|
Gillispie, Alexander, Bishop and Patriarch in the Utah Stake of Zion, was born March 12, 1830, at Redding, Stirlingshire, Scotland, the son of George and Agnes Gillispie. He removed with his parents to Fifeshire, where his father died, and the boy went to work in coal mines at eight years of age. Becoming a convert to "Mormonism" he was baptized April 4, 1847, by Priest Andrew Young and confirmed April 7, 1847, by Elder Wm. A. McMaster, in the Dunfermline branch. In the summer of 1848 he was ordained a Priest and in November, 1849, he was ordained an Elder and presided over the Lochgallie branch in 1860 and 1861. In the latter year, 1861, he emigrated to Utah, with his family (having married Mary McKinley, Feb. 11, 1849). While crossing the Atlantic in the ship "Underwriter" their little twenty-one months old daughter died. They crossed the plains in Captain Homer Duncan's company, which arrived in Salt Lake City Sept. 13, 1861, and located at once in Provo, where Elder Gillispie resided most of the time until his death. He labored as a Ward teacher, was ordained a Seventy Feb. 19, 1862 (becoming a member of the 45th quorum of Seventy), and served as a member of the city council of Provo. He worked in the Temple quarry, Little Cottonwood canyon, Salt Lake county, fourteen years, getting out rock for the Salt Lake Temple. After his return to Provo in 1887, he labored as a Ward teacher, and was chosen one of the presidents of the 45th quorum of Seventy, and when the Pleasant View Ward was organized Jan. 18, 1891, he was chosen as Bishop of the new Ward, in which capacity he labored fourteen years. Under his Bishopric a meeting house was built and the grounds surrounding it planted with trees. Failing health caused him to sell his farm and house and remove to Provo in March, 1905. There, on April 16, 1905, he was ordained a Patriarch by Pres. Joseph F. Smith, and he died at Provo of general debility Aug. 14, 1908.
Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. Salt Lake City 2:5. |
Biographies 
