JOHN DILL
John Dill settled where he now resides, on the south half of the northeast quarter of section 1, in March, 1873. He purchased his land of J.S. Gifford, who purchased it of James R. Silvers, who had bought the land of Charles Marsh, by whom it was entered. Mr. Silvers made the first improvements upon the place, consisting of the building of a log house and the breaking of twenty acres. Mr. Gifford built the present house, a one story frame structure. About seventy acres of the land is now under cultivation, the balance, ten acres, is covered with young timber, including elm, burr oak, white oak and hickory. Mr. Dill was born in Dearborn county, Indiana, in 1833. His father, Benjamin Dill, died when John was four years old. His mother re-married and removed to Rock Island county, Illinois, where he was reared. He was married to Sarah E. Stewart, also a native of Dearborn county, Indiana. She removed to Rock Island county, with her parents, in 1854. Mr. Dill moved to Missouri in the fall of 1859, but returned to Rock Island county, in 1860. He remained there until he came to Cass county, in 1869. He has been a permanent resident of Benton township since the fall of 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Dill are the parents of eight children -- Mary Jane, Melvina, William E., Sylva A., Rachel, Elizabeth, Rosa and John. They have lost three children, two sons and one daughter. Mr. Dill has on his place an orchard of two hundred bearing apple trees, in a flourishing condition, Miss Sylva Dill is at present (1884) teaching school in district No. 7, of Exira township, in Audubon county. Miss Elizabeth Dill is also a teacher, having taught her first term, in Union township, Cass county, in 1884.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 642.
