Today we were clearing away the back path and we had the garage door open as we had kept the wheelbarrow in there overnight. Halfway through the day, I got a call from Aimee, “hey look at this” and Aimee pointed out an old door with signatures from the Gill family. I’m surprised we hadn’t seen it before, but then again the garage is dark and without electricity. All the historical literature said the Gill family lived here, but it felt special to find this personal evidence of the Gill’s.
The old door had the name “Walter N. Gill”, “T.M. Gill” and also the initials, “T.G”. We both thought this was pretty cool.
Stepping back a few weeks ago, as part of our mission to track down old pictures and history of the house, we had written to all the local Gills asking for any information. We did get a reply from Walt(er) Gill (his Dad was also called Walter) and Walt thought his dad’s sisters had lived in Ponckhockie. Still not a solid connection but it does look like Walter was a popular Gill family name and I feel we are getting closer.
Later that day we had visitors and we took them onto the roof. On the way down Aimee pointed out some engraved graffiti from Bessie Tyler’s family (photos to come) who lived in the house in the 1950s. See Giovanna visits the public records office. I stayed a minute longer, looking around, and I was amazed to see some more graffiti from the Gills, one from T.M. Gill (1883) and Earl Gill (1912). The T.M Gill is very likely the same T.M. Gill who wrote on the door (note how similar the letter “T” is).
I also found mention of Walter N. Gill in a book on Ulster history. It looks like David Gill Sr. was the Gill who built our house, David Gill Sr. had a son called David Gill Jr. who in turn was father to Earl Gill. David Gill Jr. and Walter N. Gill appear to be brothers.
We will preserve all these signatures even if we make modifications to the house. This weekend we will take some floodlights up into the cupola and look for any other graffiti.
