members of the Missouri General Assembly