Easton Gillespie, far right. In the left background is the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bloomingdale.
Courtesy of Jeannie Louise Gillespie DarrahBorn:
Died: c. December 1984
Married: Grace L. Hill
Children: J. Easton Gillespie Jr.
J. Easton Gillespie, Sr. was a dairy farmer in Bloomingdale and ran a summer boardinghouse.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, January 13, 1984
Bloomingdale
Word has been received of the unexpected death of J. Easton Gillespie while visiting his grand-daughter, Jean, in Florida. He had celebrated his 92nd birthday Dec. 26, and the following day went down for a visit.
Condolences to his family. Plans for a memorial service here are incomplete.
Old-timers will remember when he and his wife, Grace, lived on the farm (where Carroll Dixon lives) and had a thriving milk business and took in summer boarders and hunters.
In more recent years they had lived in the Lee Gillespie house now owned by one of the young Niederbuhls. Following the death of his wife, he lived with the Gary Snickles family until last fall when he went to a nursing home near his son Bill in Lewiston.
He was an interesting person to visit with, loved to play cards with the "boys" and had a lot of memorabilia of this area dating from Civil War times.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 20, 1984
Dorothy White had a letter recently from Seaver Rice. J Easton Gillespies' death called to mind some things of interest -— he mentioned that in the early days before the Civil War the Rice's had lived at Franklin Falls and Bloomingdale. His grandfather Henderson Ives Rice and his wife Mary are buried in Brookside Cemetery.
But about Easton — they had gone to school together and both attended Dean Academy; Easton's brother Lee and sister Helen also attended the academy as well as four Rice brothers who graduated. He was friendly with a number of Bloomingdale young men who attended Saranac Lake High School in the early 1900s among them Howard Hardner, Charlie Titus as well as Easton.
Basketball was a very popular sport then and he was invited to play with the Bloomingdale team. Games were played on the third floor of the grist mill, later known as Parsons Mill across from Cohen's Store (now Jakobe's Winter Place). The hall was lighted with kerosene lamps and near each was a bucket of water in case the ball knocked the lamp to the floor.
Their team was acknowledged champions of Essex County in 1910. We defeated Ticonderoga on their home floor. Easton was the star of that game having made a basket in the last minute which won the game.
Mr. Rice recalls that Easton was injured while playing basketball, resulting in his being crippled. This did not deter him from taking a lively interest in the world around him.
