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ANDREW DILLON. One of the oldest and most highly esteemed families of Franklin county, Illinois, is that of Dillon, which has been identified with the agricultural interests of this section for more than a century. Its members have been chiefly interested in farming and have been known as honest, upright people, the name being a synonym for honest dealing and integrity of character. A worthy representative of this family is found in Andrew Dillon, who has spent his life within the confines of Franklin county, and who is now engaged in successfully operating the old homestead on which his grandfather settled so many year's ago. Mr. Dillon was born in this county, June 9, 1849, and is a son of William M. and Isabella (Moore) Dillon.
John Dillon, the grandfather of Andrew, moved from the state of Tennessee to Illinois over one hundred years ago, and became one of the first settlers of Franklin county, where he followed farming until his death, in 1854. He was also one of the early medical practitioners of this county, and at the time of his death, in 1854, was a successful and highly respected citizen. William M. Dillon was born in Franklin county in 1827, and spent his entire life on the property his father had taken up, dying in 1889, at which time he was considered one of the wealthiest and most influential farmers of this part of the county. He was an active and interested Democrat, but never cared to run for public office. William M. Dillon married Isabella Moore, daughter of Joseph Moore, and
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she died in 1880, having been the mother of two children, Andrew and a sister.
Andrew Dillon was educated in the country schools in the vicinity of his father's farm, his uncle, Captain C. Moore, being his first teacher. As soon as he was old enough he began to do his share of work on the home place, and his father taught him lessons in tilling the soil that have since proved invaluable to him. Progressive and enterprising in all things, Mr. Dillon was one of the first to take up fruit culture, and he now has an apple orchard of sixty acres, and claims that he has not had a complete failure in all the twenty years that he has followed this branch of agriculture. He believes in the use of modern methods, and pays attention to the leading agricultural journals, keeping fully abreast of all the innovations and discoveries of his vocation, and he is known throughout Franklin county as an able and experienced farmer. In 1894 Mr. Dillon erected a handsome residence at Parrish, and there he and his wife make their home. Politically, like his father, he has always been a Democrat, and also like him has never cared to hold public office.
In 1871 Mr. Dillon was united in marriage with Miss Laura Finney, daughter of William B. Finney, an early settler of Williamson county, who later became a resident of Franklin county, and two children were born to this union, namely: Carroll M., who is superintending the operations on his father's farm; and Byron E., who is employed in the Ziegler mines. Mrs. Dillon is a faithful member of the Saints church, and is well known in religious and charitable work. Both she and her husband have numerous warm, personal friends in this vicinity, where both families have been known for so many years.