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Another three months has passed and it's time to once again put together another segment of the march of time of our ancestors. I hope all of you have enjoyed this as much as I have.
Just today, I received a reply to a query I put out on the internet regarding James Roy Williamson. James married Mary Luella Dillon, daughter of Christopher. I posted the query last March. Now a year later I received a reply from Angela Williamson, the daughter of James Frank Williamson, the son of Floyd Williamson and Nadine Estelle David, the son of James Roy Williamson and Mary Luella Dillon. I have replied to her and hope to hear more. I will include new information as I'm writing this installment. I'm hoping to get some info from the family bible, if she has access to it, and more photographs. Now, did anyone figure out what UEL stands for?? UEL stands for United Empire Loyalists. And what were United Empire Loyalists? The United Empire Loyalists came to Canada from the United States when the thirteen colonies revolted against England and set up an independent country in 1776. As the name suggests, the Loyalists were loyal to Britain and did not share the American's independent aspirations. Some fled north during the War of Independence, some came after, fleeing persecution by the victorious revolutionaries. These were also known as Tories. Jonas Wood is one of our direct ancestors. He fits into the line thus:
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The following is taken from the book "Jonas Wood UEL" written by Elizabeth Hoople and the Wood Research Team:
"In the year 1759 or thereabouts, Jonas Wood and Sarah Osborne were married at New Hempstead,. New York. This date is uncertain, but it seems a likely one since their eldest son, Jonas Junior said years later in a letter, that he was born in Kakiat (Indian name for New Hempstead) in 1760. The village of Kakiat was situated in a fertile plain known as the Great Kakiat Patent. This stretched from the Palisades on the east to the Ramapo Mountains on the west. and southward to the New Jersey border." "Jonas was a grandson of Joseph Wood who had come to Kakiat in 1720 from Hempstead on Long Island. Sarah was probably the granddaughter of William Osborne, another of the original landowners in the Kakiat Patent. This last is not yet proven. The Kakiat plain was soon filled with numerous descendants of the first settlers so that young couples wanting land of their own were forced to search elsewhere for it. Jonas and Sarah with their children and accompanied by his parents (Jonas Wood the elder and his wife Nelle Errels Wood) with one brother whose name we do not know, joined a group which moved westward across the Ramapo Mountains to the village of Warwick in the precinct of Orange County. The official records of Warwick were destroyed, so we know nothing about the Wood family during their stay at that place." "Eventually Jonas found the property he wanted in a newly opened section of New York known as the Great Hardenburgh Patent, about forty miles northwest of Warwick. This he was able to procure at a nominal rent of five pounds a year, so in 1775 he and Sarah with their seven children left his parents and his brother in Warwick and moved to their new home." "Their property was a fifty acre holding on the south bank of the East Branch of the Delaware River, about half way between the present villages of Margaretville and Downsville. The site is not visible today because the river at that point has since been dammed to form the Pepacton Reservoir. It must have been very beautiful there with the sparkling blue river flowing past in front and the dark hemlock-clad Catskill Mountains rising behind to heights of three or four thou-sand feet. Jonas and Sarah were not alone there either, as twenty-six other families settled near them, forming the community known as Pepacton." "At that time their eldest son, Jonas Junior was fifteen and his brothers not much younger. All of them must have |
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worked hard helping their father to raise his log house, a barn and stable, to clear thirty acres for crops of wheat, rye, oats, and Indian corn and to care for their numerous animals, as well as cattle. Jonas had nine horses, thirty sheep and ten hogs. Sarah too, must have slaved filling every spare second with spinning and carding wool and weaving it into material for clothes and blankets on her homemade loom."
"Jonas was so satisfied with this progress that he arranged to procure a hun-dred more acres. No doubt he and Sarah looked out with pride upon the farm which they hoped would become their permanent home. Little dreaming of the disaster that lay ahead of them." "The American Revolutionary War, also known as The American War of In-dependence began in 1776. At first Jonas Wood paid little attention to it. But then since [he] was a King's man (or Tory) and to show his loyalty to George III he sacrific-ed his cattle, driving them through the forest to Colonel John Butler to help feed the British troops. He himself stayed home and kept on farming. "Now it happened that the trail used by Joseph Brant and his Indians, which led from his encampment at Oquaga (near present day Deposit) to the Rebel (or Patriot) settlements along the Hudson, lay right through Pepacton. At intervals Brant with a hundred or so Indians and a smaller group of Tory Volunteers came down this trail on their way to burn and plunder the Patriot settlements." "Before long Jonas Junior, caught up in the excitement of the times, joined Brant's Volunteers and went down the trail with him while his brother Benjamin traveled westward to enlist in Colonel Butler's Rangers at Fort Niagara. (Possibly this was how Jonas managed to "drive his cattle to Col. Butler")." "In 1777 the Patriot settlers from the harassed villages on the Hudson exploded in vengeful fury, came back up the trail and laid Pepacton in ruins. Only a few who were known to be Patriots were spared. Jonas Wood's buildings were burned, his livestock and crops stolen. Only by a miracle did he and his family escape unharmed into the forest. The next time Brant went down the trail, Jonas Wood went with him." "In the Revolutionary War, both sides encouraged marauding parties, known as "raids" or "scouts". They were officially approved and instructed to bring home as much provender as they could carry and to destroy the rest in order to pre-vent the enemy from using it to feed his troops. In New York State, the Tory raiding parties were often carried out in conjunction with the Indians, and so a Tory came to be considered a devil in human shape in the eyes of the Patriots. If a Tory killed an enemy during one of these raids he was labeled by the Patriots as a murderer, tried for murder and, if convicted, hung for murder. If on the other hand a Patriot killed a Tory in similar circumstances nothing was said about it. This one-sided |
idea of justice is hard to understand. In describing it, a contem-porary newspaper made this remark:
"The raid on which Jonas Wood went, took place in July 1778. It moved rapidly inland and southward to a spot near the New Jersey border where the Neversink River empties into the Delaware. There on July 13 a Patriot named Philip Swartout and two of his sons were killed. The Swartouts knew that the enemy was nearby and they were armed. Later when Jonas was captured and accused of killing one of them he denied it. He was thrown into prison nearby in Sussex, N.J. Then he was moved to another prison at Goschen and finally to the one at Esopus on the Hudson. Altogether he spent two and a half years in prison. He was indicted for the murder of Philip Swartout Jr. This is reported in the Ulster County Records for 1779-1785 as follows:
"The day before he was to be hung, Jonas, by some super-human effort managed to escape from prison and (so one record says) with others set off across 300 miles of unbroken forest to safety in the British stronghold of Niagara. In his own words he was "Four weeks in distress in the bush". From Fort Niagara he was sent by boat down Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence to Mon-treal were he arrived in 1780." "Meantime, Sarah with the rest of her family took shelter with a friendly neighbour named Nathaniel Parks. Soon two more of the Wood boys, William and John, went off to fight, enlisting in Sir John Johnson's Corp, the King's Royal Regiment of New York (sometimes called the Royal Yorkers). She then had with her, only the four youngest, Roger aged thirteen, Nathaniel nine, Sarah about six and Stephen still a baby." |
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"Conditions in the Pepacton region became steadily worse until for fear of their lives many Tories had been obliged to flee to Canada. Among these were the Barnhart, de Witt, Bush, Cairnes and Middagh families. Nathaniel Parks decided to follow their example. He took with him his own family and that of Sarah Wood. They evidently worked their way up the East branch of the Delware, over the height of land there, down the other side of it to the headwaters of the Schoharie and down that stream to the Mohawk. How did they get boats we wonder. Did they perhaps take their own canoes with them portaging them over the hills? From the mouth of the Schoharie they turned up the Mohawk and followed it to its source near Fort Stanwix (New Rome) crossed the height of land westward to Lake Oneida and then worked their way with great difficulty, down the Oswego River to the British fort at its mouth. There they procured bateaux and descended Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence to Montreal."
"What difficulties and dangers they must have met on that trip of nearly 440 miles. How did they get food on the way? How did they slide past enemy strongholds unharmed? We will never know. Schools were almost nonexistent or the frontier in those early days and our ancestors could not write. However by an extraordinary piece of luck we do have a first hand account of their itinerary told by Roger, who was on the expedition, to his son John R. Wood of Osnabruck and repeated by him in 1879 to the editor of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Atlas who then printed it in that book." "Arrived in Montreal, Nathaniel Parks handed his proteges over to the authorities there and went off to join his regiment. There were at that time well over 3000 loyalist refugees in Montreal and those in charge must have been a their wits end to know how to care for them. They crowded them into military Barracks on Isle Jesus and at Terrebonne and fed them on meagre military rations. There is a brief report on the Wood family at this time which reads: Sheet 94
"In 1780 Jonas too arrived in Montreal and then with the exception of the foul oldest boys, away serving with their military units, the Wood family was reunited safe on British soil and unharmed!" "After this, three and a half years went by while the British Government signed treaties with the Indians to acquire land for the Loyalists, sent surveyors out ahead to divide this |
land into townships and lots ant then made arrangements to convey all the refugees and their soldier sons and husbands, who were by (her disbanded, up the St. Lawrence River in bateaux."
"In June 1784 that great expedition set forth. Poling the boats upriver against the current was heavy work, especially through the Lachine, the Cascades and the Cedars Rapids. At the rapids everyone had to disembark and straggle alongside on shore in order to lighten the load. At night they all camped out between the forest and the river." "The Wood House"
Sorry, no picture
Built 1840 by William Wood, third son of Jonas Wood Senior.
It now houses the United Counties Museum
"Eventually they arrived at the prearranged meeting place at the head of Lake St. Francis. A spot there had been chosen for the future town of New Johnstown (later Cornwall) and there the lot-drawing ceremony was to take place. Each private was to receive two hundred acres, freehold, divided into two sections of one hundred acres each. One hundred acres was to be situated on the water-front (to be near transportation) and the other was to be somewhere inland in the, as yet, unbroken forest. The officers were to receive much larger grants accor-ding to their rank" "When the ceremony was over Jonas found he had drawn a lot in Charlottenburg Township on the concession south of the South Branch of the River Raisin. This he found was nowhere near the St Lawrence waterfront so he simply moved hgis family to another place which he liked better. This was lot 12 in the Second Concession of Cornwall, a short distance from the St Lawrence." [Sarah Osborne Wood died 25 Aug 1815] "aged, so the church records reads, about eighty. Jonas himself was failing too. He began to take stock and to wind up his affairs. First he sold his homestead farm to his son Stephen at what he called "a reduced price" and then he |
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made his will. This will in comparison with others which we have seen of the same period seems to be remarkably clear and fair-minded. It also brings out the great pride he took in his seven sons. He left them each a hundred acre farm or the equivalent, carefully referring to each of them by number as well as by name -- to Jonas Wood, my eldest son - to William Wood. my third son -- to Nathaniel Wood, my sixth son. To John, Roger and Stephen he left only ten shillings each, having, as he said, "already given them their share". Since Benjamin was dead, he left his share to one of that man's sons and to Sarah, he gave a fifty acre farm. This last was more generous than at first appears because in those days many men did not bother to leave anything to their daughters."
On August 17, 1817 Jonas Wood died aged eighty years. His funeral service was conducted by the Reverend S.J. Mountain of the Church of England and was attended by two of his sons, Jonas Junior and William."
"We presume that Jonas and Sarah were both buried in the cemetery plot surrounding the Church of England because all Protestants who died in Cornwall were buried there up to the year 1831." Scanned from the book "Jonas Wood UEL" written by Elizabeth Hoople and the Wood Research Team.
Jesse W Dillon
Apr 1890- 16 Sep 1818
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Jesse W. Dillon, serial number 5081, was a private with the Medical Detachment of the 102nd Machine Gun Battalion. He wore a Medical Insignia on his collar so I believe he was a "Medic". The 102nd was part of the 26th Division National Guard American Expeditionary Force.
On June 24th of 1918, the United States First Army Headquarters became operational commanded by General John J Pershing. Plans were undertaken to make an attack along the front lines in St Mihiel area. V Corps, consisting of the 26th, 4th, and 15th French Colonial Divisions would assault from the west. IV Corps consisting of the 1st, 42nd, and 89th Divisions and I Corps, consisting of the 2nd, 5th, 90th, and 82nd Divisions would assault from the south. The II French Colonial Corps would make a secondary assault from the south at the center of the line. There would be nearly 1500 planes involved with this assault, the greatest concentration of air power up to that time. The attack started on the 12th of September. There was heavy driving wind and rain during parts of the day and very muddy roads and trenches. Most objectives were met the first day and almost all objectives on the second day. The battle ran until the 16th. This battle was followed two weeks later by the Meuse-Argonne Battle which turned the course of the war. This battle initiated on the 26th of September 1918. Family records indicate Jesse died on the 16th of September, however military records indicate death and burial on the same day, September 26th. I would surmise he took part in the St Mihiel Operation for a number of reasons:
1. The 102nd Machine Gun Battalion is assigned to the 26th Division.
As a point of interest, Douglas McArthur commanded the 42nd Division and George S Patton commanded the 327th Tank Battalion assigned to IV Corps. Family information states Jesse was wounded in the leg. While being brought to safety by two other soldiers, these two were shot as well. Jesse then bled to death. Jesse did in fact suffer a broken right leg above the knee. Standard |
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operating procedures at casualty clearing first aid stations was to first identify the wounded with a tag identifying the individual, the type of wound and the Medical Officer assigned. From there the wounded were brought to a dressing station and then transported to a field hospital. At the field hospital, soldiers were cleaned up and wounds addressed from there. Jesse was buried in his uniform so he never made it that far.
Jesse was buried on the 26th of September in a French Military Cemetery located in Troyon, Meuse, France. Troyon is located on the east bank of the Meuse River between St Mihiel and Verdun. Verdun is 10 miles to the north. He was buried in grave # 303 with an identification tag and an additional tag on the bottom of his marker. Jesse was later moved to the St Mihiel American Cemetery on May 12, 1919 in Thiaucourt, Meuse, France. Again he was buried in uniform, identified, and placed in Grave 104 Sec 4 Plot 2. No effects were found with Jesse. On February 17, 1921, Frances Ellen wrote a letter to the War Department requesting Jesse's remains be returned to the United States. See Certificate & Clippings page for copy |
I am asking for information in regards of having my son body Private Jess W Dillon of the 102 Machine Gun Batillon brought back to the USA. He was killed in France Sept 26 - 1918.
Will the government have the soldiers bodys that was killed in France brought back and will there be a cemetary set apart to bury them in if not what will be the cost of having his body sent back and can I have it done. Please give me the desired information. Am oblig, Mrs Ellen Dillon Petersberg Tex." The War Department responded March 4, 1920 requesting additional information and notified Ellen they had assigned to Graves Registration and they would deliver Jesse to any where she specified and would pay for costs. A return letter was sent March 23, 1920. See Certificate & Clippings page for copy
"Petersberg Tex
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don't know jhust whare to hav him put unless in a military simitary unless we wait til this fall and maby we can make different araingments then if that would be covient.
From mrs Ellen Dillon
Petersberg Texas
This is in anser to your letter of Mar 4 "
This letter has different writing and spelling from the first. Ellen is 70 years old at this point and may have someone else writing for her. The War Department responded to this letter stating they would comply with Ellen's wishes and to let them know should they move. Papers are sent for information to be filled out by Christopher and returned. A few Telegrams are sent to Petersberg and Qunnah Texas for information on where to send the remains. Chris Dillon responds by Telegram: "Bury body nearest National Cemetery". Jesse is disinterred from the St Mihiel American Cemetery in France on April 18, 1921. Identification is confirmed and the remains are shipped to Antwerp, Belgium arriving May 5th. Jesse is put aboard the ship USAT "Cambra" and shipped to Hoboken New Jersey on May 23, 1921. Jesse arrives in New Jersey on June 6, 1921 and remains there until July 5, 1921 when he is shipped to Arlington Cemetery. Jesse W Dillon was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D C with full military honors on July 7, 1921 at 2:30 PM in Grave Number 2251.
Harmon Allen (Buster) Dillon
23 Dec 1917 - 7 Jun 1996 
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Mary Hubert wrote the following about her dad:
Harmon Allen (Buster) Dillon was born on December 23, 1917 in Rolla, North Dakota, Rolette County to Harmon Abbot (Bud) Dillon and Dorothea Margaret Wood Dillon, he joined his one year old sister Agnes Dorothea. One year later his brother Jesse was born. Buster's early years were spent on the family farm where he developed a strong work ethic. When Buster was six, his sister Margaret Luelia came into the family. Work on the farm took priority over most other aspects of Buster's life and he was unable to attend school on a regular basis. In Buster's ninth year another brother, Robert, came to the farm. In Buster's fourteenth year competition for his time became so intense he was forced to quit school and devote all of his energy to work. Later that year sister Mary Elizabeth was born. Mary still owns and operates the family farm outside St. John. Winters in North Dakota are long and cold making for good trapping, good trapping meant good money to Buster. Buster ran a trap line nearly every winter he lived in North Dakota. The fall of 1936 brought a major change in Buster's life, on September 25th Buster's father was killed in a motor vehicle accident, leaving Buster to take the lead in providing for the family. No matter how much work there is to do, you can't hide young women from young men forever and a red-haired girl caught his eye. Irene Dorothy Gendron, the daughter of a trader and migrant railroad construction hand, flashed before him at a dance. He said that gorgeous hair reminded him of a beautiful sorrel horse shining in the sun. Buster said of his father-in-law, he could start out in the morning with a shoe lace and end up at sun down with a horse. Irene's family's next move would take them to the Spokane area. In the fall of 1939 they packed up lock, stock, barrel, and Buster and headed west. Buster was never idle and soon landed a job at the old Waikiki Dairy. Buster chased Irene until she caught him and they were married in Veradale, Washington on June 26, 1940. The couple's first son, Ron, was born at home on July 7,1941. Times were tough and money hard to come by, so Buster worked every chance he got. Working long hours at the dairy. Buster developed the hidden talent of sleeping while standing up. On May 3,1943 the couple's first daughter, Betty was born. Always on the lookout for a better job, Buster found work at the fledgling Kaiser Mead works and quit the dairy. |
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The farm outside St. John and all the work that went with it did not go away. With the urgings of his mother, Buster gave up his job at Kaiser and with Irene, Ron, and Betty moved back to North Dakota.
Along with work on the farm, Buster started to work for a road construction outfit to help keep the wolves from the door. He started out running a scraper and through hard work ended up blue topping, a job he took great pride in. Construction work was seasonal and Buster returned to trapping to help supplement the family income through the winter. He caught lots of musk rats but mink brought more money, so he went after them. Buster found mink were much faster; and his first winter at it, he claimed to have only caught a match box full of toe nails. Never one to give up, he asked other trappers in the area how they did it. Sharing trade secrets was not common with trappers and his requests fell on deaf ears. Undaunted, Buster, with a quart of whiskey in his hip pocket, stopped by for a friendly chat with a successful area trapper. Trapped by the spirits, the man let his secret of double-coil jump spring traps slip. The next winter Bustor caught lots of mink. During the winter of 1949. on January 29, the families youngest son, Robert, was born. Buster had a powerful love of animals, especially horses and dogs. Most of the work on the farm was done with teams; and Buster was a good judge of horse flesh. He traded, trained, and broke horses and knew all their tricks. Often he would reminisce about mowing hay, reclaiming swamps, pulling stumps, and driving teams through belly deep snow, his favorite team, Ranger and Grace or a favorite saddle horse Rowdy. He always had at least one dog. A dog he named Mush was a constant companion and would go with Buster working or hunting. Buster would say, that dog would eat an onion if I told him to. As a young man Buster perfected the flying mount, mounting a horse on the fly. Later in life he admitted landing on his face in the dirt many times before actually making it to the saddle. He passed on that love of animals to the couple's youngest daughter, Mary Ann, who was born on November 10. 1952. All of Buster's years in North Dakota were lean, so he learned early to take advantage of every opportunity to supplement the families table as well as the bank account. Hunting was an important part of him, and he continued to hunt through his entire life. Deer and bear were standard fair at the Dillon table. He spotted a deer jumping behind a hill, but it would disappear after each leap. Not to worry, Buster just timed the jumps and shot it on the way up. Taking pride in his aim, he said he knew his rifle so well he didn't have to aim it. After moving back to the Spokane area, he loved to hunt elk in the Blue Mountains with his |
sons. In recent years he enjoyed hunting antelope in Montana.
On November 10,1954 Buster, Irene, Ron, Betty, Bob, and Mary left North Dakota for Spokane. The family lived in town for a short time while looking for a place in the country. Buster found a piece of timbered land at the end of Miner Road on Mount Spokane, and the family made their permanent home there. Buster got work at Kaiser again and worked there until his retirement. During-the early years on Mount Spokane, Buster logged the property and paid it off in three years. Always working on improving the place he dug a basement, remodeled the interior, built garages and barns, constructed tree dams, developed garden space, fixed roads, fixed cars and machinery, all in his spare time. For a time the family raised chinchillas but there were always chickens, pigs, and other assorted stock on the place. The family extended their circle and over the years helped to raise 7 other children. There was always something happening. Buster decided to improve the yard one fine summer day and proceeded to try to remove a rock from the front yard using dynamite, placing a mattress over the rock he lit the fuse, when the dust had cleared the rock was still there but the mattress was in millions of pieces all over the yard. Buster had no sense of smell and took delight in eating Limburger cheese. Not too many people in the household shared that delight. Never being one to let an opportunity slip by Buster would put young men who showed up to visit his daughters to work. On one occasion the family milk cow escaped the confines of the fence and ended up at the neighbors, so he sent Mary and her friend to retrieve the cow. The cow ended up getting a horn pulled off. Buster, never one to get mad, spent the rest of the afternoon trying to cool down Irene who hadn't taken the news too well. Hard work, horses, and years of walking on cement floors had taken its toil on Buster. One day while working at Kaiser he slipped off a step and permanently injured his back, leading to his retirement from the Mead works. During a recovery period from an operation Buster taught his dog, Wally, to bring him his pants. After he recovered the dog would still bring the pants but didn't like it. All through the years after 1954 Buster would make regular trips back to North Dakota to help his mother and sister on the farm. As his children grew and left home, he assisted them in starting homes and businesses. |
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After retirement, Buster and Irene enjoyed fishing and camping. Junking, as he liked to call it, became a great source of enjoyment.
On July 4, 1985 Irene preceded him in death at Spokane, Washington after suffering a heart attack. In the spring of 1992, Buster's younger brother, Jesse, died of cancer. Concerned about his father's health Bob moved back home to be with Buster and keep an eye on him. Buster continued to fish, hunt, and junk. Traveling to eastern Montana to visit Grandchildren, he loved to watch the round ups and branding. He was proud of the accomplishments of his children and grandchildren and was always pleased to pass on good news about them Active until the end Buster died at home the afternoon of June 7 while doing one of his favorite things, junking. He is survived by: sons; Ron and wife Karen of Mount Spokane, Robert at the home, daughters Betty and husband Al Dethloff of Mount Spokane and Mary and husband Dave Hubert of Metaline Falls, Washington, brother Robert and wife Eve of the Spokane area, sisters: Agnes and husband George Funk of Spokane, Margaret and husband Ed Sholtis of California [Ed died April 1995], and Mary and husband Harvey Johnson of St. John, North Dakota, 11 Grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. Written and contributed by Mary Hubert |
From the Spokane newspaper:
Harmon "Buster" Dillon
Spokane Mr. Dillon, who was born in Rolla, ND., died Friday. He married Irene Gendron in 1940, and they moved to Spokane in 1954. He retired from Kaiser Aluminum in Mead. Mr. Dillon was a resident of Mount Spokane and was involved in the creation and development of the Mount Spokane Fire Department. His wife, Irene, died in 1985. He is survived by two sons Ronald and Robert Dillon. both of Mead; two daughters, Bettv Dethloff of Mead and Mary Hubert of Metaline Falls, Wash.; three sisters, Agnus Funk of Spokane, Mary Johnson of North Dakota and Margaret Sholtis of Alameda [Norwalk], Calif.; one brother. Bob Dillon of Spokane; 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. A short note on James Roy Williamson from Angela Williamson. James was working on the railroad in Arkansas and Christopher Dillon took a liking to him and brought him home. James had been orphaned at 12 and lived with an uncle. He left his uncle at age 14 and joined a cattle drive. James' father was John Roscoe Williamson. He was killed by a falling branch. Until next time. |
