A pioneer from the Hoosier State who has made his contribution toward the progress of Pomona and vicinity in the development of water in this productive Valley, is George Dillman, favored both in his own career and the success of his children. He was born in Wayne County, Ind., on August 31, 1855, and when a young man moved with his family from place to place, living in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. When he left the latter state in 1878 he located at St. Louis, Mo., and there established a reputation for both ability and reliability in the service of the Vulcan Steel Works.
This reputation he very naturally cherishes, for he comes of the best of German and American stock, with family traditions linking his ancestors in the most interesting manner with our early history. On his father's side his forbears came to America from Germany in 1754 and settled in Pennsylvania, so that his great-grandfather was a soldier under General George Washington and wintered at Valley Forge in that period described by President Wilson in his history, when he says that the services of Baron Von Steuben, the German patriot who came over to help the American colonists, and who drilled Washington's soldiers, was a more valuable and important aid, if less spectacular, than that rendered by the French patriot, Lafayette. On his mother's side, his ancestors came over in one of the trips of the Mayflower. In time, George grew up in the harvest fields of the Middle West and had his share in the prosperity of a country his forefathers had sacrificed so much for, in founding and defending.
For twenty-five years after coming to Pomona--in 1886--Mr. Dillman followed well drilling with Palmer Ashton as a partner, and together they put down hundreds of wells in the Pomona Valley, in Orange County and in Pasadena. For the first fifteen years they depended upon hand tools, but later steam power was introduced, and then they were able to advance far more rapidly. Among the wells sunk were those for the Consolidated Water Company of Pomona, the Pomona Land and Water Company, and the Del Monte Water Company, and they also put down many wells north of Claremont, and for two years he was the superintendent of Sycamore Water Company at that place. One of the wells was for The Consolidated Water Company, when a fourteen-inch hole was drilled for 850 feet.
In recent years, Mr. Dillman and his partner, Palmer Ashton, have been engaged in developing an orange and a lemon orchard in the Claremont section. When they took hold of the area, a ranch of twenty-three acres, it was raw land, but they set out seventeen acres in oranges and six acres in lemons, and although the trees are young, they are doing well and bearing handsomely. The same foresightedness and high business principles for which Mr. Dillman was long noted as a well-driller have made him an honored fellow ranchman.
Mr. Dillman was married at St. Louis, Mo., in September, 1881, to Miss Sarah F. Coons, a native of Kentucky, and three children have blessed the union. Stanly went to Tampico, Mexico, and established a machine shop and boat-building plant, with which he has been very successful; Ethel married Samuel Gurnsey, and has one daughter, Francisca; while the younger child is Louise. The family attend the First Christian Church. Mr. Dillman belongs to the Modern Woodmen.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 8/30/08, Pages 297-298
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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