Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Obituary |
Collection |
Lambton Heritage Museum Collection |
Catalog Number |
OMC 2019.007.064 |
Date |
1975 |
Dates of Creation |
1975 |
Creator |
Bill Gillespie |
Title |
Obituary, Bill Gillespie |
Scope & Content |
Photocopy of the obituary for William Gillespie William Gillespie, one of the last of the foreign drillers that made Petrolia famous, died last week at a rest home in Toronto. He was 97. A warm and convivial personality, he was widely known and liked by the Hard Oilers of his day and still entertained friends at his Crescent Park home until moving to Toronto several years ago. Mr. Gillespie was born in Petrolia in 1878 and attended the first wooden school in the east end. He was the son of Joseph Gillespie, a livery stable operator who was killed while erecting an oil rig. Young Bill learned his drilling trade in Petrolia then left for foreign fields. He went first to Cuba at 18, where he packed a mule train to the interior, returning via a railway that once ran through the Florida Keys. After his second Cuban expedition, he joined Fred Edward, another early Petrolia driller, on Jubal Island in the Red Sea. They made their own rafts, swung boilers and gear off ships and taught the native labor to use such elementary tools as hammers and wrenches. Next he opened a big field in Burma, near Rangoon. In subsequent years he drilled in Borneo Sarawak, Java and Sumatra, and punched down artesian wells in Australia. While returning home from Borneo in 1926, he met a young lady from Leeds, England, emigrating to Canada. Her name was Dorothy Cromeweeke and after a shipboard romance they married and settled in Petrolia. Bill never travelled far from home again. There are two daughters, Olive (Mrs. Bennett) of Klienburg, and Kathy Gillespie of Toronto. The Gillespie's first lived in the old Grant House next to Fairbank House on Petrolia Street. Mr. Gillespie operated the wells on the Gray estate just east of Tank Street until the early war years when the labor supply dwindled. He worked at the Canadian Oil refinery until his retirement. Mrs. Gillespie died in 1964. Mr. Gillespie was predeceased by two brothers and a sister. He attended Christ Anglican Church and was a member of the Masonic Lodge. The funeral was held at Bradley Funeral Home with interment at Hillsdale Cemetery. The service was conducted by Rev. George Menzies. |
Extent of Description |
Letter size page |
Search Terms |
Australia Borneo Burma Canadian Oil Refining Company Cuba Egypt International Driller Jubal Island Oil Drilling Petroleum Sumatra |
People |
Bennett, (Gillespie) Olive Cromeweeke, Dorothy Edward, Fred Gillespie, Joseph Gillespie, Kathleen Gillespie, William Menzies, Rev. George |