Originally known as Frog Creek, this area received its first American settlers before the Civil War, many of them from Alabama, northern Florida, and Georgia. Among the Georgians was Daniel Gillett, who brought his family to Frog Creek in the late 1840s. Like many other area pioneers, Gillett raised cattle and citrus. He and his descendants became so closely identified with the Frog Creek settlement that it became known as Gillette, and a post office bearing that name existed here from 1895-1910. Benevolence, a Baptist church formally organized in 1868, became the stable institutional backbone of the community, loaning its facilities to other religious and secular groups in the area, emphasizing frontier cooperation rather than competition, and providing inspiration and leadership to nearby Baptist and other congregations. Gillette First Baptist Church is the present-day successor to Benevolence. Through the years, Gillette has been known as an agricultural community producing winter vegetables, cattle, and citrus.