John Gilroy: Cattle, soap, wheat and tobacco
In 1833, John Gilroy described himself as a soap maker and millwright. In 1842, there were several references to the flourmill of William Mathews “at Gilroy’s.” By 1845, the era of Spanish and Mexican colonization was coming to an end in the region. The...
Holsclaw Road: From Gold Rush to the Civil War
Three brothers left their 11 siblings and parents at a northwest Missouri homestead in 1849 to head west to California, in search of gold. They would eventually settle in a place called Gilroy.
There is no record of how they got to the Golden State,...