Jane Neill Dillon 1838-1923
Jane Neill was born May 30,1838 in Coshocton, Ohio, to William Neill and Mary Lawrence. Jane being third oldest among her 9 siblings: 5 boys and 5 girls (one boy, Emmens, died at age 1 month). The family at first lived in Coshocton, Ohio, the hometown of Mary Lawrence. In fact, the Lawrences had been in Coshocton since Jane’s maternal grandfather, John Lawrence, moved there circa 1820.
William, Mary, John Andrew, Jane, Margery, and Rachel moved to Texas at the end of the 1840s.
Jane married Arthur Dillon. Jane and Arthur moved and settled in San Antonio. According to Julia Jane Dillon Smith, they first settled in downtown San Antonio, and after not having any kids for the first few years, Arthur brought home an orphaned baby, and they named him William Gumbert Dillon. (Gumbert being the last name of the family he had been taken from, after a tragedy.) Could this be the family of William Gumbert?
Jane Neill Dillon (date unknown)
JANE NEILL AND ARTHUR DILLON WERE MARRIED ON JANUARY 5, 1858 IN SEGUIN, TEXAS. JANE WAS 18 AND ARTHUR WAS 24 YEARS OLD.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY NEWS, SAN ANTONIO, JAN 2, 1862
Jane and Arthur went on to have 8 children: Arthur Albert, Mary Ellen Eliza, Charles Edward, Anne Marie, John William Henry, Joseph, Thomas Romero, and Lawrence George Dillon.
Jane ran a boarding house in downtown San Antonio. One family legend says that although the Cholera Epidemic of 1866 claimed 293 lives, Jane ran her boarding house so well, and kept it so clean, that none of her tenants died.
ANNE MARIE DILLON CHRISTOPHER, MARY ELLEN CHRISTOPHER, CHARLES LAWRENCE CHRISTOPHER, MARK DILLON, JANE NEILL DILLON. CIRCA 1915
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2, 1923
Jane died at the age of 85 of acute bronchitis.