Photo by Milton Morris
David and Renee Gillespie
AGES: 36 and 41
RESIDENTS OF: Pumpkintown
CLAIM TO FAME: Living historians who specialize in making things the 18th-century way
LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS: David is the author of A Brief Treatise on Tomb and Grave Stones of the Eighteenth Century. Renee’s indigo-dyed fabrics are featured at the Smithsonian Institution.
FAMILY TREE: Both have ancestors who served as Patriot spies during the American Revolution—Renee’s seventh-generation grandmother, Lydia Barrington Darragh of Philadelphia, and David’s fifth-generation grandmother, Laodicea “Dicey” Langston Springfield of Laurens.
HIGHER CALLING: Christian faith guides the couple in their work. At events, their sutler’s tent is always closed for business on Sundays. “We’re like an 18th-century Chick-fil-A,” David says.
CO-OP AFFILATION: Members of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative
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Spend a little time with David and Renee Gillespie and you might forget which century you’re living in.
Experts in the hand-manufacturing processes of the 1700s, the Gillespies happily spend their days making period-authentic clothing, banjos, flintlock rifles, miniature paintings and hand-chiseled tombstones, using only the tools and materials of the era. When they’re not working from their rustic home near Pumpkintown (built from salvaged 18th-century timbers, of course), they can be found demonstrating their talents and selling their wares at museums, parks and historic sites along the East Coast.
“We’re living historians, and we’re crafting the period for the public. At the same time, we’re crafting it for ourselves, too,” David Gillespie says. “There are events we go to where we have to pinch ourselves. You look around, and there’s nothing modern. Everything is totally correct. That’s when we become part of the period again.”
For both Gillespies, allowing children to experience history by taking a turn at Renee’s spinning wheel or picking up David’s stone-cutting tools is the most rewarding part of their travels.
“It brings history alive,” Renee says. “Even if a child never learns how to spin, they’ve got a connection with something that happened in history.”
Three years ago, David left his surveying job, allowing the couple to devote themselves full-time to doing what they love—studying, practicing, preserving and sharing the knowledge of long-forgotten trades through their public appearances and a sutler business, Pumpkintown Primitives.
“The Lord has given us talents,” David says. “If we can make a living with our talents and give God the glory for it, what else could anyone ask for?”
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Get More
David and Renee Gillespie will demonstrate the art of painting miniature portraits during the Sports & Leisure Days living history weekend at Middleton Place National Historic Landmark Sept. 11–12. For more information, visit middletonplace.org.