John Stratton Gilman manuscript collection

John Stratton Gilman was a prominent businessman in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born in Hallowell, Maine on March 19, 1830 to Gideon and Lois White Gilman. He moved to Baltimore in 1850 to work in the iron industry for Gilman, Chadbourne & Company. His father and brother Eliphalet were also involved in the company. Shortly after moving to the city, he met Ellen Abbott, who he married in 1854. She died in 1855 shortly after the birth of their first child, Horace Abbott, named for Ellen’s father. Horace was healthy at his birth but quickly became sickly after the death of his mother and died the following year. Gilman remained close to his in-laws after the death of his wife and eventually went to work for his father-in-law at the Abbott Iron Company, also known as H. Abbott & Son. The rolling mill in the Canton area of Baltimore was one of the largest in the country. The company supplied iron plating for the shipbuilding industry and became famous for its work on the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor.

Gilman remarried in 1860 to Eliza Weyl, the daughter of Reverend Charles G. and Eleanora Weyl. They had two daughters: Charlotte Abbott and Miriam. The family lived at Woodlands on Gorsuch Avenue in the Homestead/Waverly area. Gilman served as director for several of the city’s financial institutions and industrial businesses, including the Canton Company and the Baltimore Copper Company. The Abbott Iron Company ceased operations in 1886, and he went on to act as president to the Second National Bank of Baltimore. He died on November 18, 1889 after suffering for several years from Bright’s disease.