Voy Rivers’ Gillentin
Thurland Castle
Grandparents: Voy Rivers’ Gillentine and Katt
OUR FAMILY HISTORY
Thurland Castle, in the midlands of England, was our maternal family’s ancestral home. We were ”burned out of it’ in the mid 1600’s by Oliver Cromwell. He didn’t like that WE liked the King. In 1704, our first ancestor arrived in Virginia, and it’s all in the books from there.
Our family is from NE Arkansas, Northern Mississippi and our grandfather, Voy Rivers Gillentine, is the namesake of the restaurant. Voy was actually born in the same town as Elvis!
Voy Rivers’ Gillentine and my grandmother, Kathryn “Katt” Gillentine, met and were married when she was 14. He worked for her dad, sawing logs and running whiskey.
To the left is a picture of Voy with a batch of catfish that eventually ended up given away to the needy. As you can tell by the photos provided, our family was not the most prosperous, but we ARE generous to a fault.
Our shop uses Cookshack smokers, manufactured in the USA (Ponca City, Oklahoma). Strong, hardworking, day in, day out. Predictable results is the biggest reason we use them.
Thank you for visiting!
Don & Cheryl Ott, Proprietors