Peter Dillon (Dillin)
NJ Militia
Rev War
1754-1823
In 1993, I took the "Sherm" Dillon family narrative prepared for a 1932 family reunion (most of us have copies of it) and entered all the data into my Family Tree Maker computer program. Thomas Dillon is listed at the top of this family narrative, presumably the father of us all. Next, I looked for actual records of Thomas. And I found lots and lots of Thomas Dillons, but none at the times and places as described in the family narrative. I continued nevertheless until 1995, when I received a family group sheet from a lady in Indiana with nearly the same children by name as those of Thomas, but with a father named Peter. Other researchers eventually and independently provided similar family sheets with nearly identical given names, but always with Peter and never with Thomas listed as head of the family. Going back over the research, I found there was, in fact, a Peter Dillon in many of the time and place locations where Thomas should have been. In late 1995, a lady in Nebraska, wrote and explained she had the original research of a T. O. Dillon, a descendant of Peter Dillon's son, William. T. O. Dillon spent over forty years researching Peter and his ten or eleven children. And as it turned out he seems to have been a thorough researcher who devoted considerable attention to detail and accuracy. He profiled our John Dillon, Peter Dillin's son, from Greene Co., PA, through Monroe Co., OH, then on to Lawrence Co., OH. There is not an abundance of information on John, however.

Specifically, John's grave remains unknown, though I suspect it to be in the Scottown Cemetery, established by John's son, Vincent Dillon Sr. Vincent, his wife, Hannah, Vincent's son, William S., and William's wife, Rachel, are buried in the Scottown Cemetery, as is Vincent F. Dillon's sister, Elizabeth Dalton. Their grave stones are clearly marked and still legible. An interesting footnote, CALLICOTT CONNECTIONS II, by Jewel Callicoat Cabana, who spent her childhood on Greasy Ridge in Lawrence County, was published in 1986. It includes this same "Sherm" Dillon family narrative with Thomas Dillon as our direct ancestor. This publication also erroneously places the graves of Vincent F. and Nettie A. Dillon in the Scottown cemetery.

Eventually, the trail led to the grave of Peter Dillin (photo) this past October. Peter Dillin's grave is located on a private farm a few miles west of Coshocton on Rte 541. The gravestone of one son, Peter Dillin Jr., is well embedded in the root structure of the large oak tree in the photograph. Family information suggests, Peter Dillon Sr's wife, Mary, is also buried close by. The T. O. Dillon research includes a magnificent, detailed, hand drawn township map with the location of farms, residences, local cemeteries and individual graves. Not far from Peter's grave, are the remains of an old log cabin residence (photo) which the T. O. Dillon map suggests was the residence of Peter Dillin, at least two of his sons and at least one grandson.

A final note about where Peter Dillin came from and when; the earliest account I have seen, by a grandson, Esquire Dillon, son of Peter's son Israel, stated that his grandfather came from Ireland. This is the general consensus within family researchers except for the descendants of one son, Thomas, who suggest he may have come from England by way of Virginia. But the first record we have of Peter in this country is during the winter of 1777 in Somerset Co., NJ, as a member of the NJ Militia. On November 13, 1779, he received a marriage license to marry Polly (Mary) Vactor. By the census of 1800, Peter is in Greene Co., PA, and is at least 45 years old. Thus the unprecise birthdate of 1754.

More on Peter's possible origins; his gravestone was consecrated in the New Guilford Methodist Church through the efforts of the Gerbracht family profiled in the Coshocton Tribune article and the Mizer family through whom I located the Peter Dillin grave. At least as far back as Vincent F. Dillon's grandfather, Vincent Sr., we know the Dillon family to be Protestant, specifically Methodist or Methodist/Episcopalian. The initial large migrations out of Ireland were from the Ulster Province or Northern Ireland after 1718, and the migrants were almost entirely Scotch-Irish Protestants. (It would be another century before the more publicized Irish Catholic exodus would take place.) From one reference, "in the five years 1769-1774, no less than 43,720 people sailed from the five Ulster ports of Londonderry, Belfast, Newry, Larne and Portrush to various settlements on the Atlantic seaboard." Peter Dillin may have been one of these. Dad told me many times, "We're Scotch-Irish."

	Henry S. Dillon
	November 9, 1996