My father, Uncle Bob, Frank and Augusta's first child, wrote this on the back of the picture of Timothy Dillon. It is long but interesting.
"All that remains of Tim Dillon's memory, that I possess, is a couple of documents and a portrait photo of him as he approached his 95th birthday (he didn't quite make it)* and snatches of family lore. Traditionally, he was christened on New Year's Day in 1812, so he must have been born in 1811, say December. When he left Ireland, he wept to leave his old donkey.
His father was a horse trainer who, having had troubles in one of the other counties in Ireland, re-settled in Kings County-Parsontown, to be exact- and married there. Tim arrived in New Rochelle in 1846. He lived there the rest of his life. His mother came over the water to America too, for she lies in an old cemetery on St. Joseph Street in New Rochelle. She warned Maria Murray, when she contemplated marriage with Tim, "Remember, Maria, Tim is not a young man!" They married in 1854.
The man did experience harshness from the Native American Party folks against the Catholic Irish immigrants to the extent that he was refused admittance to certain saloons in New Rochelle in the time before the Civil War. His younger brother wrote to him from Ireland, asking whether the lad should immigrate to America or Australia. Tim wrote in reply, "Go to Australia!" This may well have been during the time of the 'Know Nothings'.
He was an unskilled laborer, without profession or trade. I know he worked some on the railroad, for, one day, while at work, a comrade put a question to him in reference to his son Bill. Bill had travelled off to Chicago in 1879, and had been working for one of the big meat packers- Swift or Armour. The question put to him was, "How is your son making out? Have you heard from him?" Tim proceeded to give him the latest news of Bill, ending with "I guess he's all right." "Indeed, he must be all right," replied his friend," for isn't this himself walking up the tracks, now?" Bill returned, having tired of his work in Chicago. His job was turning on the kerosene lights in the packing house, filling the reservoirs, trimming the wicks, and polishing the glass chimneys. Bill was his (Timothy’s) elder son, born in 1859, and, apart from his immediate family, Dad loved Bill best among his relations. He was closer to his Uncle Bill than to his father, I think.
Mrs. Tim Dillon, Maria (pronounced MAR-EYE-UH) was a direct descendent of the renowned revivalist and impetuous Anglican priest, the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield (1714-1770), who, with the Wesleys, founded the Methodist Church in England. George Whitefield was in America on a visit in 1739 when he conducted a revival in Williamsburg, Virginia, in December of that year. It produced great excitement in the colony."
*This fact seems to be disputed by Timothy Dillon’s obituary.
written by Robert William Dillon, January 24th, 1984
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