Laban Dillon

Laban Dillon, the oldest son in the Quaker family of William Dillon and Susannah Edmundson, was born on 7 August 1807 near Sinking Creek, Green Co, Tennessee.

They [William and Susannah Dillon] owned a small farm in Tennessee which they sold and moved with a number of families to Vermilion Co., Illinois, in the fall of 1830.  They crossed the state of Kentucky, a corner of Ohio and Indiana and were about two months on the way, camping out at night.  They were mountaineers used to roughing it..

Laban Dillon was a man of rather unsteady habits.  Came to Illinois with his father, was a blacksmith by trade, cared but little for his family.  Followed flatboating to New Orleans and was last seen by James Rees at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1837.  He never came home. . .
[Excerpts from History of Dillon, Fletcher, and Kindred Families by Henry Dillon; Feb. 23, 1909; pages 29,30.  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lukedillon/henry.html]
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Newhope Monthly Meeting, Greene Co, Tennessee
Dillon     1827, 9, 22.  Laban dis attending a muster.
[Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by Hinsdale]
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Certificate #2840
Land Purchase for Laban Dillon
Palestine Land Office
16 September 1831

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Laban Dillon married Jane Holiday on 13 May 1832 in Vermilion Co, Illinois.

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     In 1832, during the progress of the Black Hawk War, a man by the name of Isaac Mardick lived upon the same section as Mr. Pugh, and in the month of June was plowing corn.  Another man in the vicinity, named Laban Dillon, thinking to have some sport, dressed himself up as an Indian, took a gun and repaired to the field where Mr. Mardick was at work, crawling along Indian fashion, until he was discovered by Mr. Mardick.  Then he rose and lifted his gun, as if to fire, when Mr. Mardick ran home as fast as his legs would carry him, leaving his horse and plow in the field.  Arriving there he offered another man a colt if he would go and bring the horse to the house.  The story naturally leaked out and Mr. Mardick became the laughing-stock of the neighborhood.  Many were the practical jokes played in those times, and each one was made the most of in the absence of the amusements and recreations of more enlightened times.  None enjoyed these little incidents more than Mr. Pugh, and it is safe to say that he contributed his share to the general stock.
[Excerpt from Portrait and Biographical Album of Vermilion Co., Illinois; Published by Chapman Bros. of Chicago; 1889; p. 541-542 Biographical sketch of Granville Pugh. http://openlibrary.org/books/OL271473M/Portrait_and_biographical_album_of_Vermilion_county_Illinois]

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19 April 1833 - daughter Elizabeth Ellen Dillon was born.
? - daughter Sarah was born and "died young" per History of Fletcher, Dillon, and Kindred.
1 January 1837 - twins Robert Edmond and Edith Carolyne Dillon were born.

1837 - last seen flatboating near Natchez, Mississippi and never returned home.

24 April 1849 - his wife Jane (Holiday) Dillon died.