field when called to his final rest. Following his demise his widow was elected his successor and has since filled the position. Mr. Johnson has a family of which he has every reason to be proud, and in their well spent lives they indicate the careful home training which they received.
Mr. Johnson holds membership in the Christian church, and his has been an active, useful and well spent life, entitling him to the honor and high regard which are uniformly accorded him by all who know him. Starting out in life for himself empty-handed when a youth in his teens, he has since made his own way in the world, and the success which has come to him is the merited reward of his earnest labor and honorable dealing.
JAMES DILLIN.
Among the names of men prominent in Story county in years past that of James Dillin, who departed this life March 27, 1901, at the age of sixty-one years, occupies a leading place. A resident of the county for more than thirty years, he became one of its best known citizens and as a farmer and business man attained a position of influence and responsibility that has been gained by few in this part of the state.
He was born in Jefferson, New York, and having lost his father at five years of age, he was taken to the home of a sister in Montana, where he lived until he reached maturity. There he became acquainted with ranch life and gained a love for nature and for agricultural pursuits which was one of his prominent characteristics during his later career. He was educated in the schools of Montana and received a good mental training which he further developed by reading and observation. He found time to learn the carpenter's trade, to which he devoted several years, but the outbreak of the Civil war interfered with his plans and he enlisted in Company M, First Regiment of Colorado Cavalry, in which he served as corporal for three years, being honorably discharged and mustered out at Denver, Colorado, October 31, 1864. After the close of the war he came to Geneseo, Illinois, upon a visit to his mother, who was living at that place, and opened a store at Green River, Illinois, which he conducted for about a year.
While on a visit to a sister at Letts, Louisa county, Iowa, he met the lady who became his wife and after his marriage he sold out his business in Illinois and spent the following winter at Muscatine, Iowa. Having decided to devote his attention to farming, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Richland township, Story county, in 1868. Taking up his residence upon his newly acquired place, he set vigorously to work with such ability that he became the owner of one thousand acres in Story county. After moving to Nevada about 1886, he largely increased his