Dill, Milton M.

Born: 1812-08-24 Bourbon County, Kentucky

Died: 1880-12-12 Clay County, Illinois

Milton M. Dill was a farmer, miller, grain dealer, and lawyer. His family moved from Kentucky to Monroe County, Indiana when he was a child, and he attended Bloomington College for a time before his family relocated to Paris, Illinois in 1825. During the Black Hawk War, he served in Captain Jonathan Mayo’s company as part of the First Regiment, Second Brigade of Illinois Mounted Volunteers. In September 1834, he married Elizabeth Wampler. They had one child together before Elizabeth died in March 1843. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1838 and began a law practice in Paris, Illinois. In June 1846, he married Harriet M. A. Kerby, with whom he had at least four children. Dill became a prominent member of the town of Paris. In 1849, he was elected president of the Board of Trustees for the town and, in 1851, he became a charter member of the Paris chapter of the Odd Fellows. He served as a justice of the peace for twelve years and, in 1862, was elected mayor of Paris. His prosperity increased substantially over the course of his career. In 1850, he owned real estate worth $1,500. By 1860, he owned $37,000 in real estate and another $5,000 in personal property. He died of dropsy in Saylor Springs, Illinois.

The History of Edgar County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 323, 332, 570; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 33; Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1802-1892, 29 September 1834, Vermillion County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2004); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Edgar County, IL, 203; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Paris, Edgar County, IL, 14; The Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), 15 December 1880, 5:5-6; Gravestone, Edgar Cemetery, Paris, IL.