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| Mayor Gillespie and Bob Heron |
Gillespie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a boy he lived with his family at 53 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh and was educated at the nearby Edinburgh Academy and subsequently at the University of St Andrews. Like his father, he was a member of the Royal Company of Archers. (a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's Bodyguard in Scotland). He was admitted to The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet in 1875 and also served as a captain in the Midlothian Coast Artillery Volunteers. Upon his return from colonial service in Australia, his father, Sir John Gillespie, sent him to Sarasota, Florida in 1886 to work for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.
The company had enticed a group of Scottish colonists to Sarasota in 1885 to help settle its 50,000-acre holdings, which included most of the land constituting the present City of Sarasota. The settlers arrived to find most of the company's promises unfulfilled. Gillespie was dispatched to improve the situation. Many disillusioned colonists left, however, and the company entered liquidation proceedings.
Gillespie remained in Sarasota after the court appointed him to manage the assets of the company there. He organized the clearing of three miles of Main Street, the building of a substantial wharf on the waterfront, and the beginning of a 40-acre experimental farm.
In May 1886 he laid out two golf holes on his property. This was the first golf course in Florida and the second in the United States. An avid golfer, Gillespie learned the game at St. Andrews. In 1905 he built a nine-hole course on property now which is now the site of the Sarasota County Courthouse, Florida.
University educated, Gillespie was admitted to the highest legal body in Scotland. Having become a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1896, he joined the American and Florida Bar Associations. He served as president of the local Bar Association. He was influential in building an Episcopal church in Sarasota. He served as chaplain to Sarasota Bay Post #30 of the American Legion. As a Mason, he reached the Order of Knight Templar, was affiliated with the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows and became a charter member of the Kiwanis Club.
1902, he was elected the first mayor of Sarasota when the town was incorporated and held this office for six terms. He also served his community as Justice of Peace four years and Notary Public ten years. He was affectionately known as "Colonel" in this community.
Gillespie is credited with introducing Florida to the game of golf. In 1904 he built a nine-hole golf course east of the present Links Avenue. Over the years, he was commissioned to design and build six other Florida courses and one in Havana, Cuba. He was one of Florida's championship golfers and an authority on the sport.
Sarasota was incorporated as a town on 14 October 1902, coincidentally Gillespie's 50th birthday, and he went on to served as the Town's first Mayor. He was subsequently elected to five additional one-year terms.
Gillespie remained in Sarasota for most of his life. During that time he lived in three different houses, each one reflecting a different phase in his life. His first house was built on South Palm Avenue in 1886. Alex Browning, nineteen-year-old colonist from Scotland who had had some architectural experience, designed the home. He also was one of the six-man crew who built the house with lumber brought by schooner from Appalachicola. On his later memoirs, Browning described the house as "the finest residence in the county," with large rooms, detached kitchen, and verandas on three sides. Behind this house Gillespie built a two-hole golf course, on which he played almost daily, according to Browning. In this house in October 1902 the first town council met after the Town of Sarasota was incorporated.
When John Hamilton and Blanche McDaniel Gillespie returned from their honeymoon in Scotland in July 1905, they moved into "Roseburn" on Morrill Street. In this c. 1906 photo friends are shown in front of "Roseburn." The house may have been built as early as the 1880s and was remodeled for the Gillespies. On the far side of the house a conservatory was added for Blanche Gillespie's plants. The windmill pumped water from their well into the tank located half way up the framework. (Prew School occupied this building from the late 1930s until prior to its demolition in the mid 1980s.)
The Gillespies moved into their third home in 1919 after a five year absence from Sarasota. During World War I they had lived in Scotland, where John Hamilton served with the Volunteer Force. Their new home, "Golf Hall," was on the corner of Golf Street and Links Avenue. Across Links was the nine-hole golf course Gillespie had built about fifteen years earlier and which stretched eastward almost to Tuttle Avenue. Next door was the new club house.
The next four years, Gillespie was active in community life and promoted golf as good for business. His letter to the editor of The Sarasota Times, printed on the front page of the July 10, 1919 edition, bemoaned the fact that none of Sarasota's business and professional leaders were playing golf. "All, all are blind to the fact that to be able to play golf is, now-a-days, as essential to a business man as any other part of his education." For those not yet exposed, he observed that "the golf microbe is as catching as the 'Flu' and far more lasting!"
Gillespie was instrumental in founding the Episcopal Church in Sarasota. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Episcopal Church and is acknowledged as the founder of The Church of the Redeemer Sarasota.
Gillespie volunteered in World War I for duty in Scotland. Because of this service to Scotland, he lost his United States citizenship. An act of Congress restored it after the war.
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http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/markers/john-hamilton-gillespie/
http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/articles/the-homes-of-john-hamilton-gillespie/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamilton_Gillespie