LLOYD T. DILLON
Lloyd T. Dillon, as a jeweler of Northwood, is conducting the most attractive and complete establishment of the kind in this section of Iowa. He was born in Vancouver, Washington, October 9, 1878, and is a son of George W. and Olive (Rooker) Dillon. The father was born in Moscow, Iowa, and the mother's birth occurred in Mitchellville, this state. In his boyhood days George W. Dillon accompanied his parents to Mitchellville, Iowa, where he was educated. His father purchased a farm there, which he improved and cultivated, and George W. Dillon remained upon the farm until he reached young manhood. He was married in Mitchellville and afterward removed to Portland, Oregon, where he followed the shipbuilding business. Subsequently he became a resident of Vancouver, Washington, and was employed along the same line there. Later, however, he returned to Iowa and took up his abode in Des Moines, where he attended the Drake University and was graduated on the completion of a course in pharmacy. He then established a drug store at Republic, Kansas, and later conducted a store at Kansas City, where he remained in business until 1895. In that year he came to Northwood and took charge of the jewelry department of G. M. Emery. After serving in that capacity for a number of years he purchased the drug and jewelry business of C. W. Saunders at Manly, Iowa, and carried on his store there until the fall of 1908, when in connection with his son Lloyd he purchased the drug business of G. M. Emery, of Northwood, and the jewelry store of E. L. Overjorde. George W. Dillon then remained in active connection with the business until his death, which occurred in 1913. For five years he had survived his wife, who passed away in 1908. Politically he was a democrat and fraternally was a Knight Templar Mason. He ranked very high as a business man and citizen in Northwood and was held in the warmest regard by all with whom he was associated, his genuine worth commending him to the confidence and goodwill of all.
Lloyd T. Dillon spent his youthful days in the various cities in which the family resided and his education was acquired in public schools in these different localities. While the family were residing at Manly he left home to become a student in Oberlin College of Ohio and there he took up the study of instrumental music: Later he attended the Bradley Polytechnic Institute at Peoria, Illinois, and was graduated from the horological and optical department in 1904. Removing to Litchfield, Minnesota, he there engaged in the jewelry business until 1908, when he came to Northwood and became identified with the commercial interests now under his control, being associated with his father in the undertaking until 1911, when he purchased the jewelry business of his father, while E. W. Speeding purchased the drug business. In 1914 the firm of L. T. Dillon & Company purchased the drug store from Mr. Speeding, but in 1918 disposed of the drug business to E. N. Klove, retaining the jewelry business. He has a most attractive establishment in which is carried a large and carefully selected line of jewelry. Mr. Dillon displays progressive business methods and has won a place among the prominent and representative merchants of this section of the state.
In 1906 was celebrated the marriage of Lloyd T. Dillon and Miss May Hall, a daughter of Frank C. and Harriette (Marcy) Hall and a native of Northwood. Her father is from Whitewater, Wisconsin, while her mother is from Darlington, that state, and both removed with their respective parents to Northwood, where they were married. They were among the early settlers here and Mr. Hall engaged in the hardware business for several years. On October 9, 1902, he located at Fargo, North Dakota, where he has since engaged in the wholesale hardware trade.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Dillon are members of the Baptist church, and fraternally he is identified with the Masons. His political support is given to the democratic party and he manifests an active interest in many events that have to do with public progress and welfare, but he does not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his 'growing business interests, and as one of the leading merchants of his city is contributing in marked measure to its material and commercial growth.
SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; Page 522
Transcribed by Gordon Felland, August 13, 2006