From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and  
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 
 
Typed by E. J. Heinemann 
 
p. 696 
 
JAMES GILCHRIST, an honored and esteemed citizen of Elm Grove, has  
followed various occupations during his life of seventy-two years.  The  
most important among them, however, was that of surveyor and abstractor  
of both the city of Wheeling and Ohio county. 
     He is a son of James Gilchrist, a native of Scotland, who came to 
the United States in 1818 and died in 1836, in the forty-third year of 
his age.  His son, James, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829.  In 
1839, when ten years of age, James Gilchrist accompanied his uncle to  
Wheeling, to facilitate his educational advantages.  He took a course  
at the Wheeling Institute, and also attended the Lancasterian Academy  
of the same city. 
     Mr. Gilchrist then taught school for one term, which he did not 
like, and in its stead engaged himself in a tobacco factory, where he 
continued to work until he attained his eighteenth year.  This life did 
not agree with one of his constitution, and with his health completely  
shattered he returned to his mother, who lived on a farm, where he was  
promptly dieted on milk. This plan, materially aided by the pure, fresh  
air of the country, counteracted the sad havoc wrought by overwork, and  
in a year's time he had regained his usual health. 
     In 1851 he again engaged in teaching a district school, and 
continued thus for several terms.  In 1853 he moved to Wheeling, 
adopted the profession of a surveyor, and became proficient in a very 
short time.  
     The following year he was elected city surveyor of Wheeling, and 
filled that position so creditably that his re-election followed in 
1855, as a matter of course.  Mr. Gilchrist, however, had more 
flattering prospects, and refused to serve, preferring to go west to 
Fort Dodge, Iowa. He served one year as surveyor in that locality, and
later followed similar work at Homer, in the same state.  In the spring
of 1857 he returned to Fort Dodge and for a few months surveyed lands 
for entry.  In the fall of the same year he accepted a position in the  
government land office, under W. H. Merritt, with whom he continued  
until the latter's removal from office.  Then John M. Stockdale  
succeeded to the office, and Mr Gilchrist remained with him until 1859.  
     He then went into Missouri and took up a government claim, which 
he improved in various ways.  Shortly after the Civil War broke out 
both the Union and Confederate armies camped upon his land and 
destroyed all his improvements, which had cost so much money and 
labor.  Feeling himself a ruined man, he returned to Wheeling with the 
intention of working again at his old trade.  About the time of his 
arrival here a military custom house and store were established in the 
city, and he was tendered a position clerk.  He retained that position 
under several chiefs, among them Messrs. Hornbrook, O'Brien and 
Holliday, and in 1877 was himself appointed chief, and served as such 
until 1883. Mr. Gilchrist then turned his attention to surveying and 
abstracting. He made a most complete abstract of all the lots in the 
city of Wheeling, and also of land in the surrounding country, and it 
was through the purchase of these records that the Wheeling Tile & 
Trust Company secured the nucleus of its abstracts. 
     June 14, 1855, Mr. Gilchrist was joined in marriage with Mary R.  
Eichbaum, and their union was blessed with three children, namely:  
George R. E., Adelaide K. and James H.  Adelaide K. was born September  
13, 1859, in Wheeling.  Early in life she showed a marked genius in  
art, and no expense was spared in developing this talent; she was  
instructed by the best masters to be found in St. Louis and New York.  
Just as her education was nearing its completion and her prospects  
seemed brightest, she was stricken with disease, to which she succumbed  
September 19, 1899.  This caused profound sorrow in the homestead.  
James H. was born in 1866, and was completing his education in the  
University of Virginia,-- having almost finished the course,--when he  
fell a victim to typhoid fever and died in 1891. 
     George R. E. Gilchrist, the eldest son and only surviving child, 
was born January 8, 1857.  After graduating at Wooster, Ohio, he took a 
law course at the University of Virginia, and is now a successful  
attorney-at-law in Wheeling.  He succeeded his father as examiner of  
records for Ohio county, and in him many hopes are centered. 
The family unite in worshipping at the Protestant Episcopal church.  In  
his political views Mr. Gilchrist was an old-line Whig prior to 1860,  
when he became a member of the Republican party, to which he still  
adheres.