Gilbert Pillsbury

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Gilbert Pillsbury

|image name =

|imagesize = 210px

|order = 42nd Mayor of Charleston

|term_start = May 1869

|term_end = 1871

|predecessor=George Washington Clark

|successor=Johann Andreas Wagener

|party = Republican

|birth_date = February 23, 1813{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sju7AAAAIAAJ&q=Gilbert+Pillsbury+1813&pg=PA321|title = Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College: From the First Graduation in 1771 to the Present Time, with a Brief History of the Institution|last1 = Chapman|first1 = George Thomas|year = 1867}}

|birth_place = Henniker, New Hampshire

|death_date = {{death date and age|1893|1|4|1813|2|23}}

|death_place = Boston, Massachusetts

|profession = teacher

|spouse = Ann Frances Ray

|children =

|alma_mater = Dartmouth (1841)

|religion =

}}

Gilbert Pillsbury (1813-1893) was the Reconstruction mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, and he served one term from 1868 to 1871. He ran against William Patton{{cite news | title=The Mayoralty | work=The Petersburg Index | date=May 21, 1868 | location=Petersburg, Virginia}} and Chancellor Lesesne.{{cite news | url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=G61E4FXNMTM5MDE0Mzk4OC43Njc0OTU6MToxNDoxOTIuMTUyLjI0OS4yOQ&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=11&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=7&p_docref=v2:1408F1C3A145EB81@EANX-13F33DAF5EED86B8@2403648-13F33170F9DFE330@1-13F9353C32775312@Municipal%20Election%20in%20Charleston%2C%20S.%20C. | title=Municipal Election in Charleston, S.C. | work=Daily Eastern Argus | date=November 11, 1868 | location=Portland, Maine |access-date=January 19, 2014 | pages=2}} Due to election challenges, he was installed as mayor only in May 1869.{{cite news | url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=G61E4FXNMTM5MDE0Mzk4OC43Njc0OTU6MToxNDoxOTIuMTUyLjI0OS4yOQ&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=11&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=9&p_docref=v2:10BBE1239B527608@EANX-110C8862F42A3F80@2403837-110C8863B267DEA0@1-110C8866C6817F30@State%20Items | title=State Items | work=The New Hampshire Patriot | date=May 19, 1869 | access-date=January 19, 2014 | pages=2}} He was again nominated for a second term in 1871,{{cite news | url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=G61E4FXNMTM5MDE0Mzk4OC43Njc0OTU6MToxNDoxOTIuMTUyLjI0OS4yOQ&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=11&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=13&p_docref=v2:10945F2563DD7908@EANX-13E45A9A941E5460@2404634-13D7957080FD6330@1-140802E56B83B125@Political | title=Political | work=New York Evening Post | date=July 25, 1871 | access-date=January 19, 2014 | pages=2}} but lost to Johann Andreas Wagener.{{cite news | url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=G61E4FXNMTM5MDE0Mzk4OC43Njc0OTU6MToxNDoxOTIuMTUyLjI0OS4yOQ&p_action=doc&f_content=body&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=15&p_docref=v2:12A5AB52CC49F908@EANX-12AA5B6AD538A9E9@2404645-12A84FB4005B91EF@0-138D1CCBD10E3DCF@A%20Radical%20Defeat.%20Charleston%20Municipal%20Election.%20Entire%20Citizens%27%20Ticket%20Elected | title=A Radical Defeat | work=Patriot | date=August 5, 1871 | access-date=January 19, 2014 | location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | pages=1}}

Pillsbury attended Phillips Academy but did not graduate. He argued that the school's "vigorous pro-slavery restrictions" forced him to leave after he helped found an Abolitionist Society on campus. He joined over fifty students in advocating for abolition following lectures in 1834 by George Thompson (abolitionist) and William Lloyd Garrison on campus.Zion's Herald, Sept. 11, 1895, p557, Rev. R. S. Rust, D. D., "Interviewed"Leander Winslow Cogswell, History of the town of Henniker, Merrimack County, New Hampshire , 1880 p687 He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1841 and served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1854.{{cite web | url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=G61E4FXNMTM5MDE0Mzk4OC43Njc0OTU6MToxNDoxOTIuMTUyLjI0OS4yOQ&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=11&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=11&p_docnum=8&p_docref=v2:10BBE1239B527608@EANX-110C87D12A5E0220@2403655-110C87D1CBE7B6D8@1-110C87D3F7DA62B8@Home%20Matters | title=The Mayor of Charleston | work=The New Hampshire Patriot | date=November 18, 1868 | access-date=January 19, 2014 | pages=2}}

Pillsbury was an abolitionist who, during the Civil War, headed to the South as an agent of the Freedman's Bureau. He was originally stationed in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina before moving to Charleston, South Carolina with his wife in October 1865.{{cite news | title=Personal | work=South Carolina Leader | date=October 21, 1865 | location=Charleston, South Carolina | pages=2}} In Charleston, he worked to educate freed slaves and was placed in charge of abandoned property. In 1870, Pillsbury lived at 9 George St. (today a parking lot across from the Spoleto Festival USA Headquarters), and from 1872 to his death on January 4, 1893, he lived in Massachusetts.{{cite web | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/01/05/106859219.pdf | title=New York Times | work=Gilbert Pillsbury (obituary) | date=January 5, 1893 | access-date=January 19, 2014}}