JAMES B. GASKILL, who is farming in Jackson township, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, June 1, 1841, a son of Andrew and Susanna (Lacey) Gaskill, natives respectively of England and of Carroll county, Ohio. The father came to America about 1836, first locating in New Comerstown, Ohio, where he taught school for several years, and was there married in 1839. After a residence there of fourteen years he sold his possessions intending to come to Indiana, having a public sale for his stock, etc., but on the evening of that day, which was a rainy one, he became suddenly ill and died nine days later. His widow remained on the place for one year longer, and then joining a party of emigrants bound for Indiana made the overland journey to this state, first stopping in Greene county. She was accompanied on the trip by her six children, of whom James B. was the eldest, and in Greene county she bought a farm for twelve hundred dollars and a team and wagon, which left her a surplus in money of only one hundred dollars. But thirty days after the purchase she was informed that the place was mortgaged for five hundred dollars, and to add to the misfortune one of her horses and a cow died. She was compelled to leave the place in 1856, and coming to Sullivan rented a house and worked for others in order to support her family. After one year she moved to the O. M. Patton place in Jackson township, which continued as her home until 1861.
About this time James B. Gaskill went to work for Samuel Badders and took his mother with him, receiving twenty cents a day in wages, and he remained there for seven years. During the following year he farmed rented land in Cass township, and as he then married, his mother moved to the Miller place in the same township, but six years after Mr. Gaskill's marriage his wife died and his mother then returned and was with him for three years. For several years thereafter his home was at Jackson Hill, and there his mother died about 1888.
Mr. Gaskill has been four times married, wedding first Polly Ann Hart, by whom he had three children: Alice, the deceased wife of Tom Murratta; Etta, deceased, became the wife of James Johnson, of Jackson township; and John, also deceased, was an engineer at the mines. He married secondly Margaret Stanley, who died eleven months later, leaving one son, Edward M., who is married and resides on a farm adjoining his father's home. Mary Jane Neal, a widow, became his third wife, and they had nine children, namely: William, of Jackson township; Sylvia, the wife of Galen Burritt, a carpenter at Gilmore; Elmer, deceased; Mora and Stella, both at home; Delphia, Charley and Oscar, all deceased; and Eva, at home. In 1899 Mr. Gaskill wedded Martha Setty, a widow, and their two children are Gladys and Madge, but the younger is deceased. Gladys resides with her mother at Gilmore.
Mr. Gaskill owns a valuable estate of two hundred and sixty acres in Jackson township, where he is engaged in general fanning and stock raising, making a specialty of the raising of Southdown and Shropshire sheep and of mules. His farm is richly underlaid with coal. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, lodge No. 603, at Hymera.