It has been published that John Dillard of Rabun County served with General Andrew Pickens in his expeditions against the Cherokee Indians. This has unfortunately been repeated in other accounts about John Dillard. Ritchie, in a sketch of General Andrew Pickens of South Carolina, tells us that Pickens was one of the heroes of Grant's victory over the Cherokee Indians in the French and Indian War when Pickens was just 22 years of age. He further verifies that in 1785 after the Revolutionary War Pickens forced the Cherokee Indians in a single treaty to give up all of their claims in South Carolina and northeast Georgia out of which Rabun County was created. The latter was not the result of fighting, but Pickens' skills as an Indian treaty negotiator. It is stated that one of Pickens' Cherokee Indian battles was fought and won in the Little Tennessee River Valley in what is now Rabun County. All of that, however, was before Rabun County was formed and before the Dillards were ever there.

The basis of the conclusion that John Dillard served against the Cherokees with Pickens is unknown. At that time and place when the Indian expeditions occurred, Pickens was residing in South Carolina, and John Dillard was residing in far away Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The conclusion that John Dillard served under General Andrew Pickens in the American Revolution seems based on still another conclusion that John Dillard and James Dillard of Laurens District, South Carolina, served together in the American Revolution in companies of which the well known James Dillard was a captain. It is reasoned that since James Dillard served with Pickens during the Revolutionary War (which he did in fact), so did John Dillard. The latter could also be the basis for the conclusion that John Dillard served with Pickens against the Cherokees, in that Pickens' expeditions against the Cherokees grew out of, and were timed with, his service in the Revolution. These conclusions need further investigation.

Dillard researchers have in recent years have thought that the captain with whom John Dillard served was his probable first cousin, Thomas Dillard, of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, where John Dillard's Revolutionary military service, according to his pension application, took place. A complete account on the Revolutionary military record of Thomas Dillard is set forth in the old and respected History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia by Maud Carter Clement at pages 163 and 164 and elsewhere. A review of John Dillard's military record in the Revolution as alleged by him in his pension application compared to Thomas Dillard's military record as set forth in Maud Carter Clement, id., leaves little doubt that it was Thomas Dillard and not James Dillard with whom John Dillard served in that the two records verify each other.

James Dillard of South Carolina, a son of George Dillard of Culpepper County, Virginia, and also a probable first cousin to John Dillard of Rabun County, had left Virginia and settled in South Carolina prior to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. As pointed out by Marjorie Lee Holland in her Sims P. and Melissa Hendricks Dillard: Their Ancestors and Descendants, James Dillard was in Laurens District South Carolina where he married Mary Ramage Dillard, later Revolutionary heroine, on December 4, 1774. His brothers, Major, Samuel and William (killed in the South Carolina Revolutionary battle of Eutaw Springs in which Andrew Pickens also fought) were also there about the time of the Revolution.

James Dillard's documented military service in the American Revolution, including the Battle of Kings Mountain, occurred in and from South Carolina. Pickens' Revolutionary War military activities extended in and from South Carolina in the general period from 1775 through 1782, with Pickens' last "fighting" expedition against the Cherokee Indians occurring in 1782. According to research of Dr. Howard V. Jones and others, John Dillard was in Pittsylvania County, Virginia until about 1782, a resident of Washington County, N.C. (Tennessee) until about 1789 when he settled in Buncombe County, North Carolina where he remained until about 1823 before making his final home in Rabun County, Georgia.

Andrew Pickens, while frequently serving as a treaty negotiator on behalf of the United States with the Cherokees, Creeks and other Indian nations after the Revolution, was never engaged in military activities of any kind after 1782. He died at his home at Tomassee, South Carolina in 1817 (this is in present Oconee County, South Carolina adjoining Rabun County, Georgia), two years prior to the organization of Rabun County in 1819 and its later settlement by John and James Dillard in the 1820's.

General Andrew Pickens did engage in fighting the British under General Greene in central North Carolina in 1781. John Dillard's pension application sketches his Revolutionary service under General Greene across into North Carolina not far from John Dillard's home in Pittsylvania County where he was based in that county's militia. We do not know, however, that John Dillard and General Pickens were ever there together.

The times, places and circumstances do not add up, and it seems inescapable that John Dillard never served with General Andrew Pickens in fighting the Cherokee Indians nor in the fighting the British in the American Revolution. Perhaps it is time to get the record corrected.

No known family tradition amplifying facts about John Dillard for the some thirty-seven years while he resided in Buncombe County exists. This is to examine what facts are disclosed about this period from the deed records of Buncombe County. This is also to examine facts about whether or not various tracts of land owned by John Dillard of Rabun County, Thomas Dillard, William Dillard, James Dillard and John Dillard, Jr. were contiguous. Court minutes and census records are considered in substantiating the facts disclosed by the deeds. Considered are the Gregorys, Barnards and the McKinneys, interrelated families going back into Buncombe County from whom Dillard branches descend. Left to others is the presentation of a comprehensive genealogical account of the descendants of those considered.

The tradition that John Dillard of Rabun County was the same John Dillard who was in Buncombe County is proved by Deed Book 24, Page 399 in the Buncombe County Registry, where on October 26, 1826 John Dillard conveyed to Adam Miller two tracts of land and where the deed refers to John Dillard "of the State of Georgia, County of Rabun" and identifies one of the parcels conveyed as adjoining "the lands that the aforesaid John Dillard of Georgia formerly lived and now occupied by William Pickens on the southside". John Dillard had previously sold the latter property to Pickens on October 19, 1820 in Deed Book 19, Page 358. With this documentation it is certain that John Dillard of Rabun County is the John Dillard who was in Burke County, North Carolina as early as 1789, and afterwards in its progeny County, Buncombe.

The fact that John Dillard of Rabun County was the John Dillard in Buncombe County is substantiated in that it was represented in the application of John Dillard, himself, for his Revolutionary pension. The pension application supplies no details about John Dillard's life in Buncombe County.

The facts shown in the deeds prove that John Dillard owned property in Buncombe County, North Carolina as early as 1789 and as late as 1826. Court minutes and the censuses prove his was active in matters other than property ownership. This was a period of 37 years.

F.A. Sondley, using early Buncombe County court minutes, documents that John Dillard was one of the organizers of Buncombe

County from Burke County in 1791. Sondley's research is reported herein. Dr. Howard V. Jones read the Buncombe County court minutes in the Mormon Church records in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1994. Most of his work is reported herein.

The Geographical Background

Burke and Rutherford Counties were two large westernmost counties in North Carolina which originally extended to the present Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina borders. Burke County was formed in 1777 from Rowan County. Its county seat was Morgansboro, now Morganton, which was established in 1784. All early Burke County court house records were destroyed by fire. Land grants in Burke County, preserved by the State of North Carolina in Raleigh, North Carolina, survive. In a land grant entered on October 22, 1789 in Burke County, the State of North Carolina conveyed to John Dillard 100 acres of land on the South Fork of Flat Creek of the French Broad River "Beginning 1/2 mile above mouth of creek and fork at mouth of small stream on a white oak, on the south side fork and running up fork including said Dillard's improvement for complement."

The above land grant appears to be the same 100 acres of land granted by the State of North Carolina in January 6, 1794 to John Dillard filed in Deed Book 2, Page 67 in the Buncombe County Registry. This deed was the first of John Dillard's several properties in Buncombe County and is proved by the recitations in the 1826 deed to Adam Miller to have been his homeplace.

The United States Census of 1790 for Burke County showed only one Dillard, John Dillard, as the head of a household with three males under sixteen years of age and five females, including the female head of a family, with no other persons or slaves.

In a deed dated November 28, 1796 the State of North Carolina granted to John Gray Blount 326,640 acres in Buncombe County (known as the "Blount Grant") "within which bounds there are 13,735 acres entered by persons whose names are hereto annexed since the date of said Blount entries and by his permission, but as they are not yet surveyed this situation can not be dehiveated". A lengthy list of persons "whose names are hereto annexed" include John Dillard for 100 acres and Thomas Dillard for 100 acres. The Blount Grant was later sold at public auction for past due property taxes.

Buncombe County was formed from parts of Burke and Rutherford Counties under an Act of the North Carolina House of Commons on December 17, 1791. Buncombe County included territory all the way to the present Tennessee and Georgia state lines. It included territory from the height of the Appalachian Mountains northward and included all of western North Carolina south of present Mitchell County, North Carolina. In fact, this area was so large that it was called the "State of Buncombe" and included Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Swain, Transylvania and Yancey Counties of today. Buncombe County then bordered upon what was later to become Rabun County, Georgia. Although a treaty ceding the territory had been entered into with the Cherokee Nation, many Cherokees were still actually living in this territory in 1791.

Five years later the State of North Carolina ceded what is now the State of Tennessee to the United States and Tennessee was admitted as a state in 1796. Tennessee was formerly Washington County, North Carolina where various Dillards, Loves and Gregorys lived prior to their moving across the now state line into Buncombe County.

Buncombe County Court Minutes

The very first county court for the new Buncombe County was opened on April 16, 1792 at the home of Colonel William Davidson, at a place now within the present City of Asheville. "The Court proceeded to the election of a ranger and did elect John Dillard and C." "John Dillard took the oath prescribed by law for the qualification of public officers and the oath of office as Stray Master or Ranger". At that same term of court, John Dillard was summonsed to serve as a juror for the succeeding term of court. At the July term of Court in 1792, William Gregory was on the grand jury.

It is reported that William Davidson's residence, the site of the opening session of official proceedings of Buncombe County, was on the south bank of the Swannanoa River, 100 to 200 yards west of present Biltmore Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina.

In 1780, the General Assembly of North Carolina enacted a statute granting 3,000 acres of vacant land "not fit for cultivation" for iron works as a bounty from the State to any persons who "would build and carry on the same". At the October term of court in 1792, John Dillard and others were ordered by the court to be on a jury to view a piece of land "entered by Robert Love and William Trodway" to erect iron works and report thereon agreeably to the act of the Assembly, from which iron works venture nothing seems to have resulted.

At the April, 1792 term of court it was ordered that a jury consisting of John Dillard and others view and lay off a road from the Wagon Ford of Rims Creek to join the road from the Turkey Cove to Robert Hunters on Lindsay Creek of Cane River, the most advantageous and best according to law, "which jury is to meet the fourth Monday of May at John Dillard's; William Brittain (who was an adjoining property owner of John Dillard) to attend and qualify said jury who are to report to July court."

In December, 1792 and April of 1793, John Dillard was a Commissioner in a local political dispute of determining where the county seat of Buncombe County should be located. It was provided in an act creating Buncombe County that a committee of five persons be appointed for the selection of the site. A dispute arose between two factions of Buncombe County residents on opposite sides of the Swannanoa River, one faction pressing for the county seat to be north of Swannanoa, which is now the center of Asheville, and the other faction demanding it to be at a place south of Swannanoa River which later became known as the "Steam Saw Mill Place" and which is now the southern part of the City of Asheville.

On December 1, 1792, the North Carolina legislature enacted a statute amending the act in which the County had been created reciting that "the Commissioners appointed to fix the center and agree where the public buildings in the County of Buncombe should be erected have failed to comply with the above recited act, and the inhabitants of said County much injured thereby" and declaring that Joshua Inglis, Archibald Neal, James Wilson, Augustine Shote, George Baker and John Dillard, as well as William Morrison of Burke County be appointed Commissioners in the place and stead of earlier Commissioners who had not agreed on such a location. At the April term of the 1793 Buncombe County Court, the commissioners reported that they had agreed on the location of the county seat and that the "courthouse should stand at a big branch between the Indian graves and Swannanoa not exceeding or extending more north than the Indian graves, the nearest and best situation to the fork of said branch where the present Wagon Road crosses the same - the stocks and prison to be convenient to the courthouse", witnessed by Phillip Hoodenpile, John Dillard, George Baker, Austin Choten, William Morrison.

The original county seat of Buncombe County was called Morristown. The name was later changed to Asheville. The Indian graves above mentioned are said to have been on what is now Patton Avenue of Asheville, a few feet west of the crossing of Lexington Avenue.

Richard Copeland, Benjamin Dorton, John Bowers, David Roe, Dewey Parham and John Dillard in a private petition to the North Carolina Legislature requested compensation for their services as soldiers in the "late Continental Army". This was before the North Carolina House and Senate on November 28 and 29, 1792, and was referred to committee without indication of final disposition.

Robert Love was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace in January, 1793, Benjamin Gregory served on a road jury in July, 1793 and William Gregory served on a road jury and as a juror in 1794.

William Gregory, Ben Gregory, John Gregory, William Gregory, Jr. and James Love were on a road crew in April, 1794.

In 1800, the total population for Buncombe County was 5,812 persons within an area of some 624 square miles. Total white males consisted of 2,775, total white females, 2,659 and slaves, 347. The 1800 Federal Census of Buncombe County, North Carolina listed John Dillard as the head of the household consisting of one male over 45 years of age (which substantiates his birth date as 1755 instead of 1760) with one female over age 45. It also listed three males ages 16 through 26 and one male 10 years of age or below. It also listed one female 10 years of age or below and two females ages 10 through 16 with no slaves.

Thomas Dillard, a son of Colonel Thomas Dillard, Jr., of Washington County, was also reported in the 1800 Census as the head of a household age 26 to 45 owning two slaves with one male and three females under ten years of age and with one female between the ages of 26 and 45. No other Dillards except John and Thomas are reported in Buncombe County in the 1800 Census.

In April, 1804 Thomas Love, John Dillard and Jacob Beylor were appointed to serve on a jury to elect the county sheriff.

In State v. William Dillard in October, 1804 William Dillard (a believed son of John Dillard of Rabun County) was ordered to pay Betsy Hunter the sum of fifteen pounds a year for three years as allowance for caring and support of "base born female child".

The 1798-1812 Court Minutes, ibid., at pages 282, 256 and 267 recite that Fanny Gregory (second wife of William Gregory) and John Dillard entered bond and obtained court permission to administer the estate of William Gregory by then deceased. Personal property was set off to the widow in July, 1805. John Dillard as administrator returned sales of this estate to the court.

John Dillard was on a jury in April, 1805 to lay off the portion of the widow of Denny Gash. John Dillard "Senr" in 1807 served as a juror and returned to the court his list of stray animals from 1806 to 1807. John Dillard in April, 1807 was among the electors of Robert Love as registrar. John Dillard was named as an executor of the will of Benjamin Gregory in July, 1807. In 1808, John Dillard was on a commission to set the county tax levy.

John Dillard, Jr. was ordered to attend the July, 1808 court session. At this same term of court, "John Dillard, Esq." and William Dillard were witnesses in the case of John Butherie (this is probably "John Gutherie" a neighbor of John Dillard according to the deeds hereinafter related) v. Thomas Reviss. Minutes, ibid., p. 405. In April, 1809, John Dillard, "Jnr." and James Gregory were summonsed as jurors, and John Dillard collected taxes in Captain Hughey's company.

John Dillard gave a ranger's report to the court in April, 1809 and 1813. Minutes, ibid., p. 447, 531-532. The 1809 report included an $11.00 fine against John Dillard, Jr. for one steer. These minutes also record that Robert Love resigned as registrar in 1809, that James Gregory, John Gregory, William Gregory and Gabriel Elkins served on juries in 1809, 1810 and 1811 at pages 452, 462, 463 and 506. Job Barnard was listed as a juror in January, 1812.

Fire damaged public records in Buncombe County in both 1830 and 1865 leaving no estate records remaining in that county prior to 1815. Marriage records in Buncombe County were started only after 1842. In addition to early court minutes, deed records in Buncombe County survive.

The Land Grant System

The land grant system which existed at this time in Buncombe County, North Carolina followed the 1777 Acts of the North Carolina Legislature which set up local and centralized offices for the disposition of state owned real estate which had never been conveyed. Entry offices were located in each county and grants were made by the Governor with centralized records in the office of the Secretary of State.

A property would be "entered" or physically located, and a warrant for this property would be obtained in the county entry office upon payment of a warrant fee. A survey would be made of the property entered and sent to the state. A grant would be prepared and executed by the Governor with one original sent out to the purchaser and another original retained for filing with the Secretary of State. The purchaser was required by law file his land grant in the local county. The last land grant in North Carolina was made in 1962. The duplicate land grants recorded in the office of the Secretary of State are no longer maintained in that office but have transferred to the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh, North Carolina.

John Dillard Deeds

The earliest John Dillard of Rabun County deed found is Land Grant Number 153 in Burke County shortly before Buncombe County was organized entered on October 22, 1789 for 100 acres on the south fork of Flat Creek of the French Broad River beginning one-half mile above the mouth of the creek and fork at the mouth of a small stream on a white oak. This appears to be the same property subsequently conveyed by the State of North Carolina to John Dillard on January 6, 1794 except that the property was described as located in Buncombe County. This deed was executed by the Governor of North Carolina while Fayetteville was then the State Capital. The October 13, 1826 deed recorded in Deed Book 24, Page 399 from John Dillard to Adam Miller identifies this 100 acres with an adjoining 100 acre property as "including the plantation whereon John Dillard, Jr., settled joining the lands at the aforesaid John Dillard of Georgia owned, formerly lived and now occupied by William Pickens on the south side"

Surveyor Robert Logan's plat of this first one hundred acres filed with the Secretary of State of North Carolina as Grant No. 21, issued January 6, 1794, Entry No. 143, Entered August 22, 1789 (Book 82, Page 121) describes that the 1789 grant was transected by Flat Creek or "Rims Creek". William Brittain (a neighbor of John Dillard on the southeast) and John Chambers were chain bearers for the surveyor of the required survey. Rims or Flat Creek is depicted as transecting this one hundred acres. Rims Creek (also spelled "Reens", "Reames" and "Rheims") was the place of the meeting of the jury on which John Dillard served in the laying out of a road mentioned above. This is the only Dillard property in the area which called the creek Rims. All other deeds refer to Flat Creek, a believed different creek.

The second grant from the State of North Carolina to John Dillard dated July 10, 1797 conveys for a consideration of 50 shillings for every 100 acres another 100 acres on the waters of Flat Creek "lying on the south of his old survey, including the fork of the wagon road". Placement of this 1797 grant indicates that it lies south of and touches one corner of the 1789 homeplace of John Dillard.

Grant No. 299 filed in the office of the Secretary of State of North Carolina for the "Wagon Road Tract" issued July 10, 1797 as Entry No. 357, entered May 4, 1796 (Book 91, Page 605) appears to have been surveyed by Robert Love who signed the certificate "R. Love, D.S." This grant to John Dillard describes this 100 acres "on the wagon road" is transected by Ballinger's Branch leading into the waters of Flat Creek. John Dillard, Sr. and John Dillard, Jr. are described as "chain bearers" in the survey. The filed survey of the homeplace indicates that Flat Creek also transected the "Wagon Road Tract".

A third land grant from the State of North Carolina to John Dillard dated March 28, 1808 conveys a tract of land containing 60 acres on the south fork of Flat Creek, "beginning on his Hickory north corner by William Dillard's house on Strother's line". This 60 acre grant refers to adjoining neighbors William Brittain and John Strother. It is uncertain on whose land the adjoining house of William Dillard was located. No land at this location owned by William Dillard can be found. William Dillard, who married a Gregory, did own a part of the William Gregory property nearby. It is probable that all William Dillard deeds are not indexed or recorded. Exactly how this grant adjoined the first two grants above mentioned is subject to uncertainty as hereinafter set forth. It did adjoin the homeplace tract on the east.

The grant survey of this 60 acre tract filed with the Secretary of State of North Carolina as Grant No. 1644 indicates the surveyor was John Patton as certified to Zachariah Candler on September 15, 1804. The chain bearers were listed as John Dillard and William Dillard.

A grant from the State of North Carolina to John Dillard dated November 30, 1810, recorded October 31, 1811 conveys 100 acres on the south side of Flat Creek adjoining William Garrison, Bailey's (Baly's) Mill, James Garrison and Thomas Garrison. This deed to the "Bailey Mill Tract" is difficult to locate, but the property survey on file with the Secretary of State of North Carolina in Book 124, Page 425 (Grant No. 1867 issued November 30, 1810, entered April 6, 1808) describes this 100 acres as lying on a creek flowing into Flat Creek. John Patton was the surveyor of this grant which was certified to Zachariah Candler, also a neighbor of John Dillard, on November 6, 1810. Chain bearers were listed and William Baly (Bailey?) and George Revis. The original entry into this tract was described as having been made by Joseph Henry on April 6, 1808. This property does not appear to adjoin other property owned by John Dillard of Rabun County, who owned it only a few months.

The last property which John Dillard acquired at Flat Creek was by a deed from a neighbor, Zachariah Candler, dated April 1, 1820 in which John Dillard is designated as "John Dillard, Sr." and is conveyed two 100 acre tracts of land "including the plantation whereon John Dillard, Jr., settled joining the said land that the aforesaid John Dillard, Sr., does now live on the south side of one tract" (a deed into John Dillard, Jr. for this tract cannot be found) and the "other tract was granted to James Gregory and John Dillard, Jr., containing 100 acres adjoining the above land on the west and running with the lines of each tract". Deed Book E Page 74 dated March 4, 1812, recorded December 8, 1812 conveys the identical property where John Dillard, Jr., and James Gregory "both of the State of Kentucky and County of Knox" conveyed to Zachariah Candler two tracts of land on the south fork of Flat Creek "joining the lands of the said John Dillard, Jr. sold to Joseph Hughey on the north side" and "joining the land that the said James Gregory sold to Chisolme Griffith on the south side". This deed mentions John Dillard, Jr., and James Gregory had respectively acquired this property by grant from the state. Deed Book E Page 74 was witnessed by William Dillard.

There is no doubt that the 100 acre tract conveyed by James Gregory and John Dillard, Jr., to Zachariah Candler and in turn to John Dillard, Sr., adjoins the westernmost boundary of John Dillard's 1789 homeplace grant and the northern side of his 1797 "Wagon Road" grant. The plat of this property filed with the Secretary of State of North Carolina in Book 124, Page 437 confirms the location and confirms that John Dillard, Jr. and James Gregory did receive title to this property as a land grant from the State of North Carolina. John Patton was the surveyor and John Dillard and James Gregory were the chain bearers.

The total of the above made John Dillard of Rabun County the owner by 1820 of 560 acres of property in the Flat Creek section of Buncombe County, North Carolina adjoining land owners Morris, William Brittain, John Strother, James Dillard and, at one time, James Gregory and John Dillard, Jr. and Zachariah Candler. All of this property was contiguous except for the 100 acre Bailey's Mill tract.

John Dillard owned other parcels of land in Buncombe County not adjoining the Flat Creek 560 acres. John with William Hunter, as a tenants in common, acquired a 150 acre tract from the State of North Carolina on the main ridge between Sandy Marsh and Turkey Creek on December 23, 1798. This land was sold by John Dillard and William Hunter to Joshua Freeman on November 19, 1801.

Three John Dillards resided in Buncombe County at the same time. Three deeds appear to be those of John Dillard, youngest son of Colonel Thomas Dillard, Jr. and Martha Webb Dillard of Washington County, who moved into Buncombe County, based exclusively upon the locations of the property conveyed as some distance from the Flat Creek community and at a slightly later time period, as follows:

On November 3, 1809, Jamestown Hatcher for a consideration of $50.00 sold to John Dillard 100 acres on the Ivy River at the mouth of Bull Creek which included "a small improvement made by Charles Clayton". This property is believed to be located in the "Big Ivy Section" of Buncombe County which is north of the present town of Barnardsville, North Carolina.

Josiah Ballenger also sold to John Dillard fifty acres on both sides of the Ivy River which included and old mill on November 3, 1809.

John Longmire, High Sheriff of Buncombe County, in an execution sale against Gabriel Keith and Basil B. Edmondson sold to John Dillard a tract containing 260 acres in the Big Ivy section of Buncombe County by a deed dated January 20, 1812.

On April 20, 1811, John Dillard sold to a neighbor, Zachariah Candler, for $150.00 the 100 acres tract at Flat Creek which had been acquired by grant in 1797 and which included the fork of a wagon road. This deed was witnessed by James Dillard. A few months later on October 8, 1811, John Dillard sold to adjoining property owner William Bailey the 100 acres at Flat Creek he had received in a grant dated November 30, 1810 in Deed Book D, Page 83.

John Dillard, the son of Thomas Dillard, Jr., sold to Jonathan Guthrie on October 27, 1820 the 260 acres he had acquired from the Sheriff of Buncombe County in 1812 in which deed the property was more fully described as located on the waters of the Big Ivy River and White Oak Mountain. There is no disposition shown of record of the 100 acre tract and the 50 acres tract on the Ivy River, both acquired in 1809. These could now be in a more northerly county.

The deed from John Dillard to William Pickens dated October 19, 1821 sold the original 1789 grant of 100 acres at Flat Creek and the adjoining 60 acres acquired in the 1807 grant for a consideration of $320.00. This deed is significant in that it indicates the date by which John Dillard had probably departed to Rabun County, Georgia. The deed dated October 13, 1826 from John Dillard to Adam Miller conveyed all of the remaining property owned by John Dillard at Flat Creek in Buncombe County and indicates that John Dillard had already become a resident of Rabun County, Georgia by 1826. The Adam Miller deed covered the 100 acre tract crossing Ballenger's Branch and a wagon road which John Dillard had acquired by a 1797 grant, which he later sold to Zachariah Candler on April 20, 1811 in Deed Book 11, Page 373 and which he reacquired from Zachariah Candler on April 1, 1820 in Deed Book 14, Page 250.
The Adam Miller deed also covered the 100 acres formerly occupied by John Dillard, Jr. and James Gregory which John Dillard purchased from Zachariah Candler.

The 1800, 1810 and 1820 Censuses

The 1810 Federal Census for Buncombe County lists John Dillard, over age 45, as having in his household one male ages 16 through 26 years of age, one female 45 years of age or older, and two females, one under age 10, and one 16 through 26 years of age. Three older sons listed on earlier censuses are no longer there.

The 1810 Federal Census of Buncombe County lists a Thomas Dillard with a wife ages 26 through 45 and with two sons and two daughters under ten years of age. The 1810 Federal Census shows for the first time William Dillard with a wife ages 26 through 45, with two sons under 10 years of age and one daughter. Another female is shown in William's household as over 45 years of age.

Further shown in the 1810 Federal Census in this county is John Dillard, Jr., ages 26 to 45, with a wife ages 16 through 26, with two sons under ten years of age and no daughters.

No other Dillards in Buncombe County are shown in the 1810 Census. Shown as heads of households are Eda Gregory, Elizabeth Gregory, James Gregory, John Gregory and Robert Gregory.

In the 1820 Federal Census of Buncombe County, three households consisting of Thomas, William, and John, Jr., have disappeared leaving only John Dillard with one female in the household over age 45, one male age 10 through 16, one male ages 16 through 18, and one ages 16 through 26, and one female ages 10 through 16. Two parties in the household were reported as engaged in agriculture.

No Barnards or Gregorys were reported living in Buncombe County in the 1820 Census.

James Dillard Deed

James Dillard had only one deed in Buncombe County. On May 5, 1814 James Dillard (who, if his gravestone date of birth of December, 1792 is correct, would have been twenty-two years of age) purchased from John Strother, (who had been called for as an adjoining property owner in John Dillard deeds) 100 acres at Flat Creek on the waters of the French Broad River in Buncombe County, North Carolina "beginning on a white oak about 40 poles from John Dillard's line on the south side of said Creek". This deed recites that the land was originally a part of the John Gray Blount grant sold by James Hughey, High Sheriff of Buncombe County to John Strother for county taxes due for the year 1796. What happened to this 100 acres tract of land when James went to Rabun County about 1821 is unknown in that there is no indexed record of to whom James Dillard sold this tract of land.

John Strother has been identified as a land surveyor who surveyed the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. Beginning May, 1799, a survey of the boundary line between Tennessee and North Carolina was started "beginning at Pond Mountain on the Virginia line, the survey was made to Paint Rock on the French Broad River. John Strother, who was the surveyor in charge, kept a day-to-day dairy and a field book filled with notes of this wilderness experience. He writes of numerous times when the chainbearers and markers had to hack their way through rough laurel (rhododendron) thickets, or slicks." Robert Love participated in this survey party at Greasy Cove in Tennessee according to John Strother's diary of June 18, 1799. Greasy Cove in Unicoi County, Pat Alderman, 1975, the Overmountain Press, Johnson City, Tennessee, pages 6 and 7.

It is reported in Tyler's Quarterly that a Robert Strother married an Elizabeth Dillard in Culpeper County, Virginia according to Lucile R. Johnson, a Dillard genealogist.

The James Dillard property is easily located northeast of the 100 acre 1789 homeplace of John Dillard with the James Dillard tract's longest parallelogram lines of "North 45 East" tying into the same course and distance which was the shorter side of the John Dillard 1789 tract.

The Barnards

Ritchie reports that Sally Barnard, the wife of James Dillard, was also from Buncombe County, North Carolina. The census taker in Rabun County recorded that Sally Barnard Dillard was born in South Carolina. Her father is suspected with no proof to be Luke Barnard who was commissioned a justice of the Rabun County Inferior Court on April 19, 1820. He was a logical candidate because he was the only Barnard around in earliest Rabun County. Barnard proof at this time is inconclusive.

The 1790 South Carolina census records a "Luke Barret" in Ninety Six District, Edgefield County, South Carolina with no family. At this time, Luke Barnard would have been about twenty years old.

The records indicate a number of Barnards in Buncombe County. Sondley reports that a Jacob (also recorded as Job) Barnard (whose real name was Joseph) was on a jury to lay off a road from Ballard Mountain Road "and the best way to Captain Barnard's on Blush Creek" at the April term of court in 1794. The 1810 Census of Buncombe County lists Job Barnard as the head of a household age 26 to 45 with eight children. The Barnard community still exists near Marshall, North Carolina. It should not be confused with Barnardsville lying east of Flat Creek which took its name from Joseph Swain Barnard, (1803-1884) a son of Job Barnard.

Luke Barnard is listed on the 1800 census for Buncombe County at page 160 where his name was spelled "Barnett". He is also listed under his correct name in the 1810 Buncombe County Census at page 78, after which he does not appear on censuses in Buncombe County. Indexing of earlier North Carolina censuses can be confusing in that another Luke Barnard resided in distant coastal Carrituck County, North Carolina and is mistakenly shown as residing in Buncombe County.

According to the research of the late Margaret W. Haile, Job Barnard lived in the "Barnard area" of Buncombe County in what is now Madison County, North Carolina near the present town of Marshall. Mrs. Haile comments that "a good guess" would be that Job Barnard, mentioned by Sondley above, and Luke Barnard were older and younger brothers.

Luke Barnard purchased 175 acres and 200 acres on April 10, 1807 from Samuel Wilson and Benjamin Bryant by deeds recorded with the Buncombe County Registry in Deed Book B, Pages 125 and 145, one of which was recorded on April 26, 1809 and the other on May 13, 1809. Both tracts were on the Caney River adjoining Greenlee, Horton, the "Big Road" and Bryant. This property was sold in 1812 and 1816.

The Barnard land owned by Job Barnard, a station or stock stand on the French Broad River near what is now the town of Marshall, is referred to as Barnard's Station or Inn in Bishop Asbury's Travel Journal in 1804. The present town of Marshall, North Carolina lies a few miles west of the present Flat Creek community where John Dillard once resided.

A 60 to 70 year old Luke Barnet is next listed on the Macon County North Carolina Census of 1840 with a wife of the same age and as a slave owner with two younger persons in the household.

Luke Barnard was last shown on the 1850 Union County, Georgia Census at age 80 as living (and further listed as born in South Carolina) where his granddaughter, Mary Polly Barnard (a child of Andrew Barnard), resided with her husband, William M. Davis.

With no proof, the probable children of Luke Barnard and his wife (name unknown) include Margaret (Peggy) Barnard whose marriage record to Josiah Young (York) was recorded in early marriage records in Rabun County on January 27, 1821, Sally Barnard who married James Dillard, Andrew Barnard of Cherokee (in a part which later became Clay) County, North Carolina, Elizabeth Barnard who married Thomas B. Love and Nancy Barnard who married a Dr. Carnes.

The McKinneys

Another example of Buncombe County transplanted into Rabun County, Georgia is the William McKinney family and its descendants in the Hopper, Dickerson and Dillard families of Rabun County all with roots in Buncombe County. Ritchie, ibid., page 192 reports that William McKinney was one of the first settlers in Rabun County of the Valley District at Betty's Creek between 1820 and 1830. He was married to Margaret Anderson McKinney. Ritchie indicates both emigrated from Buncombe County, North Carolina. Numerous McKinneys and Andersons are shown on early deed and census records of Buncombe County. One of their daughters, Eliza (Betsy) Ann, married Albert Dillard and another, Rachel Matilda, married John B. Dillard, both sons of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard. Georgia McKinney, a granddaughter of William McKinney and Margaret Anderson McKinney, married Hiram Dillard a son of William F. Dillard of Rabun County who, in turn, was a son of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard.

It is reported that William McKinney was born in February 13, 1799 in Buncombe County and died on September 7, 1859 in Rabun County. "William McKenney" was shown on the 1830 Rabun County Census, and on the 1850 Rabun County census as 52 years of age with a wife, age 48, both born in North Carolina with children Rachel M., Charles L., William M., Doctor T. and Margaret C. McKinney. Ritchie states that he was a justice of the Inferior Court in 1845. Margaret Elvira Anderson McKinney, his wife, who was born July 13, 1801 in Buncombe County and died October 25, 1893 (this was age 92), was listed on the 1880 Rabun County Census as living in the household of her daughter and son-in-law, Leander Beavert, a former sheriff of Rabun County, age 50 and Margaret E. McKinney Beavert, age 36. This was at the William McKinney homeplace on Betty's Creek used until 1937 as a residence for the Burrell family.

No property is found indexed in Buncombe County as deeded to William McKinney. He is shown as the head of a household on no Buncombe County census. However, William McKinney was a witness in Buncombe County on a 1816 deed hereinafter noted.

William McKinney on May 15, 1851 along with other heirs conveyed to John McKinney of Buncombe County property in which he owned an undivided interest which "fell" to him on the death of Charles McKinney of Buncombe County in Deed Book 132, Page 467 recorded on October 28, 1903. It is not specified when Charles McKinney died. This property was 250 acres on both sides of the Ivy River in the Ivy River community of Buncombe County east of Flat Creek.

The property conveyed by William McKinney and others is the same 250 acres conveyed by John Anderson to Charles McKinney on January 25, 1816 in Deed Book 11, Page 73. This deed was witnessed by William McKinney (who would have then been 17 years of age) and Thomas McKinney. Charles McKinney was also granted 150 acres on December 20, 1803 in Grant No. 1298 from the State of North Carolina in Deed Book 3, Page 289 which he entered on December 15, 1801 which recites as adjoining property already owned by McKinney. In Grant No. 1261 the State of North Carolina conveyed to Charles McKinney 100 acres on Mud Creek "joining his own lands where he now lives" entered October 27, 1801 recorded in Deed Book 3, Page 290.

Charles McKinney was listed on the 1820 Buncombe County, North Carolina Census as over 45 years of age, with a female of the same age, with 8 males ranging in age from 0 through 26 and three females from ages 10 through 26 and one slave. He is also listed in the 1830 Buncombe County census with eight sons and three daughters and one slave. In the 1840 Buncombe County Census Charles "McKinnie" is listed as between 70 and 80 years of age (that would make the date of his birth no later than 1780) with one female between 60 and 70 and with one other male between 20 to 30 years of age. Subsequent censuses do not list Charles McKinney.


The heirs of Charles McKinney who executed the deed in Deed Book 132, Page 467 in 1851 leave many questions as to who is conveying what interest in the property and why. Those who signed in the signature spaces were Joseph McKinney, William McKinney (who this deed recites resided in Rabun County, Georgia), Rosannah Ray (of Yancey County, North Carolina) , P. (Pierce) Roberts, C.(Charles) M. Roberts, Levicey M. Williams, Jasper Hopper (of Rabun County, Georgia), Henry McKinney (Sr.) and Thomas McKinney. All were indicated in the granting clause of the deed to be residents of Buncombe County, North Carolina except William McKinney, Jasper Hopper and Rosannah Ray.

Following the description of the 250 acres is recited "the seven and one tenth shares of the aforesaid land (viz) Joseph McKinney, William McKinney, Rosannah Ray, Caroline Roberts (deceased), Henry McKinney. Sr., and one-half of Thomas McKinney's and one-half of Florah Anderson's and all of Charles McKinney's and Jasper Hopper's part and Levicy Williams's part and C. M. Roberts part which fell to them by heirship from Charles McKinney deceased". It can be speculated that this deed could account for five possible sons (Joseph, William, Henry, Thomas and John McKinney ) and five possible daughters (Rosannah Ray, Caroline Roberts, Levicey Williams, Florah Anderson and unknown Hopper) of Charles McKinney. Who they really were is unknown. What happened to the other three sons listed on the 1820 and 1830 Censuses and why there may be more daughters than is shown on the censuses is unknown.

Fifty two years later on October 27, 1903, G. W. Whitte and George V. Cole appeared before the Clerk of the Superior Court of Buncombe County on oath that they were familiar with the signatures of the witnesses, M. Greenwood and Robert H. McKinney, both then deceased, in order that this deed could be lawfully recorded.

John Dillard, Jr. Deed

Only one deed is indexed of record in Buncombe County for John Dillard, Jr., by that specific name and that is the deed dated March 4, 1812 where John Dillard, Jr., and James Gregory, both then of Knox County, Kentucky, sold to Zachariah Candler lands adjoining the John Dillard homeplace. The latter deed mentions a deed which John Dillard, Jr., had sold to Joseph Hughey "on the north side" adjoining land that James Gregory had sold to Chisolme Griffith on the south side. No record can be found on the indices of Buncombe County of the Joseph Hughey deed. Deed Book E, Page 74 further relates that the same land sold by John Dillard, Jr., and James Gregory to Zachariah Candler was granted to them by the State of North Carolina. This grant was later acquired by John Dillard of Rabun County. While there is no deed, a State grant and survey of this grant exists and details are given above.

It is reported that John Dillard, Jr., after migrating to Knox County, Kentucky later settled in Monroe County, Tennessee with his brother, William Dillard and thereafter moved to Cass County, Georgia. A suit to clear title to his Monroe County, Tennessee property was brought against his heirs after his death in Cass County, Georgia. John Dillard, Jr. is alleged to have acquired extensive acreage in Cass County, Georgia along the Coosawatee River and he was buried on this property overlooking that river known as Trimmier Bluff. The unmarked graves were visible until a few years ago when a newer owner of the property built a road over the graves.

William Dillard Deeds

An 1808 deed for sixty acres from the State of North Carolina to John Dillard clearly calls for William Dillard's house on Strother's line. No deed can be found conveying property to William Dillard at this location. It is suspected that all deeds in Buncombe County are not indexed, and that many of that day failed to record their deeds.

Only one complete deed exists for William Dillard. On August 15, 1812 William Dillard conveyed to Andrew Guthrie 105 acres at Flat Creek "beginning on a Hickory in William Gregory's old line" and running to a "forked white Oak Benjamin Gregory's line". Another call was for John Guthrie's line. No derivation for this property was indicated in the deed. One of the witnesses to this deed was John Dillard. This property appears the be the same 105 acres was purchased by William Dillard from Beverly Gregory, a son of William Gregory, in Deed Book C, Page 255 on August 16, 1810. Three lines have indefinite courses and distances and recite "conditional lines", which could mean those lines were not then surveyed. As indicated below, this deed clearly seems to be a part of the William Gregory property lying south but not touching the John Dillard property at Flat Creek.

William Dillard, who is also known as William F. Dillard, married Sarah H. Gregory, a daughter of William Gregory. On December 11, 1806 William Dillard was a grantor in a deed executed by John Gregory, Thomas Gregory, William Gregory, Elizabeth Gregory, James Gregory, William Dillard and Fannie Gregory to Beverly Gregory. The property was not described in the deed and the deed was recited to be a quitclaim deed. It is believed that the Gregory heirs were conveying the interest of their father, William Gregory. Sarah H. Gregory, a daughter of William Gregory, did not sign the deed, but her husband, William Dillard did execute this deed in what appears to have been any attempt to convey her interest. Robert Gregory also signed the deed, but was not listed as a grantor. Court minutes above cited are said to prove that Fannie Gregory was the second wife of William Gregory. Sarah H. Gregory, the wife of William Dillard, was one of the younger children of William Gregory.

William F. Dillard, according to some of his descendants was born on May 1, 1782. He organized a company for service in the War of 1812. By 1837 he had become a resident of Greene County, Missouri where he purchased a claim and became a successful farmer. After the Civil War he cast his influence on the side of the Republican party. He died about 1877 at the advanced age of 95 years at which time he was the oldest man in the county. 106

William Gregory and Related Deeds

William Gregory was "bound out" to Colonel Thomas Dillard, Jr. in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, traveled with Thomas Dillard, Jr. and John Dillard of Rabun County to Greasy Cove in Washington County, Tennessee and emigrated across the then Washington County line to settle at Flat Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina near John Dillard. 107 His daughter, Sarah, married William Dillard in Buncombe County.

The earliest land owned by William Gregory at Flat Creek was land grant No. 1578 from the State of North Carolina dated November 28, 1792 recorded in Deed Book S1-2, Page 70 for 200 acres. If the dates of the deeds and the numbers of the grant are an indication, he seems to have come into Burke or Buncombe County shortly after John Dillard. From the "N 45 W" and "S 45 W" courses, and the location of this tract on both sides of Flat Creek, (with this creek in the same position as in the John Dillard grant), and considering the calls to John Roberts land in both Dillard and Gregory deeds, this William Gregory property could have been located on the southeastern side of John Dillard's homeplace conveyed in 1794 in Deed Book 2, Page 67. It has been commented that the 1790 Burke County Census places William Gregory, with three males over 16, four males under 16 and three females "next door" to John Dillard. 108 However, in that neither the John Dillard deeds nor the William Gregory deeds call for each other as an adjoining property owners this conclusion cannot be made with certainty.

William Gregory conveyed one half of this same November 28, 1792 200 acres to his son Benjamin Gregory on April 22, 1800 in Deed Book 5, Page 156 in which it was recited that the other one-half had been given to his son, John Gregory (no recorded deed into John Gregory for this gift is indexed).

Other William Gregory land grants from the State of North Carolina are for 150 acres dated January 4, 1792 in Deed Book 1, Page 193, for 100 acres dated January 19, 1795 in Deed Book 4, Page 457 (which recites James Love as an owner on the southside), and for 200 acres dated August 31, 1798 in Deed Book 4, Page 456 (Grant No. 433). Except for the 1792 grant for 100 acres in Deed Book S1-2, Page 70, there are no courses, distances or calls in any of these deeds to locate them as contiguous to the John Dillard, Thomas Dillard or John Dillard, Jr. properties. The calls for adjoining property owner John Roberts in several of the William Gregory deeds does, however, place the Gregory property southeast of the Dillard property were Thomas Dillard (son of John) deeds also call for corners on Roberts.

The quitclaim deed to Beverly Gregory in 1806 proves that William Gregory was then deceased. Buncombe County estate records in this time frame no longer exist. Esarey, ibid, page 248, states that William Gregory was a Methodist preacher, but no facts exist to substantiate this claim. 109

One important conclusion for our purposes is possible from a study of the William Gregory deeds. That is the location of the William Dillard property which was conveyed to Andrew Guthrie on August 15, 1815 in Deed Book E, Page 201 (there is no deed of record where William Dillard was the grantee of this property). It is a part of the 100 acres which William Gregory was granted in Grant No. 131 for 100 acres "including an old cool house" adjoining James Love in Deed Book 4, Page 457 dated January 19, 1795, with the course of the northern and southern lines clearly matching up with William Dillard's lines.

The latter eliminates the possibility that this William Dillard deed, which is his only one of public record in Buncombe County, was the property located at the terminus of the line on John Dillard's grant in 1808 of the 60 acre tract conveyed in Deed Book 3, Page 463 which calls for "at his hickory north corner by William Dillard's house on Strother's line". There may be another William Dillard deed which is unrecorded. William Dillard's house may have been located on John Dillard's possible adjoining land which would have been the 100 acre homeplace granted in 1794 or, in the alternative, on the 60 acres therein conveyed which had presumably had already been "entered" by John Dillard.

A number of Benjamin Gregory, the oldest son of William, land grants and deeds appear in Buncombe County between 1795 and 1800. 110 Many of these were for property at Flat Creek, but others were for property fronting on the French Broad River and Warm Springs Road believed to be elsewhere. The Flat Creek deeds, like the Thomas Dillard (son of John) deeds, call for John Roberts as an adjoining property owner. The grant for 200 acres recorded in Deed Book 4, Page 454 calls for William Gregory as the adjoining property owner along a line "N 45 E 54 poles" which would tie this tract in as probably contiguous to William Gregory's 1792 first grant recorded in Deed Book S1-2, Page 70. This substantiates why the Gregory property at Flat Creek can probably be placed southeast of the Dillard property.

Also indexed in Buncombe County are a number of grants and deeds to John Gregory at Flat Creek between 1795 and 1810, including a deed from John Strother and a deed from the Sheriff of Buncombe County. 111

Benjamin Gregory Estate Deeds

Three deeds connected with the administration of the Estate of Benjamin Gregory, deceased are mentioned in that John Dillard served as an executor of this estate.

John Dillard and John Gregory, as Executors of Benjamin Gregory, deceased, for $30.50 conveyed to Zachariah Candler (who had purchased property from John Dillard and John Dillard, Jr.) 100 acres on the waters of Flat Creek which this deed recites was originally granted to William Gregory by the State of North Carolina as Grant Number 560. The date of this deed is June 2, 1808 and it was recorded on July 3, 1810 in Deed Book C, Page 58.
Contrary to the deed recitations as to derivation this property is a parrellogram with courses and distance due north, south, east and west 127 poles which Benjamin Gregory acquired by state grant in 1798. No adjoining landowners are recited.

A second deed dated November 16, 1816 from John Dillard and John Gregory as "Administrators of Benjamin Gregory, deceased" conveyed to Zachariah Candler for a $100.00 consideration property on the northern side of Flat Creek and "on the north side of a path and branch that leads Solomon McJohnson's to said Benjamin Gregory's outhouse, it being the northeast corner of a fifty acres that the said Benjamin Gregory allotted to his widow, Eady Gregory" containing 150 acres, more or less and "being the east part of a tract of land originally granted to the said Benjamin Gregory for 200 acres". This deed is for a part of the land conveyed by state grant to Benjamin Gregory in Deed Book 4, Page 454, which as above mentioned adjoined William Gregory on the northwest, and which, in turn, probably adjoined John Dillard on the north. This deed was witnessed by Obediah Dickerson and James Dillard. 112

The third deed was from John Dillard and John Gregory as "Executors of Benjamin Gregory, deceased" in consideration of the sum of $12.00 to Zachariah Candler for property "on the waters of Flat Creek John Davidson's branch, a small distance above where the old Warm Spring Road crosses the same" conveying fifty acres and is recited as being a part of the land originally granted to Benjamin Gregory by the State of North Carolina. 113 It is believed that this property was not within the complex of lands owned by the Dillards and the Gregorys at Flat Creek, but was elsewhere.

Thomas Dillard Deeds

(a) Thomas the son of Thomas Dillard, Jr.

Several deeds to and from Thomas Dillard in Buncombe County are more difficult to identify in that we have two Thomas Dillards. Thomas Dillard, the alleged oldest son of John Dillard of Rabun County was in Buncombe County and was probably the first son to leave to settle in Arkansas. 114 Another Thomas Dillard is reported to be a son of the marriage of Colonel Thomas Dillard, Jr., and Martha Webb Dillard who resided in Washington County, North Carolina. 115 This Thomas Dillard is alleged to have been born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, between 1765 and 1774. He married Dorcas Love and died in 1827 in Haywood County, North Carolina. 116

The 1800 Census as indicated above tracked the ownership in Thomas Dillard of two slaves devised to him by his father. 117

While it is reported that Thomas Dillard III did not sell his Washington County 200 acres to his brother-in-law, Robert Love, until February 10, 1797, 118 a deed into Thomas Dillard was from David Hinton dated April, 1795 is recorded in Buncombe County. 119 This deed was for 100 acres on the Bald Mountain Fork of Ivy River "including the improvements upon which John Street did live". This deed was witnessed by Robert Love who had married Martha Dillard, a daughter of Thomas Dillard, Jr. 120 As noted above, the "Big Ivy" community lies east of the Flat Creek community in Buncombe County, North Carolina. If this Thomas Dillard were of age in 1795 it is unlikely that he was a son of John Dillard of Rabun County. This deed is probably the deed of Thomas the son of Thomas Dillard, Jr. The location of the property and the witnesses to the deed substantiate this conclusion. The four deeds which are hereinafter described, which seem to be in the same general location and within the time from of 1795 through 1802, with recorded sales of this property in the same time frame, for the same reasons appear to be those of Thomas Dillard, the son of Thomas Dillard, Jr.
Another 100 acres on the Bald Mountain Fork of the Ivy River was conveyed by a grant from the State of North Carolina to Thomas Dillard dated August 11, 1795. 121

David Hinton, on July 14, 1798 conveyed to Thomas Dillard a tract of land containing 100 acres "near the head of the Little Ivy" which had been granted to David Hinton in 1794. 122 This deed was witnessed by Thomas Love and George McCray. 123

On July 10, 1799 John Strother conveyed to Thomas Dillard fifty acres on the left hand fork of the Bald Mountain Creek of Ivy River "known by the name of Dillard's Branch". 124 This deed recited that John Strother had acquired the property as a part of the John Gray Blount grant 1796 tax sale.

Iziah Palmer on August 27, 1802 conveyed to Thomas Dillard a 100 acre tract on the waters of Pilborns Branch and Ivy River adjoining Edmond Palmer, Savage Littleton and the Ivy River with an adjoining tract of thirty acres. 125 Witnesses to this deed were John Dillard and William Gregory. This deed was proved in open court on the oath of John Dillard.

Thomas Dillard sold the August 11, 1795 grant for 100 acres to George McRay on July 14, 1798 in Deed Book 4, Page 200. This deed was witnessed by Thomas Love and David Greer. On August 25, 1804 Thomas Dillard sold to Thomas Cody the tracts of 100 acres and thirty acres which had purchased from Iziah Palmer on August 27, 1802. 126 What happened to the remaining 100 acre tract and the fifty acre tract in the Ivy River or "Big Ivy Community" of Buncombe County is unknown in that the indices of Buncombe County do not reflect any conveyance of this property from this Thomas Dillard. 127 The cross deeds could be located in another county derived from Buncombe County.

(b) Thomas the son of John Dillard

Beginning in 1806 and continuing through 1810, another grouping of deeds into a Thomas Dillard appears at Flat Creek in Buncombe County which is west of the Ivy River community. These appear to be the deeds of Thomas Dillard, the alleged son of John Dillard of Rabun County. The witnesses, the property location and the time frame are the distinguishing features of these deeds from the deeds of Thomas Dillard, the son of Thomas Dillard, Jr. given above.

Baxter Davis 128 on March 15, 1806 conveyed to Thomas Dillard in consideration of the sum of $80.00 a 100 acre tract of land, the same being a part of 200 acres "that William Welch conveyed to S. Davis beginning on the John Roberts' corner on Flat Creek." 129 This deed was witnessed by William Dillard. This property is a parallelogram transected by Flat Creek with courses on two sides being "north 60 east" and on the other two sides as "north 30 west". A October 25, 1807 grant from the State of North Carolina to Thomas Dillard and Esquire Woods conveyed sixty acres on Flat Creek beginning at a white Oak on Chambers' line on the north side of the Creek near Welch, thence runs south four chains to Strother's corner, a white Oak, thence south 30 east with said line crossing the Creek". 130 A state survey of this land grant No. 1578 "entered April 22, 1805" issued December 5, 1806 exists. "John Roberts of Flat Creek" and Thomas Dillard are listed as the chainbearers for surveyor John Patton. Flat Creek clearly transects this property. A common line "S 30 E" and transecting Flat Creek on the expected line places this property as contiguous to the 100 acres conveyed by Baxter Davis in Deed Book 7, Page 650.

A third grant from the State of North Carolina to Thomas Dillard dated March 27, 1808 conveyed fifty acres in Buncombe County, North Carolina on the north fork of Flat Creek also beginning at John Roberts line to "Strother's line in his field" and south 30 east with Roberts line to the beginning corner. 131 This fifty acre grant appears to tangent the 60 acre tract acquired by John Dillard of Rabun County on exactly the same date through a common line "West 127 poles" compared to John Dillard's "East 120 poles". The land grant survey of this property shows it is Grant No. 1658 issued November 27, 1807 "entered November 8, 1806".
Baxter Davis and "Tom" Dillard were chainbearers for surveyor John Patton. Thomas Dillard sold to William Chambers the 100 acre tract, the fifty acre and the sixty acre tract by deed dated August 15, 1810, recorded on June 12, 1838 in Deed Book 21, Page 242 which accounted for all tracts of land in the Flat Creek area owned by Thomas Dillard the son of John Dillard. The latter deed confirmed by recitation that the fifty acre tract and the 100 acre tract adjoined each other. No representation was made in this deed as to also conveyed 60 acre tract, but because of recitations to the Welch line and a common line of "S 30 E", it is believed that the 60 acres adjoined the 100 acres. The common line connecting the 100 acre tract to the 50 acre tract is thirty degrees off and that lends some doubt to contiguity as hereinafter mentioned.

The foregoing ties together as most probably contiguous all three Thomas Dillard tracts to the John Dillard 60 acre tract acquired in Deed Book 3, Page 463.

Thomas Dillard was a party to one other deed not connected with the above three properties. On January 20, 1808 in Deed Book B, Page 152, Mary Wood and William Wood conveyed to Matthew Cole 250 acres on the south side of Flat Creek. In a certificate attached to the foot of this deed, William Wood, Mary Wood, James Wood, Mason Wood, Elizabeth Wood, Vincent Wood and Thomas Dillard "relinquished, give over and quit any claim or pretense of any right or title or expectation of profit from the within mentioned land". 132 Thomas Dillard, a son of John, had married Mary Ann Wood.

If the departure into Arkansas of Thomas Dillard the son of John Dillard of Rabun County is evidenced by the deeds, his date of departure would have been 1810. Based on this same assumption, the date of departure of John Dillard, Jr., along with James Gregory to Knox County, Kentucky from the sale of 100 acres to Zachariah Candler in Deed Book E, Page 74 would be 1812.

Arkansas descendants of Thomas Dillard until recent years could not trace their origins beyond Arkansas. 133 It was found that John V. Dillard, a son of Thomas Dillard, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina as shown on his service records when he enlisted in the mounted rangers of Independence County, Arkansas and later died in service in the Indian Nation. 134 This information resulted in the search of Buncombe County records when it was concluded that Thomas Dillard was the son of John Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia. Virginia cousins of Thomas Dillard also migrated to Arkansas. 135

Whether or not Thomas, William and John, Jr., were the three older children of John Dillard of Rabun County is not provable with presently known facts even though the circumstantial evidence is compelling for an affirmative answer. Their alleged relationship to John Dillard was unknown until recent years to the Rabun County Dillards, who relying upon Ritchie's work and John Dillard's Revolutionary pension application, were convinced that John Dillard of Rabun County had only three children. 136

Appendix

Were the Lands Contiguous?
A Graphic Study

Dillard researchers are curious as to how the various tracts owned by John Dillard of Rabun County, and Thomas, William, John, Jr. and James, at Flat Creek relate to each other. Can it be proved with scientific criteria that these tracts, in traditional father and son fashion, adjoined each other?

An attempt has been made by a country lawyer accustomed to dealing with land titles over thirty nine years to "plot" the deeds with an assumed north using a scale with a ruler and protractor (to measure degrees from the assumed true north position), a commonly used method to transpose the common law course and distance legal descriptions contained in deeds into a graphic illustration of the land conveyed in that deed.

There are limitations to this methodology. When the courses and distances will not permit the plotting to "close" other practical factors must be considered, such as the identification of adjoining owners, adequately described common markers, the existence of natural objects as boundaries and the intent of the four corners of the descriptions. These factors are taken into consideration by courts in the decision of boundary line disputes, especially in older deeds where adequate courses and distances are notoriously lacking due to the inadequacy of early surveying equipment.

Land grant plats of some of the Dillard tracts now on file with the North Carolina Department of Archives and History substantiate the courses and distances in the deeds. These plats are also helpful in giving a picture of physical features of the land which cannot be shown in a deed (such, by way of example, as showing where Flat Creek transected the 100 acre homeplace conveyed to John Dillard in the 1794 grant).

The results are set forth in the exhibits attached hereto. The explanation of the deductive plotting process may be tedious to the reader not accustomed to the technicalities of legal descriptions, in which event it can simply be skipped over. Exhibit A: Tracts A, B, C and D

Exhibit A illustrates that the four tracts owed by John Dillard, John Jr. and James Dillard as plotted tie together as contiguous with no uncertainty. These include (l) the 100 acre "homeplace" tract of John Dillard in Deed Book 2, 7 which he had entered in 1789 (the deed recited no adjoining owners) shown as Tract A on Exhibit A, (2) the 100 acre "Wagon Road" tract "lying south of his old survey" (which in plotting does in fact lie south thereof) conveyed to John Dillard in 1797 in Deed Book 4, Page 347 (again, reciting no adjoining owners) shown as Tract B on Exhibit A, (3) the 100 acres owned by John Dillard, Jr. and James Gregory on the western side of the homeplace tract of John Dillard described in State Land Grant No. 1814 issued in 1810, reciting adjoining property owners James Gregory, John Dillard and Morris, shown as Tract C of Exhibit A, and (4) the 100 acre tract purchased by James Dillard from John Strother in 1814 in Deed Book H, Page 254, which is specific in its beginning point as "45 poles from John Dillard's line on the south side of said (Flat) creek and 30 poles east of said creek" shown as Tract D on Exhibit A.

Land grant plats for all of the of the above four tracts, (except for the James Dillard tract purchased from John Strother where there was no land grant plat) verify their common courses and distances with only minor discrepancies. Deed and plat recitations of common corner markers and adjoining owners tie in together with only minor discrepancies.

Cross deeds on the sales of these properties Zachariah Candler in 1812 in Deed Book E, Page 74, and the Wagon Road tract and John Dillard Jr. and James Gregory Tract to Adam Miller in 1812 in Deed Book 24, Page 399 (which recite that these two tracts with the homeplace tract sold to Pickens were contiguous) further verify the contiguity of all four tracts shown on Exhibit A.

It appears from the recitations in the John Dillard, Jr. deed to Candler "joining the lands the said John Dillard, Jr. sold to Joseph Hughey on the north side" that other property was owned by John Dillard, Jr. which is not indexed in Buncombe County, North Carolina. No deed for the sale of the James Dillard 100 acres is indexed in order that a hint could be picked up of who were the adjoining property owners of that tract in addition to the recited John Dillard. As will be seen hereinafter, John Strother was the owner of property northeast of the tracts shown on Exhibit A as well as the four deeds shown in Exhibit B.

Exhibit B: Tracts E, F, G and H

These four tracts tie together with contiguity as shown on Exhibit B, but there are some discrepancies.

Two of these tracts, standing only in regard to each other, present no plotting problems as being contiguous. These are (l) the strangely shaped 60 acre tract which John Dillard acquired by state grant in 1807 in Deed Book 3, Page 463, shown as Tract E, (2) the 50 acre land grant to Thomas Dillard on the very same date in Deed Book in Deed Book 3, Page 461, shown as Tract F. Both expectedly share a common line of "East 120 poles" on the John Dillard side and "West 127 poles" on the Thomas Dillard side, a minor discrepancy. Both call for John Strother's property on the northeast. A discrepancy is that Tract F calls for John Roberts line at the northernmost corner adjoining Tract E, and Tract E calls for this corner as on property owned by Brittain. The angle created at the juncture of Tracts E and F does not appear adequate to accommodate both the Brittain and the Roberts properties.

Two other of these four tracts (1) a state grant to Thomas Dillard and Esquire Wood for 60 acres in Deed 3, Page 396, shown as Tract G, and (2) a deed from Baxter Davis to Thomas Dillard in Deed Book 7, Page 650, shown as Tract H, tie together with contiguity along a common line "S 30 E", with Flat Creek intersecting both tracts on lines where it should intersect the same as shown on the land grant survey of Tract G. A minor discrepancy is that the distances along the common line "S 30 E" are not the same, which can be explained in that Tract H is 40 acres larger than Tract G. Both tracts call for John Strother's property on the northeast.

Tying together Tract F into Tract H, both owned by Thomas Dillard, (where the result would be tying all four tracts shown on Exhibit B together as contiguous) is more doubtful in that the only plausible common line on Tract F is "East 70 poles" and on Tract H "N 60 E 125 poles". While the differences in the distances is explainable, the 30 degree difference in the course is not explainable. This discrepancy is overcome by the recitations in the deed where Thomas Dillard sold all three tracts to William Chambers in 1810 which deed flatly represents that all at least two of these tracts were contiguous.

Tying Together Exhibit A and Exhibit B

Where the plotting test fails to provide a definite answer is when an attempt is made to tie together all four tracts shown on Exhibit A with all four tracts shown on Exhibit B.

The greatest problem is that there are no common lines where the tracts in Exhibit A could tie into the tracts in Exhibit B. The closest common lines which run in the same direction between Tracts A, B and E are "N 45 W" on Tract A and "S 60 E" on Tract E.

Another problem is the language in the John Dillard grant for the 60 acres shown as Tract E on Exhibit B on the northeasternmost end of a very long line as "beginning with his hickory north corner by William Dillard's house on Strother's line". There is no property owned by William Dillard which can be located at this position. Was William Dillard's house on his property or his father's property?

Another problem is that at the opposite, or southwesternmost extreme, of this same very long line (3877 feet), a recitation in the deed into John Dillard from the state was "to a stake with Dillard's line" and in the deed where John Dillard sold this property to William Pickens the recitation was "to a stake Will Dillard's line". No property owned by William Dillard can be found which can be located at the southwesternmost extreme of this same line. The recitation "to a stake with Will Dillard's line" in the later deed is probably an error in copying or in misreading "with" for "Will".

A serious problem is whether or not this deed for Tract E intended to convey along a line owned by Dillard to a stake, or did it intend to convey along someone else's line to a stake corner on John Dillard's line?

Three theories of plotting are attempted to reconcile these problems:

One plotting hypothesis (Exhibit D, the "Hickory Theory") capitulates to the possibility that no common lines are contiguous between the tracts on Exhibits A and B, but only a common corner and that common corner is on a hickory. It literally applies the hickory corner called for at the northwesternmost corner of Tract E to the only other hickory (at the southwesternmost corner of Tract B) found on any of the other tracts owned by John Dillard shown on Exhibit A. The arguments against this plotting result is that a bizarrely impractical property arrangement results (where John Dillard could not enter Tract E from his other property without stepping on someone else's land), that the ownership by John Strother of property on the northwest of all of the property shown on Exhibits A and B is in great part ignored, and that the unequivocal language in the Pickens deed that Tract E lies "east of" Tract A is ignored.

A second plotting hypothesis (Exhibit E, the "Corner Stake Theory") places part of the distance of the very long line on Tract E called for as "S 30 W" contiguous to the southernmost line of Tract A with one corner touching Tract B, the "Wagon Road" tract. The arguments for this placement are that (i) the southernmost extreme of the long line "S 30 W" on Tract E falls "on Dillard's corner", (ii) that the lines "S 30 W" and "S 45 W" on Tracts A and E are running in the same, and not opposite directions, and are only 15 degrees off, (iii) that this placement follows John Dillard's other property a long distance to carry out that this deed to Tract E meant literally "along" and not "to" John Dillard's line, iv) that the representation in the deed to William Pickens "to the east" is mostly followed because Tract E, as located, while lying southeast of Tract A, projects away from Tract A in an eastern direction and (v) the results are a practical land arrangement. Negatives are (i) that the command in the Pickens deed is in part ignored in that this placement places the adjoining line of Tract E southeast, and not east, of Tract A, (ii) John Dillard's "north corner on Strother," considering the proved north location of the James Dillard Tract D, stretches out Tracts F, G and H too much eastwardly to be realistically located on Strother as called for in all of those deeds and (iii) if this placement is used, this would eliminate the location of the original William Gregory grant for 200 acres in Deed Book S1-2, Page 70 as adjoining John Dillard's homeplace tract on the south.

Exhibit F applies "The Word of the Pickens Deed Theory". This plotting hypothesis literally follows the command of the deed from John Dillard to William Pickens in Deed Book 19, Page 358 that Tract E "adjoins (Tract A) on the east". The arguments for this arrangement are (i) that it places the corner "at William Dillard's house on Strother's line" in the right place in that this is the same property which Strother later sold to James Dillard, (ii) that it adheres to John Dillard's called for "north corner", (iii) that the resulting property arrangement is practical, (iv) that the "angle" created by Tracts A and D fits in snugly around the two northernmost corners of Tract E (which makes land surveyors comfortable that the survey is correct), and that (v) Strother's property falls in the position called for in all of the deeds to Tracts D, E, F, and H, (vi) that this plotting carries out the intention of the grant into John Dillard from the state for Tract E that this property followed John Dillard's other property for some distance, and did not merely corner on John Dillard's stake and (v) that the William Gregory 200 acre first tract is left where it is thought to have been adjoining John Dillard on the south.

The negative arguments for the "Word of the Pickens Deed Theory" are, however, troubling. One serious negative is that the line "S 30 W" on Tract E does not tie into "S 45 E" in Tract A. In fact, these lines are running in totally opposite directions where they would, if projected, cross each other. If there is an error in the deed transposing the intended "S 30 E" into "S 30 W", greater support theory to this plotting hypothesis would result in leaving only a 15 degree error. Another negative argument is that "N 45 E" on Tract D, which is a continuation of the same course on the northernmost side of Tract A, does not tie into "N 60 W" as the adjoining line of Tract E, but this involves only a 15 degree error. A more minor negative is that the southernmost terminus of the long line "S 30 E" on Tract E does not fall on a known John Dillard corner.

May we assume notwithstanding some glaring inconsistencies, that John Dillard's deed scrivener to William Pickens knew what he was talking about in stating that Tract E, the key to solving the problems, was on the east? And this meant east, and not southeast? While the reader can draw his own conclusions, the writer of this exercise has come to the following conclusions with some reservations:

First, the contiguity of the four tracts of land illustrated in Exhibit A (that is, the John Dillard homeplace, his "wagon road" tract, the John Dillard, Jr. and James Gregory tract, and the James Dillard tract) is certain with little doubt.

Second, the first tract which William Gregory received in this area containing 200 acres may, with some doubts, be located on the south side of the John Dillard homeplace along the line "S 45 W 14 poles and 76 poles".

Third, the four tracts of land shown on Exhibit B (that is the John Dillard 60 acres and all three Thomas Dillard tracts) were contiguous, but the case is not nearly as strong as the contiguity of the tracts shown on Exhibit A.

Fourth, the "Bailey Mill Tract" of John Dillard and the only deed conveying property of record of William Dillard shown on Exhibit C do not adjoin the eight tracts above set forth.

Fifth, that Exhibit D may be eliminated as the theory with the weakest support.

Sixth, confronted with substantial discrepancies and inconsistencies with either choice, and influenced by what the deed from John Dillard to William Pickens said, that all eight tracts above illustrated are contiguous either as shown in Exhibit E or in Exhibit F. The call of which should be selected is too close to make.

With Civil War Service (1)

Confederate Units Included

The men below listed who were from Rabun County, Georgia or nearby and who are descendants or other kin of Revolutionary War soldier John Dillard of that county served in the following units of service:

Six --- consisting of William F. Dillard, Leander M. Beavert, William Marshall McKinney, William L. Dickerson, and James R. Lambert --- served in the 24th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry (Rabun County Riflemen), Company E. John H. Corn served in Company D of the same regiment. The 24th Georgia Regiment after being called for duty to Goldsboro, North Carolina as a part of the Army of Northern Virginia engaged in heavy combat and suffered severe casualties in Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (in which Lee attacked and defeated with 60,000 men Union General Hooker's 130,000 men), Gettysburg, Knoxville, Cedar Creek and the final siege and surrender at Petersburg and Richmond. It was also engaged in combat in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Out of its 303 troops at Gettysburg, seventeen percent were disabled. Many were captured at Sayler's Creek. Only four officers and 56 men surrendered on April 9, 1865.(2)

Eight --- consisting of James Madison Ritchie, Riley Burton Richie, William L. Dickerson, William A. Martin, Jasper Hopper, James M. Neville, John Barnett Dillard and William Barnett Dillard (the last two named first served in the 4th Georgia Cavalry state militia as hereinafter mentioned) --- served in the 11th Georgia Cavalry, Company F. James Madison Ritchie appears to have also served in Company E, Young's Battalion which was a part of the 11th Regiment formed out of the 30th Cavalry Battalion. The 11th Infantry Regiment, organized in the spring of 1861, was assigned to the Potomac District under General G. T. Anderson's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. It fought in the Seven Days' Battle, Cold Harbor and at Knoxville. It took part in the Petersburg siege and was active in conflicts around Appomattox. It lost 65 percent of its troops at Gettysburg. It surrendered at the end of the war with 16 officers and 176 men.(3) Thomas Hopper served in the 52nd Georgia Regiment, Company F. This regiment was organized in April of 1862 principally from men from the Georgia counties of Habersham, White, Towns, and Fannin. It took part in the Cumberland Gap operations and then moved to Kentucky and later Mississippi. When Vicksburg fell, it was a part of the garrison which was captured. Exchanged and assigned to General Stovall's Brigade, it fought with the Army of Tennessee from Missionary Ridge to Nashville. (4)

Three --- John Barnett Dillard and his brother, Albert George Dillard, and William Barnett Dillard, son of Albert George Dillard, --- served in the 4th Georgia Cavalry (State Guards), H. W. Cannon's Company in Colonel Robert White's Regiment. Early in the war some 250 companies of Georgians enlisted in the state militia.(5) The Georgia 4th Cavalry was mustered out of service on February 4, 1864 in that the terms of the enlistments of the troops had expired.(6) This was set forth in a letter from Major General Howell Cobb, Commanding Officer. No history of combat for this regiment has been found, but the Georgia militia served with the regular Confederate troops during the Atlanta Campaign and in opposing Sherman’s March to the Sea.(7) As above indicated, John Barnett Dillard and William Barnett Dillard joined the 11th Georgia Cavalry, Company F to continue fighting in the war.

A. J. Martin served in the Home Guard. The Home Guard consisted of men too old or too young to serve in combat and played a significant role in the Confederate effort.

George W. A. McKinney served in the 64th Georgia Regiment (Georgia Volunteers), Company B. Its men were recruited principally from Warren and Johnson counties. It shared in the battles, skirmishes and hardships of the Petersburg siege and the Appomattox operations. When this regiment surrendered, only nine officers and 93 men were present.(8)

James Bryan Conley served in the North Carolina 16th Regiment, Infantry (Thomas' Legion). Thomas' Legion, organized by William Holland Thomas who married a Dillard descendant, was state militia which consisted of Cherokee Indians and mountaineers principally from Western North Carolina in the brutal struggle between the residents of North Carolina and the strong Unionists in bordering Tennessee. This legion was often in conflict with both federal and state authorities in its unique role.(9) R.G.A. Love of Haywood County served as regimental lieutenant colonel and James R. Love and Dillard L. Love, all Thomas Dillard, Jr. descendants, served as company officers in this regiment.(10) The 16th Regiment was engaged in heavy combat in Virginia at Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Frazier's Farm, Cold Harbor, Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, and Fredericksburg. Of the 321 engaged at Gettysburg, thirty seven percent were disabled.(11)

George W. L. Kelley served in Company G of North Carolina troops in battle at Malvern Hill. Brothers, Andrew J. Martin and James Monroe Martin, were residents of Rabun County, Georgia but one of them married a South Carolinian. Both served in South Carolina Ist Regiment, Orr's Rifles, Company A. This regiment was organized at Sandy Springs, South Carolina (Anderson County) in July, 1861. Its men were principally residents of Abbeville, Pickens, Anderson and Marion Counties, South Carolina. It was assigned to General Gregg's and McGowan's brigade and fought with the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days' Battle to Cold Harbor. It was involved in the Petersburg trenches and the Appomattox activities. Of 537 engaged in combat at Gaines' Mill, fifty nine percent were killed, wounded or missing. It sustained 116 casualties at Second Manassas and 170 at Fredericksburg. It surrendered with nine officers and 48 men.

Details on Individuals

For the reader to more easily follow the information which follows, the children of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard, who settled Rabun County when he was past sixty years of age were: Thomas Dillard, William F. Dillard, John Dillard, Jr., James Dillard, Mary Rebecca Dillard Dickerson, Elizabeth Dillard Dryman and Sara Dillard Davis. There were possibly other daughters whose names are unknown. The children of James Dillard (son of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard) and his wife, Sarah Barnard Dillard, the core of the Rabun County, Dillards, are given in another article herein.

William Franklin Dillard, son of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard, born June 20, 1833 died at General Hospital No. 1 in Lynchburg, Virginia of pneumonia on January 15, 1863 where he is buried in a government cemetery at Lynchburg, Virginia in No. 1, 1st line, Lot 183 Clayton's Factory. He was listed as a private in Co. E., 24th Ga. Reg., Army of Northern Virginia.(12) National Archives File No. 433b on "W. F. Dillard" verifies that he was a private in Company E, 24th Georgia Cavalry (Confederate).

His Statement of Service Slip reads (apparently correspondence had been conducted with the Commissioner of Pensions, State of Georgia with an unknown party) "state. made, arch div. anything add" and "nothing additional found". A report of sick and wounded states that he was in General Hospital No. 1 at Lynchburg, Virginia for the month of January, 1863. Discharges on Surgeon's Certificate and Deaths notes indicate that he died from pneumonia on January 15, 18 _ (the year was left blank). The Register of Deceased Soldiers turned over to Quartermasters, C.S.A. filed in 1864, No. 4812 notes a credit to his account in the sum of $55.50.(13) William F. Dillard resided on the middle one?third of James Dillard’s original 1000 acres.

His home place, which now stands, is owned by B.Malcolm Dillard. William F. Dillard married Jeanette Gibson, who died a few years after William F. Dillard did not return from the Civil War. She is buried in the Gibson cemetery on top of Scruggs Mountain near Rabun Nacoochee College. His death at Lynchburg, Virginia was not known about until recent years. He and his wife were survived by three small children who were taken in and raised by members of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church, including the Ritchie, Neville and Powell families. The William F. Dillard house was closed down until these three children became of age. The William F. Dillard property was divided and later owned by the descendants of these three children in three parts, where present descendants still reside.

John Barnett Dillard, born May 1, 1827 and who died on October 25, 1895, shown as age 23 on the 1860 Rabun County census, was the second son of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard. He was born and died in Rabun County, Georgia. It is thought that his real name may have been Barnard in that Barnett is a common misspelling of Barnard, but "Barnett" was used in Confederate records. Militia District No. 556 was created in Rabun County on December 14, 1863 under an act of the Georgia Legislature reorganizing the state militia. Both John B. Dillard, his brother, Albert George Dillard, and his brother's son, William Barnett Dillard, were members of this militia on the records of the Adjutant General of Georgia. He was listed under the name "Barnnett Dillard" in the Georgia 4th Cavalry (State Guards), Cannon's Company.(14) This is the same company in which his older brother, Albert George Dillard, served. Records of the National Archives No. 177 lists "Barrett Dillard" as a private in Cannon's Company, 4 Georgia Cavalry (State Guards). This record is undated.

A further undated record in the National Archives lists "Barrett Dillard" on the muster roll for six months in Company D of Georgia 4th Cavalry (State Guards) as a private in Captain H. W. Cannon's Company (Brown Mountain Riflemen), Colonel Robert White's Regiment, Georgia.

It is recorded in Register of Commissions issued for the Georgia Militia in the Adjutant General’s office at page 103 that John B. Dillard was Captain of the 556th District of the 7th Division, 1st Brigade at Clayton in Rabun County on July 19, 1862. His signature on a letter accepting his commission dated January 17, 1863 is filed in correspondence with the Georgia Adjutant General.

John Barnett Dillard was mustered in on May 25, 1864 as a regular in the Confederate Army after the 4th Cavalry was mustered out of service in February, 1864. The Georgia Confederate Pensions and Records Department in its compiled commission and rosters shows John Barnett Dillard on May 25, 1864 as a 5th Sergeant on the Muster Roll of Company F, 11th Regiment of Georgia, (formerly the 30th Battalion Georgia Cavalry) Cavalry known as Harmon’s Brigade and as “Rabun Gap Defenders”. (15) He was described in this record as age 37, five feet, 9 inches tall with blue eyes and dark hair. The 11th Regiment was involved in heavy combat in Virginia and elsewhere, including Petersburg, Cold Harbor and Gettysburg.

Handwritten memoranda given by the late Addie Corn Ritchie to John M. Dillard some thirty years ago state that John Barnett Dillard was hospitalized in Augusta, Georgia for five months for injuries he received during the Civil War. Available records do not disclose where these injuries were received. Trade journals list "John B. Dillard, postmaster and grist mill" and "Dillard House, John B. Dillard, propr" at the Head of the Tennessee Post Office, Rabun County, Georgia.(16) An uncompleted and undated letter prepared by the late Rose Dillard Hutchins a year or so before she died states that the "original Dillard House" was the two story home of John B. Dillard, located close to the road in which the Dillard Post Office was housed for many years. The kitchen was separated from the main house. A slave family resided in a cabin in the rear. The John B. Dillard lands comprised the southern one?third of James Dillard's property surrounded by the present Baptist church, northeast of which near the road the home place stood. A portion of this property was later owned by his son, Beavert R. Dillard, and is now owned by his great grandson, Edward R. Dillard. "J. B. Dillard, grist mill" was among the list of farmers in 1883 at Rabun Gap Post Office, also known as the Head of the Tennessee Post Office.(17)

Barnett Dillard (Ritchie referred to him as “Barnard”) made the pulpit for the wooden church building, construction of which was started in 1882 and completed several years later. This pulpit was refinished and placed in the building in use in 1963.(18) He married Rachel Matilda McKinney, who was born on June 3, 1831 and died June 17, 1899, and their ten children are set forth in a separate article which follows. John B. Dillard, his wife and three of his children are buried in the Head of the Tennessee Baptist Church Cemetery at Dillard, Georgia.

Albert George Dillard, a son of James and Sarah Barnard Dillard, born April 21, 1824 who died June 14, 1890, was on the list of those eligible for military service in Ritchie's Sketches of Rabun County History. He would have been at this time aged 26. He was born, lived and died in Rabun County and is buried at the Head of the Tennessee Baptist Church. He married Elizabeth Ann (“Betsy”) McKinney (born November 10, 1823, died February 28, 1919) on December 3, 1846. The names of his children are given in an article which follows. Albert Dillard along with his brother, Barnett, was enrolled in the state militia in District 556 according to the records of the Adjutant General of Georgia. His oldest child, William B. Dillard, listed below, was also listed as a member of this militia unit.(19) National Archives records state that he was on the muster roll for at least six months, but this record, like his brother's record, is undated. His obituary in an unknown farmers’ publication states (20) that he died at age 66 of a heart attack in the Head of the Tennessee Baptist Church while attending a Farmers Alliance meeting. The Albert George Dillard one story log home place (shown in photograph owned by Lillian Dillard Taylor of a birthday party for Betsy McKinney Dillard, his wife) was near the North Carolina state line in that he occupied the northernmost one third portion of the James Dillard lands. This house was moved from the path of the Blue Ridge Railroad when it was first constructed. A. G. Dillard was listed as a blacksmith and as a farmer at Head of Tennessee Post Office in early trade journals.(21)

William Barnett Dillard, a son of Albert George Dillard and Elizabeth (Betsy) McKinney Dillard, is above mentioned as being in the Georgia state militia in Rabun County when he was only sixteen years of age. He is later shown on the Georgia Confederate Pensions and Records Department and on the muster roll of Company F, 11th Regiment of Georgia, Cavalry or in the “Rabun Gap Defenders” along with his uncle, John Barnett Dillard. He was on the muster roll as a private on May 25, 1864 and “at home at Jones farm near Savannah, Georgia sick with the measles March, 1865 to the close of the war”. He died on April 22, 1906.

Leander M. Beavert was born on October 27, 1829 and died January 23, 1907. He married Margaret McKinney, a daughter of William McKinney and Margaret Anderson McKinney who were nearby neighbors of the James Dillard family. His wife, Margaret McKinney Beavert, received a pension on account of infirmity and poverty stating he enlisted in May 1861 in Co. E., 24th Ga. Reg. This was Rabun County Riflemen, Co. E, 24th Georgia Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. He enlisted in May, 1861, was a first lieutenant by August 24, 1861 and was made a captain on July 20, 1864. The Muster Roll of Company E, 24th Georgia Volunteers, Infantry of C. S. Army shows that he was promoted from first lieutenant to captain in April, 1964. He is buried with his wife and their "adopted" daughters at Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Dillard, Georgia.(22)

George Washington Anderson McKinney was a son of William McKinney and Margaret Anderson McKinney. He was born April 14, 1826 and died in Polk County, Georgia on July 26, 1901. He was a private in Company B. 65th Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. He served as an army nurse at Frank Ramsey Hospital in Cassville, Georgia and was discharged in 1864 upon his appointment as clerk of the Inferior Court of Townes County, but subsequently reenlisted for service.(23) For the reader to follow the information about the McKinneys contained herein, the children of William McKinney and Margaret Anderson McKinney, who migrated from Buncombe County into Rabun County, were George Washington Anderson McKinney, Doctor Tatum McKinney, Charles Lafayette McKinney, William Marshall McKinney, Elizabeth (“Betsy”) McKinney who married Albert George Dillard, Rachel M. McKinney who married John Barnett Dillard and Margaret McKinney who married Leander M. Beavert.(24)

Charles Lafayette McKinney was born April 24, 1834 and died in Townes County on September 21, 1863 at 29 years of age. According to his family tradition his early death was attributable to wounds he received during the Civil War. No service record has been found for him to date. He was a brother of George Washington Anderson McKinney.

William Marshall McKinney was born January 26, 1837 (shown as age 23 on the 1860 Rabun County census) and died in Texas in 1903. He was a first corporal on August 21, 1861 and reported as a deserter on October 1, 1864(25) He was a brother of George Washington Anderson McKinney(26). Ritchie in his Rabun County history confused him with his father, William McKinney, who died in 1859 and was erroneously identified by Ritchie at page 192 as enlisting as a corporal in 1861. The Muster Roll of Company E, 24th Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Infantry, C. S. Army, lists William M. McKinney.

Doctor Tatum McKinney was shown as age 20 on the 1860 Rabun County census in the household of his mother, Margaret. He was born February 10, 1840 and killed in Confederate Service at age 22 in December, 1862. He served as a second corporal in Company E, 24th Regiment of Georgia Volunteers comprising the "Rabun Gap Riflemen".(27) He was a brother of George Washington Anderson McKinney. The Muster Roll of Company E, 24th Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Infantry, Confederate States Army, lists Doctor T. McKinney along with his brother, William M. McKinney.

James R. Lambert was born in Macon County, North Carolina on December 21, 1842 to William McDowell Lambert and Caroline Dillard, daughter of James and Sarah Barnard Dillard. Caroline Dillard Lambert died when he was nine days old. Shown on the 1850 census of Rabun Gap, he was raised by James and Sarah Barnard Dillard. He was the only additional person listed in their household on the 1860 Census of Rabun County. He enlisted with 24th Georgia, Company E on August 24, 1861. He participated in the battles of Yorktown, Seven Days, Malvern Hill and the Battle of South Carolina in Maryland. He was wounded in 1862 by a miniball which broke both bones in his left leg below the knee. He was captured and sent to a U.S. Army hospital in Burkettsville, Maryland. It was there that he refused to permit a Union surgeon to amputate his leg. He was later transferred as a prisoner of war to Fort McHenry near Baltimore and was paroled in November, 1862. After spending time in Confederate hospitals, in December 1864 he was retired to Invalid Corps. He remained in Georgia, where he signed the Reconstruction Oath Book in April, 1868. He migrated to Wood County, Texas, where he married Sarah Vaughn in 1880. They farmed and were the parents of five children, including Jesse Dillard Lambert. He died in 1902 and is buried in Concord Cemetery in Wood County, Texas. Sarah Vaughn Lambert applied for a widow's pension in 1915, which she received from the state of Texas until her death in 1929.(28)

James Madison Ritchie is shown as age 33 on the 1860 Rabun County census. He married Elizabeth Dickerson, a daughter of Obediah Terry Dickerson and Mary Dillard Dickerson (a daughter of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard of Rabun County). He served in Company E, Young's Battalion which was a part of the 11th Regiment formed out of the 30th Cavalry Battalion. He is also listed with service in Company F of the 11th Georgia Cavalry. According to Georgia Pension records, he was on the muster roll as a private on May 25, 1864 and surrendered at Columbia, South Carolina on April 26, 1865. His wife, Elizabeth, filed for a widow's pension based on his Confederate service. He was born on January 6, 1825 and died a resident of Rabun County on June 12, 1909.(29) He was involved in the California gold rush and returned home in 1856 to marry. He served as a member of the House of Representatives and as state senator from Rabun County. He is buried in Wesley Chapel Methodist Cemetery at Dillard. The children of James Madison Ritchie and Elizabeth Dickerson were Mary Rebecca, who married Zachariah Barnard Dillard; James Riley "Bud" Ritchie who married Lavania Caroline Marinda Lucinda Carter; John F. Ritchie who married Margaret Texano (“Texie”) Kelly; William Robert Lee Ritchie who married Sarah Carter; and Thomas Jefferson Ritchie who married Ada Green and, on her death, Lizzie Garland Vanhook.(30)

Riley Burton Ritchie was a brother of James Madison Ritchie. He married Sarah Ann Martin, a daughter of A. J. Martin and Marinda Dillard Martin (daughter of James and Sarah Barnard Dillard). His service was in Company F, 11th Georgia Cavalry. He was a private on May 25, 1864 and surrendered at Columbia, South Carolina on April 26, 1865. His wife applied for a Confederate widow's pension.

Thomas Hopper is included herein as a first cousin to the wives of John Barnett Dillard, Albert G. Dillard and Leander M. Beavert. He is shown as age 35 on the 1860 census of Rabun County with wife Louisa. He enlisted in March 1862 in Company F, 52nd Georgia Regiment, Beauregard Braves from Rabun County, and died in a Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi hospital in May, 1863 from measles. He was a 4th Corporal. His widow Louisa applied for a widow's pension under the 1891 Georgia legislative act paying widows of Confederate servicemen.

Joseph Hopper was age 29 on the 1860 Rabun County census of the Valley District. He was a brother to Jasper and Henry Hopper. He was a private on March 4, 1862.(31) He is shown as having enlisted in Company F, 11th Regiment Georgia. He was in the Cavalry on May 25, 1864.

Jasper Hopper served with other Rabun County men as volunteers in the brutal war involving the Seminole Indians in Florida in 1835.(32) Georgia Confederate Pensions and Records Department in commissions and rosters compiled by the commission records state that Jasper Hopper served in Company F, 11th Regiment of Georgia (Harmon’s Brigade), known as the “Rabun County Riflemen,” as a private on May 25, 1864. He was captured at Waynesboro, Georgia on December 4, 1864, paroled at Point Lookout, Maryland on February 18, 1865 and received at Boulware Cox’s Wharves, James River, Virginia for exchange on February 20, 1865.(33)

William L. Dickerson was a grandson of Obediah Terry Dickerson (whose wife was Mary Dillard, daughter of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard). He was born in 1844 and died in 1923. His parents were William Terry Dickerson and Adelaine Keener. He is listed in the Beauregard Braves of Rabun County as a private. He served in Company F of 52nd Georgia Regiment and in Company E of the 24th Georgia Regiment. He was captured at Baker's Creek, Mississippi on May 16, 1863, paroled at Fort Delaware on July 3, 1863 and exchanged July 4, 1863 and was in City Point, Virginia by July 6, 1863. He surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865.(34) His wife filed for a confederate pension. He is buried in Blue Heights Cemetery.

Andrew Jackson Martin would have been age 46 on the 1860 Rabun County census on which he was shown. He was married to Marinda Dillard, daughter of James Dillard and Sallie Barnard Dillard. Born on July 18, 1814, he served in the Home Guard. He died July 3, 1898. Three of his sons with Confederate service are listed below.

William A. Martin, son of A. J. Martin and Marinda Dillard Martin, served in Company F of the 11th Georgia Cavalry. He was born December 17, 1844. Georgia Department of Pensions and Records report that he was on the muster roll as a private on May 25, 1864 and surrendered at Stateboro, North Carolina in 1865. Born in Georgia, he died near Dillard, Georgia on March 31, 1930.

Andrew Jackson Martin (Jr.), a son of A. J. Martin and Marinda Dillard Martin, was wounded in the Confederate Army at Seven Pines. He was born on December 14, 1842 and died on August 11, 1862. Andrew J. Martin enlisted as a private in S. C. 1st (Orr's) Rifles, Company A, at Sullivan's Island, South Carolina on November 9, 1861.(35) He was on the muster roll of this company at Sullivan's Island located on the South Carolina coast for some time. His service was for three years. This record states that at the time of his death he was a farmer, born in Rabun County, Georgia, age 19, with blue eyes and fair complexion, 5 feet 11 and one?half inches tall with dark hair. His service record reports that he died on August 11, 1862. Where he died and the cause of his death is "not stated."(36) Family tradition is that he died in a Confederate hospital in either Columbia, South Carolina or Richmond, Virginia.(37) His brother, James Monroe Martin, married a South Carolinian which explains why both served in South Carolina instead of Georgia.

James Monroe Martin, son of A. J. Martin and Marinda Dillard Martin, was age 22 on the 1860 Rabun County census. He was born in September, 1837.(38) He was listed in South Carolina 1st (Orr's) Rifles, Company A, which is the same regiment and company in which his brother, Andrew J. Martin, served.(39) James M. Martin enlisted as a private at Camp Jackson in South Carolina on July 1, 1862. He was present at several musters at this location up to 1863. He was reported as transferred from Richmond, Virginia Hospital No. 9 to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond on February 21, 1863.

The record appears to read that he was suffering from "secondary hepatitis". This record further reports that he was returned to duty on March 14, 1863. He was taken as a prisoner at Spotsylvania, Virginia on May 12, 1864. After this date the record shows no further facts about James M. Martin. Family tradition is that he was killed in Confederate service at Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia in April, 1864.(40)

George W. L. Kelley was the husband of Nancy Martin, a daughter of A. J. Martin and Marinda Dillard Martin, who was a daughter of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard. He enlisted on June 22, 1862.(41) He was wounded on July 1, 1962 at Malvern Hill. His connection appears to have been through Company G of North Carolina Troops. The fact that he was wounded at Malvern Hill indicates that he was in the same combat as the 24th Georgia Regiment, Company E, consisting of several Rabun County, Georgia residents.

James Alexander McCarter (Mack) Neville, was the husband of Margaret Dillard, a daughter of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard. He served in Company F. 11th Georgia Cavalry.(42) He was born on March 29, 1832 and died July 11, 1904 and is buried in Wesley Chapel Cemetery, Dillard, Georgia.

James Bryan Conley, born in 1842, was the oldest of the ten children of Horatio Nelson Conley of Otto, Macon County, North Carolina, who married Arzelia Dillard, a daughter of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard. James Bryan Conley enlisted in Confederate service on May 14, 1861 as a private in Company H. 6th Regiment and received a bounty of ten dollars. His regiment was reorganized on May 20, 1862 and became Companies A through E, Infantry Regiment, Thomas' Legion, North Carolina troops. This designation was changed to 16th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry (State Troops). He was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines on June 15 or 16, 1862, which was just prior to the Battle of Mechanicsville. He died in service in Richmond, Virginia late in July, 1862. Documents filed by his father on December 26, 1862 requested his back salary which was in the sum of $20.91. Family stories say that his parents went by train to Richmond and brought his body back for burial in the Conley family cemetery near Otto. At the same time, his parents brought back the body of a fourteen year old boy who had died with no known relatives in order to bury him, too, with a Christian burial. The Conley family cemetery has tall headstones marking the grave of Horatio Nelson Conley and Arzelia Dillard Conley, but there is no gravestone marking the grave of James Bryan Conley. The last known descendant buried in this cemetery was Caroline Clarissa Conley, who tended the cemetery until her death in 1911.(43)

John H. Corn of Hiawassee, Georgia, married Sarah ("Sallie") Dillard, daughter of John B. Dillard, Sr. and Rachel McKinney Dillard. Numerous children were born of this marriage, including Addie Corn who married Dr. A. J. Ritchie. John H. Corn served as a Captain in Company D, 24th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. His service record extends from August 21, 1861 through May 12, 1862.(44) Many of the members of the Corn family, including John H. Corn and his wife, are buried near Hiawassee in a private cemetery on the family farm near Lower Hightower Baptist Church.

Civil War Conditions in Rabun County

Georgia seceded from the Union on January 19, 1861. The two delegates from Rabun County, Samuel Beck and Horace Cannon, voted against secession from the Union in the convention called by the Georgia Legislature at Milledgeville after the election of Lincoln. This was typical of the climate of opinion of the populace in mountainous regions of the South, including Rabun County. See Rabun County and Its People, id., page 83 relying upon Lillian Henderson's Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, id., volumes 3 and 4. The Confederate Congress passed an act authorizing the creation of local defense troops on August 21, 1861.

A. J. Ritchie, id., at pages 274 and 275 lists the names of men who were subject to military duty in 1862 in the cause of the Confederate Government, (citing records of Georgia Department of Archives and History). Ritchie points out at page 273 that this list was as a result of a Confederate act passed in 1862 which included all men between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age. In 1864 this was amended to include men between the ages of 17 and 50. A. G. Dillard, W. F. Dillard, J. B. Dillard, J. R. McKinney, Joseph, Jasper, Thomas and James Hopper were included on this 1862 list. Governor Joseph E. Brown, a firm believer in states’ rights, used the Georgia state militia as a sanctuary to keep its citizens from being drafted into the Confederate Army.(45) On December 14, 1863, the Georgia Legislature enacted statutes reorganizing the state militia. This legislation required the enrolling of free white males in designated military districts in the state, with such lists to be filed with the state Adjutant and Inspector General.

Shown on the list filed with the Adjutant General in 1863 for the 40th Senatorial District (Rabun County), Military Districts No. 556 and 587 were J. B. Dillard, age 36 and 9 months, farmer; A. G. Dillard, age 39 and 6 months, a “smith” with a “good” rifle; W. B. Dillard, age 16 and five months, a farmer; Jasper Hopper, age 45 and three months, born in Tennessee, with a rifle; A. J. Martin, age 49, a farmer with a shotgun; William Martin, age 19, a farmer; James M. Richey, 39, a farmer, born in South Carolina; and R. B. Richey, age 34, a farmer born in South Carolina. Substantially the same persons were shown on a separate list in the same year in Militia District 556 of Rabun County.

This state militia legislation resulted in service by many residents in the Georgia 4th Cavalry which was mustered out of service on February 4, 1864 in that the terms of the enlistments of the troops had expired. No combat history for this regiment has been found, but the Georgia militia served with the regular Confederate troops during the Atlanta Campaign and in opposing Sherman’s March to the Sea.(46) Among the sixty Rabun County families in 1862 who were slave owners were William F. Dillard, John Barnett Dillard and Albert George Dillard, Margaret McKinney, then a widow, and Jasper Hopper. Most owned two slaves.(47) Farms were small and most slaves were owned by residents of the rich flat land "Valley District".(48)

During the Civil War there were not enough men left in Rabun County to produce enough corn to make bread.(49) In 1863 the Georgia Legislature was forced to enact legislation for the relief of families of men in service. Inflated Confederate currency made it almost impossible to obtain sugar, salt and coffee. Salt was hauled from Walhalla.(50) In the Rabun County area after the Civil War, farming was the industry of the county with only a grist mill and some scattered sawmills. The failure of the Blue Ridge Railroad employing what Ritchie says was 2000 people before the Civil War, resulted in adverse social and economic conditions.(51) Farms were reduced in size and economic viability in that they were divided among the grandchildren of the settlers. However, the economic value of the "open range" of the mountains was still available to the small farm owners.

Cass County, Georgia Dillards

The following are descendants of John Dillard, Jr., born about 1780, a son of John Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia, who with his wife, Rhoda Lee, left the rest of the family while it resided in Buncombe County, North Carolina. He migrated first to Knox County, Kentucky, then back to Monroe County, Tennessee and finally to Cass County, Georgia (now Gordon County), in the last of which counties he died about 1847. The children of John Dillard, Jr. and Rhoda Lee are as follows: Elijah Dillard, William Dillard, Mary (Polly) Dillard, Sarah Dillard Campbell, Fannie Dillard, Charlotte (Lotty) Dillard, Nancy Jane Dillard, Edith Dillard and Cynthia Dillard.(52)

Elijah Dillard was born 1802 and died in 1856. He was a son of John Dillard, Jr. and grandson of John Dillard of Rabun County. His sons included Love Dillard and William Greenbury Clay Dillard. Elijah Dillard served in Company F. 4th Infantry of Georgia.(53)

Love Dillard, a son of Elijah Dillard and grandson of John Dillard, Jr. was born in 1839. He served in Toombs Volunteers, 4th Georgia Infantry, Dole's and Goode's Brigade which was organized in Gordon County, Georgia on April 29, 1861.

Samuel Dillard, a son of William Dillard (1805-1878) and Nancy Dillard, grandson of John Dillard, Jr., was born February 10, 1829 and died January 4, 1907. He served in Company D, 8th Georgia Battalion, Gist's Brigade, Walker Division, Army of Tennessee which was organized in Gordon County, Georgia on October 11, 1861.(54) Samuel Dillard was a witness for the pension claim of Charlotte Taylor of Gordon County.(55)

Mannerly Dillard, born about 1830, was another son of William Dillard (1805-1878) and grandson of John Dillard, Jr. He is listed as "M. Dillard" who served in the Georgia 2nd Cavalry of Company D.(56)

M.M. Dillard, another son of William Dillard, born about 1843, was a captain in the Georgia 1st Infantry (State Guards), Company G.(57) Robert Dillard, a brother of M.M. Dillard in this same family, born about 1827, is listed in the Georgia Infantry, 14th BN (State Guards) in Company H.(58)

Bradley K. Dillard, another brother, born about 1835, served in the Georgia 4th Infantry, Company F. Dole's and Goode's Brigade. He was born on November 20, 1835 and died on March 27, 1892.(59)

W.W. Dillard, served in Company 1, 1st Regiment, Georgia Cavalry, Crew's Brigade, which was recruited from Gordon, Floyd, Cherokee, Bartow, Walker and Paulding Counties in 1862. It is uncertain according to Janelle Knight whether or not he was a descendant of John Dillard, Jr.

William Greenbury Clay Dillard, Jr., a son of W.G.C. Dillard, a son of Elijah Dillard who in turn was a son of John Dillard, Jr., born about 1832, was in the Georgia 1st Infantry (State Guards), Company G, as a first Sergeant.(60) He had a first cousin by the same name, who was the son of William Dillard.

Greene County, Missouri Dillards

The following with Civil War service are the descendants of William F. Dillard, son of John Dillard of Rabun County, who migrated to Knox County, Kentucky and later to Greene County, Missouri. The children of William F. Dillard and his wife, Sarah Gregory Dillard, were: Mary Love Dillard, Stephen Morgan Dillard, Samuel Dillard, John McCord Dillard, Elizabeth Candace Dillard Maddy, Robert D. Dillard, Frances Dillard Price, James Dillard, Amanda J. Dillard, Cynthia Caroline Dillard Breedlove, George Anderson Dillard, William Smith Dillard, and Sarah V. Dillard Smith.(61)

Robert H. Dillard, son of Robert D. Dillard and great grandson of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard, was born in Greene County, Missouri in 1842 and died at Helena, Arkansas in the Civil War on December 21, 1862 in the Union Army. He is buried at Memphis, Tennessee National Cemetery in Section H. Grave 4237. He enlisted on September 10, 1861 in Company A, 6th Regiment Missouri Cavalry and had the rank of corporal.

Robert D. Dillard, a son of William F. Dillard and Sarah Gregory Dillard, and grandson of Revolutionary soldier John Dillard, was born in Knox County, Kentucky on December 8, 1811 and died in Greene County, Missouri on May 25, 1899 where he is buried in Palmetto Cemetery. His wife was Margaret E. Smith. He enlisted in the Union Army on December 6, 1861 at Rolla, Missouri in Company B. 6th Cavalry, Missouri. He was a first lieutenant in the Red River Campaign and at Sabine Cross Roads. In 1890 he applied for a pension and received $12.00 per month until his death.

James Monroe Breedlove married Cynthia Caroline Dillard, a daughter of William F. Dillard and Sarah Gregory Dillard. He was a private in Company C, 8th Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Cavalry of the Union Army. He was shot in the head while guarding an ambulance traveling from Brownville, Arkansas to Austin, Arkansas. He married Jane Russell, his second wife, in 1899.

George Anderson Dillard, a son of William F. Dillard and Sarah Gregory Dillard, was born in Monroe County, Tennessee on December 4, 1826 and died in Greene County, Missouri on October 16, 1903 where he is buried in Danforth Cemetery. He married Eliza Jane Gibson in 1849. In 1862, he was commissioned as captain of the enrolled militia and was engaged in the defense of Springfield, Missouri. In that same year he was captain of Company E, 72nd Regiment of the Enrolled Militia and was discharged in 1865.

William Smith Dillard, a son of William F. Dillard and Sarah Gregory Dillard, was born in Monroe County, Tennessee on October 11, 1828 and died in Greene County, Missouri on January 25, 1902. He is buried in Danforth Cemetery. His wife was Nancy E. Langely. He served in the Missouri militia 72nd Regiment of the Union Army and was in the Marmaduke fight at Springfield, Missouri.

Independence County, Arkansas Dillards

Thomas Dillard, oldest son of John Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia about 1776. He left the rest of his family in Buncombe County, North Carolina and settled in Independence County, Arkansas where he died in 1835. The known children of Thomas Dillard and his wife, Mary Ann Wood Dillard, were: William M. Dillard, John V. Dillard, Thomas Dillard, Jr., Elizabeth Ann Dillard Ball, Nancy Dillard Bruce, and Mary (Polly) Dillard Cason.

Jonathan Wood Wideman, grandson of Thomas Dillard, born 1831, died in 1863 in the Civil War. His mother's given name is unknown.

Thomas J. Bruce, another grandson of Thomas Dillard, died in the Union Army from measles about 1863. He was from Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. His mother was Nancy Dillard Bruce.

Benjamin Franklin Bruce, born in Independence County in 1836, another grandson of Thomas Dillard, who died in 1905, served in the Union Army.

Clinton Monroe Ball, whose mother was Elizabeth Ann Dillard Ball, a daughter of Thomas Dillard, was born in Independence County in 1834 and died in 1910. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Elbridge Mason Ball, brother to Clinton Monroe Ball, born in 1836, served in the Union Army and was hanged by Confederate soldiers near his home on May 5, 1864 upon his return from service. The residents of Independence County were split among allegiance to the North and South and feelings ran high.

John Bunion Cason, husband of Mary (Polly) Dillard Cason, daughter of Thomas Dillard, died of dysentery in service and was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. He served in Company A, 1st Arkansas Volunteers.

Clinton Bradley, husband of Susan Gincy Cason, a granddaughter of Thomas Dillard, served in the 1st Arkansas Volunteers, Company A, Union Army and died in service. He is buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Thomas Dillard, Jr., a son of Thomas Dillard, of Batesville, Independence County, Arkansas, served as a private in Company B. 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment. He was born about 1818 and died in 1872.(62)

Western North Carolina: Thomas Dillard, Jr. Line

John Dillard of Rabun County with his sister, Ann, were "bound out" to Thomas Dillard, Jr., his first cousin, while both resided in Halifax County, later Pittsylvania County, Virginia. They later went together to Washington County, North Carolina (now Tennessee), where Thomas Dillard, Jr. died in 1784. John Dillard resided in Washington County until he migrated to Buncombe County, North Carolina about 1789. The children of Thomas Dillard, Jr. and his wife, Martha Webb Dillard, were: Elizabeth Dillard Hutchings (married Charles Hutchings), Benjamin Dillard (married Anne Ward Lynch) , Winnesophia Dillard (married James Love), Mary Ann Dillard (married James Robert Love (63)), Thomas Dillard, III (married Dorcus Love), Stacy Dillard Elkins (married Gabriel Elkins), Martha Dillard (married Thomas Love), Anne Dillard (never married), John Dillard and Rebecca Dillard (married Joseph Byler).(64) Eleven great grandsons of Thomas Dillard, Jr. served in the Confederacy, including six brothers from one family and three from another.

William Holland Thomas Dillard, a great?grandson of Thomas Dillard, Jr., was the son of David Love Dillard (1815?1878) and Edie Harris Dillard (1819?1898). A resident of Haywood County, North Carolina on lands which are now a part of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, he was born in 1838. He enlisted on May 30, 1861 in Capt. Thaddeus D. Bryson's 25th Regiment North Carolina Infantry (State Troops). He mustered in on June 8, 1861. He was wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862 and subsequently received other injuries in combat. He died in 1908. His state furnished gravestone indicates Confederate service from 1861?1865.

William Holland Thomas, born in 1805 in Haywood County, North Carolina, was the son of Richard Thomas and Termperance Calvert Thomas. He married Sarah Jane Bell Love, a daughter of James Robert Love and Mary Ann Dillard, and a great granddaughter of Thomas Dillard, Jr. He was possibly of blood kin to Thomas Dillard, Jr. through descent from his sister. Prior to the Civil War he as active in Cherokee Indian affairs. He served as tribal chief of the Cherokees and as state senator from 1848 through 1862. He organized and mustered fourteen companies of infantry and four companies of Cherokee Indians for the Confederate cause. These companies became known as “Thomas Legion” with a colorful history defending the mountain passes between western Carolina and Tennessee where Union sympathies were substantial. (65) See Storm in the Mountains, id.

R.G.A. Love, a great grandson of Thomas Dillard, Jr., born January 4, 1827 was a son of James Robert Love and Mary Ann Dillard and a brother in law of William Holland Thomas. His rank was colonel in Thomas’ Legion.

Dr. Samuel Leonidus Love, also a son of James Robert Love and Mary Ann Dillard, was born August 25, 1828 and served in Thomas’ Legion.

Captain Matthew Hale Love, also a son of James Robert Love and Mary Ann Dillard, born April 15, 1840 served in Thomas’ Legion.

James Robert Love, born August 19, 1832 served as Lt. Colonel and field commander of Thomas’ Legion. He was one of the six sons of John Bell Love and Margaret Coleman Love and was a great grandson of Thomas Dillard, Jr. Brothers who served with him were Dr. John Coman Love, assistant surgeon in Thomas’Legion who died in 1866 from causes attributable to his military service, Thomas J. Love, born 1844, Dallas F. Love, born born 1844, Dillard L. Love, born 1838, first Lieutenant in Company A, and William Burney Love, a lawyer who resigned to become Solicitor of Transylvania County, North Carolina.

Thadeus Dillard Bryson, born February 13, 1829 to Daniel Granderson Bryson and Artemesia Petit Dillard Bryson, another great grandson of Thomas Dillard, Jr., was a colonel in the 20th North Carolina Infantry and later a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Jackson County.

Daniel Granderson Fisher, was the third child of Allen Fisher and Dorcus Bryson (a daughter of Daniel G. Bryson and Artemesia Dillard Bryson), enlisted in the Confederate cause at age 19. He was a second lieutenant in Company E and was wounded at Mechanicsville. He was transferred to and served as captain of Company G of Thomas’ Legion. Two brothers served in Thomas’ Legion with him who were Lucious Lafayette Fisher and Julius Wilburn Fisher.

Lynch M. Dillard, was the son of Thomas Dillard (IV) and Martha Dillard. He served as a first lieutenant in Company B of the Jackson Guards of Thomas’ Legion.

John Jehu Jones, married Rutha Dillard, a sister of William Holland Thomas Dillard and the eldest daughter of David Love Dillard and Edie Harris Dillard. He served in Thomas’ Legion, 62nd North Carolina Infantry. He died on April 2, 1863 of influenza at Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.

William Riley Franklin, was married to Darcus Manurey Dillard, another sister of William Holland Thomas Dillard. He entered the Confederacy at seventeen years of age and served in the 16th North Carolina Infantry.

Jacob Marion Shuler, married Frances Caroline Dillard, another daughter of David Love Dillard and Edie Harris Dillard. He also joined the Confederate cause at seventeen years of age. He served as a member of Company F, 29th North Carolina troops. He was captured and taken as a prisoner in the defense of Mobile, Alabama. He was imprisoned at Ships Island. He was transferred to Vicksburg, Mississippi and paroled on May 11, 1965.

It is impossible to include all Dillards with Civil War service in this manuscript, even if confined to descendants and kin of John Dillard. The reader is invited to review a list of Dillards who served in the Confederacy in The Roster of Confederate Soldiers 1861-1865, Volume V, edited by Janet B. Hewett, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, N. C. (1996), or in other standard directories.

End Notes

(1) This article was presented at the 1998 Dillard Reunion History Session. It is a compilation of the research of Anne G. Dickerson, Odelle K. Hamby and John M, Dillard. Research included records of the National Archives, Georgia Archives and History, and the records of the office of the Georgia Adjutant General, family records and available standard publications. Marian Dillard Klar did all the research on the Confederates in the Colonel Thomas Dillard, Jr. line of descent. Assisting by letter and e-mail based on their independent research were Dr. Howard V Jones., Janelle Knight, Beverly V. Schroder, Karen Ledford, Sara L. Buckmaster and Elaine R. English. The writing is by John M. Dillard.

(2) Confederate Military History Extended Edition, Clement A. Evans, Wilmington, N. C., Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1987, Part IV, pages 44, 76, 199, 212, 227, 265, 294, 296 and 378. Units of the Confederate States Army, Joseph H. Crute, Jr., Midlothia, Va., (1987).

(3)Crute, id., page 92.

(4) Crute, id., page 112.

(5) Evans, id., Vol. IV, page 19.

(6) The War of the Rebellion, Series IV, Vol. III, pages 310 and 311, published by the United States Printing Office in 1900.

(7) Compendium of the Confederate Armies, South Carolina and Georgia, Stewart Sifakis (1995), page 115.

(8) Crute, id., page 116.

(9) Storm in the Mountains, Vernon H. Crow, Cherokee Indian Press, Cherokee, North Carolina, 1982.

(10) The War of the Rebellion, id., North Carolina Troops, pages 752?769.

(11) Crute, id., page 222.

(12) Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861?1865, Volume III, page 39, Lillian Henderson; Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861?1865, Janet B. Hewitt, Broadfoot & Co., Wilmington, N. C. (1996).

(13) Confederate Archives, Chapter 10, File No. 21, page 166 in National Archives.

(14) Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861?1865, id.

(15) His service in Company F, 11th Regiment in Compiled Service Records was mistakenly indexed under the name of J. B. Dellard. This made his complete service record difficult to find.

(16) Wheeler, Marshall and Bruce Georgia State Directory, Nashville, Tennessee, 1876, furnished by Sara L. Buckmaster.

(17)Georgia State Gazetteer, 1883?1884, published in Savannah, Georgia by Morning News Steam Printing Company also furnished by Sara L. Buckmaster.

(18) Ritchie, History of the Head of the Tennessee Baptist Church, 1963, page 9.

(19) Hewitt's Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861?1865, id., lists Albert G. Dillard as in the same company with his brother, John Barnett Dillard, that is, Georgia 4th Cavalry (St. Guards), Cannon's Company. National Archives Records No. 176 verify that Albert Dillard was in service in the same company with his brother, Barnett Dillard, in serving in Company D (Captain H. W. Cannon's company) in the 4th Georgia Cavalry (State Troops) in the regiment commanded by Colonel Robert White.

(20) This obituary was furnished by Lillian Dillard Taylor of Dillard, Georgia.

(21) Wheeler, Marshall and Bruce Georgia State Directory published in Nashville, Tennessee in 1876. Albert Dillard was listed as a farmer in the Georgia State Gazetteer, 1883?1884, published in Savannah, Georgia by Morning News Steam Printing Company in 1883-1884.

(22) Index to Georgia Confederate Pension Files, compiled by Virgil D. White, reads at page 82: "Beavert, Leander M, srv Co. E, 2th Ga. See claim of Mrs. Margaret C. Beavert widow of Rabun Co., GA....she filed in Rabun Co., Ga.".

(23) Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861?1865, Lee A. Fulgrum, Reprint Co., Spartanburg, S. C. 1982, originally printed by Georgia Department of Archives and History.

(24) For more details on the McKinneys, see unpublished manuscripts, The McKinneys and Related Kin and Dillard Deeds in Buncombe County, by John M. Dillard of Greenville, South Carolina on file with the Rabun County Library.

(25) These records are alleged to be sometimes inaccurate or incomplete.

(26) He is listed with a service record in Fulgrum, id.

(27) He is listed with a service record in Fulgrum, id.

(28) The information on James R. Lambert was furnished by Sara Lambert Buckmaster from family data and cited third party sources, including, but not limited to, U. S. Archives records, The Southern Watchman, October 3, 1862, page 3, Georgia Grand Lodge Records, Macon, Georgia, Reconstruction Registration Oath Book, April, 1868, No. 298, page 171, 1850 and 1860 Rabun County Censuses, family Bible owned by Cheever H. Lambert in League City, Texas, Texas State Archives pension records, tombstones, Concord Cemetery, Wood County, Texas and marriage records, Wood County, Texas, 1880, page 206.

(29) Information furnished in part by Elaine Randall English of Clayton, Georgia.

(30) Information on descendants provided by Elaine Randall English.

(31) Lillian Henderson, id., at page 493.

(32) Ritchie, id., pages 91 and 92.

(33) Jasper Hopper was one of the defendants named along with William McKinney in the settlement of the real estate of Charles McKinney of Buncombe County, North Carolina. The name of his mother is unknown.

(34) Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861?1865, Volume III, page 39.

(35) Confederate Archives, Chapter 10, File 10, page 160 (South Carolina Confederate Records on Microfilm).

(36) Broken Fortunes, R. W. Kirkland, Jr., published by the South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, S. C. (1995), which covers South Carolina troops who were killed in action, lists A. J. Martin as having died on August 12, 1862 in Rabun County, Georgia.

(37) Statement Anne G. Dickerson.

(38) Several J. M. Martins and James M. Martins are listed in Confederate service records in Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861?1865, id. The fact that he was in the same company as his brother, Andrew J. Martin, led to his identification as the correct James M. Martin.

(39) South Carolina Confederate Soldiers on Microfilm under Orr's Rifles.

(40) Statement Anne G. Dickerson.

(41) North Carolina State Troops, page 348, listing G.W.L. Kelley of Georgia.

(42) Index to Georgia Confederate Pension Files, Virgil D. White, page 711.

(43) Information furnished by Beverly V. Schroder, a Conley descendant of Oakland, Cavalry citing Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations for North Carolina, Roll No. 242, 16th Infantry, C?D.

(44) Lillian Henderson, id., Volumes III and IV, page 31.

(45) Compendium of the Confederate Armies, South Carolina and Georgia, id., page 115.

(46) Compendium of the Confederate Armies, South Carolina and Georgia, id., at page 115.

(47) Ritchie, id., at page 278.

(48) Ritchie, id., page 278.

(49) Ritchie, id., at page 274.

(50) Ritchie, id, pages 274 and 275.

(51) Ritchie, id.,page 281.

(52) The above and the following information is from the unpublished commentary of Dr. Howard V. Jones and information provided by Janelle Knight, a John Dillard, Jr. descendant.

(53) Henderson, id.

(54) Information from Janelle Knight relying on Bicentennial Gordon County History.

(55) Index to Georgia Confederate Pension Files, id., page 291 which verifies his service in Company D, 8th Battalion, Georgia Infantry.

(56) Hewitt, id.

(57) Hewitt, id,, and Henderson's consolidated index at Volume 4, page 377.

(58) Hewitt, id.

(59) Hewitt, id., and Henderson id. in Volume 1, Page 600. Also information from Janelle Knight.

(60) Hewitt, id.

(61) Information on William F. Dillard descendants and kin who served in the Civil War from Missouri was provided by Dr. Howard V. Jones from his notes and the History of Greene County, Missouri, page 706.

(62) All information about the Independence County, Missouri Dillard is from the unpublished commentary of Dr. Howard V. Jones relying principally upon research of the late Lucile R. Johnson, a Thomas Dillard decendant.

(63) Bridges over the new express highway between Asheville, North Carolina and Johnson City, Tennessee were named for Robert Love and J. R. Love.

(64) Information about the children of Thomas Dillard, Jr. and the Confederate service of his descendants has been provided by Miriam Dillard Klar, a Thomas Dillard, Jr. descendant. See Dillard Annual, Vol. 2, page 7 (January, 1993).

(65) See above biographical sketch of James Bryan Conley, who served in Thomas’ Legion.