Thomas Ingraham Gwillim

Born: ♂ Thomas Ingraham Gwillim

February 6, 1844

New York City, NY

Died: January 1, 1916

Bristol, CT

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Spouse: Emma Augusta Moore Gwillim (m. November 25, 1875, Cambridgeport, MA)

Children: Stanley Sessions Gwillim, Harland Dennett Gwillim, Reese Vincent Gwillim (died in infancy), Harold Evans Gwillim, and Bessie Gwillim Law

Parents: William Gwillim and Elizabeth Griffiths Gwillim

Siblings: Matilda Gwillim, Annie Gwillim Griswold, Price Gwillim, Elizabeth Gwillim, Carrie Gwillim, Emma Gwillim, Reese B. Gwillim, and Robert Gwillim

Career

• Started a jewelry business with the help of "the oldest one of the Sessions" clockmakers c. 1876

Accomplishments

• Well read
• Sang in church choir

Anecdotes

(Reed Gwillim Law Jr. wrote) "I think that incident was retold at the Gwillim family reunion in Bristol in 1989. If my memory is correct, we were able to see a clipping from an old newspaper, probably the Bristol Press. The gist of it was that Thomas Gwillim was out on a buggy ride with one of his sons, and when the son saw some berries growing by the side of the road, he begged to pick some. It turned out that the berries belonged to someone, and the owner went to the law over it. The newspaper article was written in a mock-serious style, as if everyone knew Thomas Gwillim to be a man of integrity and would get a chuckle out of his being accused of a relatively trivial offense. That's how I remember it, but don't count on it being exactly that way." The New York Times of November 15, 1887 had a brief mention of the same incident in a "Short Cuts" section, as follows: "T.I. Gwillim, a Bristol jeweler, has been sued for damages by Lewis Marsh, of Burlington, for picking huckleberries in the highway last Summer. To secure his claim the officer attached three gold watches in Mr. Gwillim's store.—Hartford Times." Ruthie Dittman e-mailed, "It finally went to trial and Grampa was fined 25 cents for the berries picked after all that. Grampa felt that seeing they did not have to set foot on anyone's land to pick the berries-they were right next to the road- that anyone had a right to them. He was a very stubborn man and would not give in."

According to Bessie Gwillim Law's oral history, his mother made him promise never to play cards, and he never did.

Faith

Active in Methodist Church; "extremely religious"