Jerome Boneparte Gilmore (born c. 1827, Kentucky), was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and worked in his brother's well-known Louisville Gun and Fish Tackle shop.
He arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1849, working and living with gunsmith David Pobst (b.
Gilmore went into the gunsmith business for himself in 1853, and was one of a handful in the country that were distributors of the famous Deringer pistols.
Gilmore joined the 3rd Louisiana Infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War, entering as a captain.
That year, during Reconstruction, he was appointed by the federal government to be mayor of Shreveport, serving in that capacity until 1871.