School Board as superintendent of the Grant City School, of which he
took charge in the fall of 1891, having passed an examination for state
teacher's certificate under State Superintendent Wolfe and Professor
Muir at a state institute at Moberty, Missouri, where he was highly com-
plimented by his instructors as having written the best papers on the
examinations they had had in the same studies.
Prepares School for Articulation with University
Within the first two months of his teaching in Grant City he suc-
ceeded in changing all the text books in the high school, and with the
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 2089
cooperation of the school board started the new course of study, fulfilling
the requirements for articulation with the state university. It was at
this time that Latin was first studied in the Grant City schools, and
Mr. Dillon found much opposition to this study, even from the better
classes of the city; some of the professional men argued that it was a
dead language and that there was no practical use for it, but before he
closed his work as a teacher in Grant City he saw Latin become very
popular.
Elected to University Chairs
In the fall of 1896 he was elected to the chair of Latin and the
chair of political economy in the Campbell University at Holton, Kansas,
an institution which was said to stand next to the Kansas University in
course of study, requirements and capabilities at that time. Mr. Dillon
was not to take active charge of his duties in this university until the
Grant City School closed, in May, 1897. During the winter intervening
Mr. Dillon had due time to consider the ten year contract he had for the
chairs in the Campbell University and decided that if he fulfilled that
engagement it would make him a teacher for lifetime, as he would then
be too old to adapt himself readily to a new profession, and for that
reason he resigned the chairs of Latin and political economy in February,
1897, with the determination to give up teaching entirely, although he
was very much in love with the work and closed his last year in the
school at Grant City with a unanimous recommendation from the school
board as one of the best instructors and disciplinarians that had ever
occupied the position.
Conducted Father's Farm
During the three years that he was superintendent of the Grant City
School he conducted and operated his father's farm, where his mother
and two sisters lived, and put into cultivation considerable acreage of
new land.
Was Columbian Guard at World 's Fair
Reverting to the first years of teaching, in April, 1893, he went to
Chicago and became a member of the Columbian Guards at the World's
Fair held in commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of America by Columbus. He remained nearly four months
at the World's Fair, serving about three months as a member of Com-
pany No. 24 of the Columbian Guards. His duties engaged him at the
Woman's Building, the entrance to the Midway Plaisance, the Children's
Building, the Puck Building, and the White Star Line Steamship's
Building. He proved himself capable and efficient in this position and
still possesses recommendations from both the captain and the first
sergeant of his company, testifying as to his ability and honesty and
good character during his service at the World's Fair.
Elected Commander Missouri Division Sons of Veterans
In the latter part of 1896 he was elected captain of Shiloh Camp No.
48, Sons of Veterans, which was at that time organized in Grant City.
In 1897 he attended the state encampment of the Sons of Veterans at
Warrensburg, Missouri, where he was elected junior vice commander of
the state division. This was the third official position of the order in
2090 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
the state. The next year, in 1898, at the annual encampment held at
Carthage, Missouri, he was elected commander of the Missouri Division,
Sons of Veterans, which included the states of Missouri, Arkansas and
Texas. In this position he was quite active and devoted a large part
of his time to the interest of his division. The annual encampment the
next year, under his command, was held at Kirksville, Missouri. He
still holds the rank of past commander in the order.
Tours Canada and Eastern United States
Having given up the profession of teaching in 1897, he decided to
take a vacation and also to give his two sisters some recreation and
change after their long vigil at the bedside of their mother, who died
the 27th day of March, 1897, and consequently, in July, the three started
on a tour of the East, landing first at Buffalo, New York, where they
spent a week with the Grand Army Encampment, and at Niagara Falls ;
thence to Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, Canada; thence to
Mount Washington; Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Albany,
Newburg, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, District of Colum-
bia, and numerous other points. On this trip Mr. Dillon made a special
effort to become acquainted with the professions of law and journalism,
and the opportunity for the study of each in the East. At the University
of Cincinnati he heard two lectures on law by W. H. Taft. The next
time he saw Mr. Taft was at the White House at Washington, District of
Columbia, when Mr. Taft was President of the United States, and Mr.
and Mrs. Dillon were on their wedding tour of the East.
Makes Genealogical Investigations
It was on the return part of the trip in 1897, when Mr. Dillon and
his sisters reached Lawrence County, Ohio, where their parents were
both reared and where many of their relatives still lived, that Mr. Dillon
spent considerable time in gathering all the genealogical data known to
the living relatives. Acknowledgment of much valuable information is
due to his great-uncle, John Dillon, and to his uncles, Peter H. Dillon
and William Dillon, and to H. J. Dennison for the genealogical record
of his grandparents, Vincent and Mrs. Hannah Dillon. Also acknowl-
edgment is due to the step-grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Rapp ; to his
uncles, August and Abner Rapp, and to John Snyder, as well as to
numerous others for much valuable information concerning his grand-
parents, John Rapp and Catharine Rapp.
Dillon Ancestry — Paternal
His grandfather, Vincent Dillon, was born in Green County, Pennsyl-
vania, on January 1, 1809. Vincent Dillon's father was John Dillon,
who was born in the same county and on the same homestead, shortly
after the close of the Revolutionary war of America. John Dillon's
father was Thomas Dillon, who was born in the County of Mayo on the
Shannon River in Ireland, and arrived in America in time to take part
in the latter struggles in the Revolutionary war. He was a weaver by
trade and followed this trade to the time of his death. His son, John
Dillon, took part in the War of 1812.
Northmen from Denmark
The Dillon genealogy extends back almost indefinitely, but later
writers confine themselves mainly to that part beginning with the year
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 2091
885 A. D., when Siegfried, a noted sea king of the Danish Vikings,
ascended the Seine River with 40.000 Vikings, composed of Danish North-
men, in 700 vessels, and besieged Paris for ten months. Many of these
Vikings or Northmen remained in Southern France, and among them
was one who was so strong and agile that the natives of France called
him DeLion. Through the wear of years this was gradually shortened
to Dillon. Two hundred years later, or in the year 1185, Chevalier Henry
Dillon of Aquitiane, a descendant of the Northman who came over with
Seigfried came to Ireland in the train of Henry II and acquired large
possessions on the River Shannon, which were granted and confirmed to
him by the king, and which became known as "Dillon's Country."
This was the beginning of the race of Dillons in Ireland, and it was from
this Dillon's Country that Thomas Dillon came to Green County, Penn-
sylvania.
Dillons ix Medieval Wars
Among the Dillons who attained distinction in the medieval wars was
Viscount Theobald Dillon and his son, Count Arthur Dillon, Chevalier
James de Dillon and Count Henry de Dillon. The last four named had
the famous Dillon Regiment in France. Their living in France was due
to the fact that their ancestors had been expatriated from Ireland at
the time of Cromwell's usurpation, about 1649. A fifth brother became
Archbishop of Toulouse and also Archbishop of Norborne, but at the time
of the French revolution was beheaded. At the guillotine a court lady
under sentence to be beheaded terrifiedly turned to Archbishop Dillon
and asked him to go first, to which he replied, "Certainly; anything to
favor the lady." Another one of the Dillons, a little later in the line,
who attained distinction in the military service, was Col. Arthur Dillon,
whose regiment was connected with that of Count D 'Estaing in assisting
the American revolutionists to defeat the British.
Grand Maternal Ancestry English
The wife of Vincent Dillon was Hannah Jackson. Her grandfather
was Henry Jackson, who was of pure English descent. He was a man
weighing over two hundred pounds and lived to be eighty or ninety
years of age. Before the revolution he lived where Washington, District
of Columbia, now stands, and often herded his horses on the "Old
Poison Fields," which has since become the location of the capitol of
the United States. During the Revolutionary war he and his family were
at a fort near his farm. Afterward they removed to Green County,
Pennsylvania, and then to Guernsy County, Ohio, where he died.
The above references to the Dillon genealogy show that J. W. S.
Dillon was of Irish. French and English descent on his father's side.
Maternal Lineage
In his genealogical search at the time referred to when in Southern
Ohio. Mr. Dillon .found that both his mother's parents were born at Fel-
bach, near Stuttgart, in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg. Germany. He
found that his grandmother's maiden name was Catharine Elsasser, ami
that some time in earlier centuries that their ancestors had been given
that name because of the fact that they had come from the Province of
Alsace-Lorraine.
2092 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
Rapps in Napoleonic Times
Mr. Dillon found that his mother's father, John Bapp, was horn at
Sehlaght, seventy-two miles from Stuttgart. Tradition has it that many
centuries before this the ancestors of Rapp had lived in the southern
part of Gaul, later known as Aquitania, and probably were among the
original Franks of the first and second centuries. And it was said that
about the time of the Sicilian Vespers, in 1282, that the Rapps moved
across the Rhine to the Kingdom of Wurtemburg. John Rapp's father's
name was John Rapp, who had what at that time was quite a large landed
estate of 1,100 acres, and his standing with the Austrian Royalty con-
ferred on him the task of furnishing herds of cattle to the Austrian
armies while fighting Napoleon's armies. The contract with the Austrian
emperor was that Rapp should be paid for all the cattle which he
attempted to take to the Austrian armies, whether they were delivered
or captured by the French armies, but in later years the claims for cattle
not. delivered were repudiated, because of the very serious financial
straits of the Austrian Government. Hence the claims amounting to
200,000 guilders worth of cattle, which had been captured from Rapp by
the French army at different times, were repudiated. The last and one
of the largest losses suffered by Rapp in this way was when he was driv-
ing 80,000 guilders worth of cattle to General Mack, whose army had
suddenly been besieged at Ulm by Napoleon. This herd of cattle was
captured by Napoleon's troops. In 1807, John Rapp was murdered by
the French soldiers.
Returned from Moscow
John Rapp, Jr., was impressed into the French service when Na-
poleon began his march to Moscow in Russia, and Rapp was one of the
few of Napoleon's troops who returned from that terrible retreat of the
grand army. Later John Rapp enlisted in Blucher's army, and at the
Battle of AVaterloo was fighting against the soldiers who had killed his
own father, and there helped defeat Napoleon. Immediately after this
battle John Rapp came to America and settled at Barboursville, Ken-
tucky, and later in Lawrence County, Ohio, where Jane Rapp, the mother
of the subject of this sketch, was born and raised.
Mother of J. W. S. Dillon
Miss Jane Rapp was married to Isaac Dillon, August 4, 1867, and
joined with her husband in building-a home and raising a family on their
farm in Worth County. Mrs. Dillon was a woman of wonderful perse-
verance and had the strict German training from her parents that caused
her to train her children not only to be scrupulously honest and honor-
able in every respect, but to be considerate of both persons and property.
The financial success of her husband was doubtless due almost as much to
her efforts as to his. She was an unusually good manager and sacrificed
her life largely in her ambition to raise her children in the way she
thought they ought to go. Her death on March 27, 1897, at the age of
sixty-one years, was due very largely to the fact that she had never found
time to rest during her whole lifetime. She had the independent spirit
and the efficiency that comes from being raised by the higher class of
Germans.
Father of J. W. S. Dillon
The fourth child and the third son of Vincent Dillon was Isaac Dillon,
born in Monroe County, Ohio, June 11, 1835, and raised and reared to
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 2093
manhood on his father's farm, which is located one mile east of Scott
Town, in Lawrence County, Ohio. He taught school near his home and
prepared to go to eollege, but this arrangement was broken into by a
desire to go West with his brother, P. H. Dillon, and his brother-in-law,
J. Q. Hagerman, all of whom came to Missouri, starting April 12, 1859.
At Kansas City, Missouri, P. H. Dillon and Isaac Dillon came near pur-
chasing ten acres of land for $1,000 ; the only thing that prevented them
from making this purchase was the fact that P. H. Dillon was attacked
with a case of malaria and was afraid that he could not live there in case
they purchased the land. Had they completed this purchase of the ten
acres, situated in what is now the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, it
would have made them millions of dollars. Isaac Dillon came on to
Worth County, Missouri, and taught school in that county and in Ring-
gold County, Iowa, until the spring of 1862, having, in the meantime,
purchased eighty acres of land twelve miles southwest of what is now
Grant City. He was teaching school at the Dry Schoolhouse in the spring
of 1862, when the war excitement became so great and the soldiers pass-
ing by the schoolhouse and through the vicinity so greatly occupied the
attention of, not only the scholars, but the patrons as well, that it was
decided to discontinue the school. He immediately went to St. Joseph and
enlisted in the Fifth Missouri Cavalry under General Peniek, with whom
he served until the regiment was mustered out fourteen months later.
During this service he was in many of the skirmishes with Quantrell's
guerrillas, and Isaac Dillon was one of the special guard to go to the home
of Mrs. Samuels, who at that time was Mrs. James, the mother of Frank
and Jesse James, and investigate an attack which was the result of a
bomb being thrown into the house and tearing off the arm of Mrs. James.
The guard, of which Isaac Dillon was a member, arrested certain parties
who were presumed- to have been connected with this deed, and these
parties were given a trial by the Military Court, a result of which the
writer does not know.
Father in Civil War
Upon being mustered out of General Peniek 's Regiment, Isaac Dillon
immediately reenlisted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the Second
Kansas Cavalry, with which he served until the spring of 1864, when he
was taken prisoner at Poison Springs, Arkansas, while . in a guard of
1,500 men - accompanying 300 foraging wagons filled with corn. A part
of the guard was surrounded by General Price's army of eight or ten
thousand men, and just before being taken prisoner Isaac Dillon was
shot through the right arm, just above the elbow; from this wound he
suffered several months in the prisons, and on account of it his arm was
disabled for life. At the close of the war he was at Camp Ford, Texas,
where, on account of their isolation, it was not learned that the war was
over for several months, and he continued as a prisoner of the Con-
federates. Finally he was discharged and went to New Orleans and
embarked on a boat to St. Louis, Missouri, and thence to Fort Leaven-
worth, Kansas, on the Missouri River, where he was mustered out on the
8th of September, 1865, and compelled to prove that he was alive, as his
captain had marked him dead in the report of the battle at Poison
Springs, Arkansas.
Marriage of Parents
From Leavenworth, Kansas, he returned to Worth County, Missouri,
where he taught school until 1867. He was married on August 1, 1867,
2094 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
to Miss Jane Rapp, and they settled on the farm which he had purchased
hefore the war, and there underwent the struggle of the pioneers and
raised a family of one son, J. W. S. Dillon, and two. daughters, Avonia
and Greta Dillon. Although he failed in his ambition to be a college man,
Isaac Dillon was a student and all his life kept in intelligent touch with
all current events. He and his wife were ambitious in that their children
have a good education and that their son become a graduate of the Mis-
souri State University. Isaac Dillon was a man five feet ten inches
in height with very dark hair ; slender, weighing about one hundred and
twenty-four pounds; was always active and energetic and directed his
business in an intelligent and systematic manner. At his death, which
occurred October 30, 1893, it was said by all who knew him that he did
not have an enemy among all with whom he had become acquainted
while he lived in Worth Comity. He was fifty-eight years old at the time
of his death and his death was brought on by sciatica, which was the
result of an attack of grippe about a year previous. He and his wife
both had very high ideals of honesty and integrity and were very dili-
gent in instilling these qualities into their children.
Besides the above outline of genealogical facts in the Dillon, Jackson,
Rapp and Elsasser families, John W. S. Dillon secured about one hundred
pages of typewritten data concerning these families that is of interest
to relatives, and many stirring events would be of interest to the public
were there time and space for relating them.
Has Waterloo Saber
Among the mementoes of the Napoleonic period in Europe found on
this trip by J. W. S. Dillon was the saber carried by John Rapp in the
Battle of Waterloo and probably carried by him on his march to Moscow
in earlier years. In 1908 J. W. S. Dillon was again in Lawrence County,
Ohio, and was presented with this sword by his uncle, Abner Rapp, to
whom it had been presented at an earlier date by Mrs. Naomi Whitley of
Huntington, West Virginia. Mr. Dillon now has it at his home in Grant
City. At one time on his return march from Moscow John Rapp secured
a loaf of bread, w r hich doubtless stood between him and starvation on that
march with both winter and the cossacks on their heels and killing the
French troops by the hundreds of thousands. Another soldier saw Rapp
with the loaf of bread and entered into a saber battle with him for the
possession of the bread. The soldier caught Rapp on the chin with his
saber, which threw him off his guard; Rapp took advantage of this
opportunity to dispatch the soldier and thereby retained the loaf of
bread, which may have been the slender thread of nourishment that en-
abled him to keep up his march until safe within his own country.
At the close of his genealogical search, J. W. S. Dillon and his two
sisters returned to their home farm in Worth County, Missouri, in the
latter part of 1897, where Mr. Dillon lived for about a year and conducted
the farm.
Purchases Grant City Star
One afternoon about the 1st of August, 1898, he drove to Grant City
on business. He found, accidentally, that the Grant City Star was for
sale and in twenty-four hours he and J. F. Hull had purchased it. They
took possession the 1st of September, J. F. Hull taking active charge.
J. W. S. Dillon closed out his stock and other farm property, rented the
home farm and he and his sisters moved to Grant City, December 26, 1898.
In February, 1899, Mr. Dillon purchased Mr. Hull's interest in the Star
and from that time has been the sole owner and proprietor. After he had
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 2095
edited and managed the paper five years, the circulation had doubled from
the time of his purchase. Since 1903, the Star has had a larger circula-
tion in proportion to county population than any local weekly newspaper
in Missouri. Such an accomplishment is not so difficult as it might seem,
as Worth County is the smallest in the state and hence the population is
more compactly situated near the county seat.
Newspaper Policies
Mr. Dillon ? s newspaper policy has always been to give the best service
to its subscribers. He has always been on the square with all of them and
their friendship is largely due to his honest dealing and hard work. It
has not been his policy to attack unjustly or indulge in personalities, but
he has fearlessly stood for justice and right regardless of personal inter-
ests, but wraps the mantle of charity about the mistakes of the earnest
but misguided. The politics of the paper has been republican from its
founding in 1867 and so ably has Mr. Dillon fought the political battles
of his party that it has won many victories.
In Politics
In politics Mr. Dillon has been a republican from the time of his first
vote, but not so strict that he would vote for any kind of man just because
he was on his own ticket. In 1898 he made a short campaign of 2%
weeks in the Third Congressional District for the republican nomination
for Congress. At the convention at Excelsior Springs, August 22d, he
was defeated by J. E. Goodrich, a former classmate at the state university.
Mr. Goodrich won by one-half of a vote, but was defeated by the large
democratic majority in the November election.
Chairman of Republican Committee
Mr. Dillon was elected chairman of the Republican Committee of
"Worth County three successive terms and finally gave up the position
because of pressing official duties. At the three elections held while he
was chairman of the committee, more republicans were elected than at any
other three elections in the history of the county.
Postmaster at Grant City
On December 17, 1903, Mr. Dillon was commissioned postmaster at
Grant City to succeed J. F. Okey, resigned. This commission was signed
by President Roosevelt. On January 13, 1908, he was re-commissioned
by President Roosevelt. On March 18, 1912, he was commissioned for a
third term by President Taft. The office is a middle third class office and
its receipts have increased by about two thousand dollars a year since Mr.
Dillon took possession of the office. He also moved the office into his
building on the west side of the scpiare, where he fitted up modern equip-
ment. This was in 1901. Again in the beginning of 1915 he re-furnished
the office with new equipment in the main, making it one of the best
equipped offices of its size in the state. It has been referred to as a model
postoffiee by inspectors. Mr. Dillon's first two appointments were made
without opposition. His third appointment was made after a long polit-
ical fight, which was carried up to the President, personally, and to the
United States Senate. His excellent record as postmaster saved the
position for him. His work was specially investigated by inspectors and
by Frank Hitchcock, postmaster general; Charles Nagel, secretary of
2096 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
the Department of Commerce and Labor, and by Senator Bradley, of
Kentucky, and Senator Bourne, of Oregon. All these gentlemen passed
the record as good. His last term will soon expire and he will be suc-
ceeded by a democrat.
Married to Miss Frances Mullins
On June 16, 1909, J. W. S. Dillon was married to Miss Frances
Mullins, daughter of Major and Mrs. A. W. Mullins, of Liuneus, Mis-
souri. Major Mullins and wife were formerly Kentuckians and Major
Mullins served with distinction in the Givil war. He has been one of the
leading lawyers of the state and is also a banker. Mrs. Dillon is a