Biographical Sketches

ALEXANDER P. GILLIAM

ALEXANDER P. GILLIAM, County Assessor of Jefferson county, and one of Boulder's enterprising business men, was born in Asheville, North Carolina, February 13, 1857, a son of William and Elizabeth (Porter) Gilliam, also natives of the South.  During the late war the father served as a carpenter in the Confederate army, and was killed by a bushwhacker soon after the close of the struggle, leaving a wife and five children.  Mrs. Gilliam survived her husband only a short time.

Alexander P., the third child in his father's family, resided with his uncle, W. Y. Porter, after the death of his parents.  When only thirteen years of age he started in life on his own account, having received only a limited education, but afterward spent ten months at the Peabody Academy, in the Susquehanna valley.  Previous to that time he had been employed as a clerk, and after leaving college followed the same occupation in a grocery house at Spartanburg, South Carolina.  At the age of nineteen years he owned a small grocery business.  In 1877 Mr. Gilliam went to Helena, Texas; in 1879 engaged in the lumber business in Eastern Oregon; in June, 1881, left Walla Walla on horseback for Butte City, where he followed freighting with mule teams; in 1883 took a drove of horses to the British possessions, and in 1884 located at Elkhorn, Jefferson county, Montana.  While at the latter place he followed freighting, and was also engaged in the livery, coal and wood business.  In 1889 Mr. Gilliam was elected Assessor of Jefferson county, after which he moved to Boulder, and is now serving his second term in that office.  When elected Assessor of Jefferson county he received a majority of only six votes, but at his re-election had a majority of 448 votes over the Republican candidate.  He purchased Mr. Walter's interest in the Walter & Maxfield meat business in 1883, and the firm is now known as Maxfield & Gilliam.  They have the only meat market in Boulder.

In his political relations, Mr. Gilliam has always been a stanch Democrat.  Socially, he is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the K. of P.  By an honorable and upright course in business, Mr. Gilliam has justly earned the popularity he now enjoys, and has always taken a deep interest in everything for the good of his community.

Source: Transcription from the book, An Illustrated History of the State of Montana, by Joaquin Miller, published in 1894; located on the website, Internet Archive (http://archive.org), accessed 14 May 2023.

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