Dillon Children

December 7, 2019 Laura

William Gumbert Dillon b. 1860

William was the first child of Arthur and Jane, and he was adopted (although it may not have been official). Gumbert may have been the last name of the family he was taken from, at a time of a family tragedy when the children were being given away.

Arthur was comin’ home from some place and these people were givin’ away these children. Their parents...father, mother had died. There was a whole passel of ‘em. And this little, they had one little baby and he had, his whole head was great big sores all over it. Bad. And nobody would take him, and this lady, some lady said, “Well Mr. Dillon, why don’t you take that little baby.” Said, “Y’all don’t have any children, y’all can work with him, maybe save it.” And they talked him into it. And it was so cold and he was comin’ by horse. And he got out here close to Berg’s Mill, they lived in San Antonio then. And he, it got so cold he took his Army coat off and wrapped it around the baby. And he was about to freeze, so he told [a] woman he’d give her fifty cents if they could stay all night. Fifty cents was a whole lot then. So she took the baby in, and fixed it some milk and things and they stayed all night there. And he didn’t have the fifty cents. So next morning she wanted...they couldn’t talk English too much, the old German lady couldn’t, and so she...he told her he’d get on the horse and then she hand him the baby, then he’d give her the fifty cents. And so when he got on the horse and she handed him the baby, well he just drove off real fast and said she run down the road a cussin’ him. I guess later...oh they become real good friends later on because they moved back to Berg’s Mill and lived there and the whole family was always good friends. But she didn’t like him for doin’ that. She always fussed about it. Well, anyway, they took him home, and they had this old (n—)-woman that’d been a slave through the Civil War. Well, the Civil War hadn’t been fought then I don’t think, cause that was in 1860, that was before the Civil War. Well, she...in the records it shows she was a slave. I guess they’d bought her. She was a house slave. And so the old (n—) woman said, “Oh, if we had some possum oil.” And they said Gramma laughed and she said, “Where would we get a possum in this time of year in the city?” And they had a few chickens in the backyard, and that night the chickens got to hollerin’ and carryin’ on and they went out there and there was an old possum in there. And they killed him, and they rendered...the old (n—) woman rendered the lard and rubbed it in his head, and it cured him. All that sore just disappeared real quick. That was William Gumbert Dillon.

Transcript of audiotape given to Laura by Lucina, daughter of Julia Jane Dillon (1996)

As a teenager, William was swimming and some boys teased him about being adopted. He went home and asked Arthur about it, and Arthur told him where his brothers and sisters were, and William went to live with them for 3 months. He came back and said "They weren't my family. They're too different from what I'm brought up to. I love you and want to live with my brothers and sisters here." And he never went back to his old family.

According to legend, he married and had a baby who had died young. He was killed when trains first came through San Antonio - at an intersection the train blew its horn and spooked the horse, which reared back and threw him and he died from his injuries.

Arthur Albert Dillon 1865-1877

And then Arthur Albert Dillon., August the 20th, 1865. Well, he was their first child. And he’s supposed to have been real smart, extry smart. And by the time he was ten years old he was interpreter in the court, City Hall in...courthouse in San Antonio, ‘cause they lived right down there. And he was very gifted with language, especially the Spanish language, which they needed at that time in the courts. And so he interpreted for the court. And, uh, he was studying to be a lawyer at the same time, but when he was twelve years old he took a high fever; they called it “brain fever.” They said he worked too hard at studying and...he died from it. Whether it was from studying that hard or not I don’t know. What they called “brain fever” in that day and time.”

Transcribed from audiotape of Julia Jane Dillon Smith

Mary Ellen Eliza Dillon Styers 1867-1902

She was called "Molly," and was an excellent seamstress. She also worked in the woolen mill at Berg's Mill, and was said to have such sensitive hands that she was the best at sorting wool to make the finest cloth. She could also paint, and had the "second sight" like her father Arthur, and could heal with her hands. She could also interpret dreams and foretold her own death. According to family lore, she was eating dinner and told her family she "would die within the week" and had seen the hearse and funeral. Although they laughed at her, "it happened just as she said." Her son Arthur died on August 4, 1902. Molly died on August 31, 1902 at the age of 35.

"And then Mary Ellen Eliza Dillon. That's the one we called "Aunt Molly." She was born April the 16th, 1867. And she was a very gifted person. She could cure all the people's ill, and very gifted with prayer and she was very gifted with needlework, seamstress. And she worked at the woolen mills in Berg's Mill in her later years. And they said there was nobody had as good eyes or could sort wool as good as she did. She could pick just hte touch of the different wools, she could sort em out and put em together to make the most, best clothes and thing, that they could get the highest price for the wool. She had such sensitive hands. And she painted. She did all kinds...there wasn't anything that she didn't do. And she was born April 16th, 1867. I guess I said that already. But she didn't live too long. She was just a young woman when she married, and passed away. I guess I'll say more on that later on cause I don't have it right here now. She married a man by the name of Stowers [Styers]. And he was a real nice fellow. But she was gifted with dreams. She even interpreted her death. See, they was all eatin' dinner one day, Sunday, and she told them that she was going to die before the week was over. That she had seen her funeral and everything, and she told about the hearse and everything. And they just laughed at her, they told her, "Don't talk like that. It's silly." But everything happened."

Story related by Julia Jane Dillon Smith

Our grandmother, Mary Ellen Christopher, was named after her “Aunt Molly.”

Charles Edward Dillon 1869-1946

Charles and his younger brother, Lawrence, they...was a rabbit run in a log in the yard, out in the woods somewhere where they were walkin’ and Lawrence wanted the rabbit. So my daddy reached in the log to get the rabbit and there was a rattlesnake in there, and bit him. And they took the finger off first. My daddy pleaded for his hand. And first they froze it and that caused the blood poison to set in. And then they took the finger off. And then they took the hand off. And then they cut two more times, cut his arm. The last...they had six doctors with him. And one doctor held out...they was gonna take it off at the shoulder and one doctor held out for one more just below the shoulder; said if they took it off at the shoulder and the blood poison went on they couldn’t save him, but if they took it off just below the shoulder they might save him. So they took it off just about four inches below the shoulder, and they got the blood poison all then. But he was sick for ten or twelve days he was just unconscious. And he woke up wantin’ a chicken soup. And so they mother and all of them was so happy, they had sit by his side all that time. And they killed the old chicken and made his soup. And then his arm was buried there by the, on the place there in Berg’s Mill there where they lived. And he...in later years there, the railroad came along and they had to dig it up and move it. They...all the kids looked at the remains of it, but my daddy wouldn’t look at it. But nobody said much about it, or they never did tell him what was in the box.”

Julia Jane Dillon Smith telling story about her father

He married Lucina Clare Tanneberger in 1905, had one daugher Julia Jane Dillon in 1914, and died at the age of 77, of old age.

Anne Marie Dillon Christopher 1871-1944

Aunt Annie was just kinda like me, she wasn’t gifted like Aunt Molly was, or the rest of em. She was just plain Aunt Annie, Annie Mariah. Daddy always said she fell in the fire. And she...she was a very wonderful horsewoman, but at sixteen years old she was thrown off a horse and busted a kidney. And she lay ill for two years. They didn’t operate in that day and time. And they’d carry here...they’d haul her back and forth to San Antonio to the doctors and had to put a mattress in a wagon and haul her on it, and she got to where she wouldn’t let nobody but my daddy [Charles] drive the team of horses to town because he’d hurt her less than anybody. He’d go around the bumps and things. And then she...they say she was a beautiful woman, but then she just got down to skin and bones and she never did gain weight in all her life, she was very skinny and everything.

Julia Jane Dillon Smith

Annie Dillon married Charles Frederick Christopher in 1905. She was 34 and he was 37. They had two children: Charles Lawrence Christopher and Mary Ellen Christopher (named for her aunt Mary Ellen Eliza Dillon).

Annie died in 1944 at the age of 63.

Thomas Romero Dillon 1877-1963

Thomas Romero Dillon (date unknown)

Thomas R Dillon married Cora Applewhite in 1905, and they had 12 children. He died in 1963 at the age of 86, of old age.

Lawrence George Dillon 1879-1947

Lawrence George Dillon married Emma Mergenthaler in 1905. He died in 1947 at the age of 68.

Lawrence George Dillon (date unknown)