**PLEASE NOTE: We have obtained a small book owned in the 1870's by Thomas A. Dilly. If you descend from Thomas, please contact Teddy Noye.

From the Price Dilley Clan book by J. D. Andrews.

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THOMAS ANDERSON DILLEY

Thomas A. Dilley is a farmer of Rice County, residing in Sterling and is
very prominent in public affairs, his fitness for leadership being
acknowledged in his selection for numerous public trusts and
responsibilities. In all of the offices which he has been called upon to
fill, he has discharged his duty with careful consideration of the trust
reposed in him and for the work which he should execute, and over the record
of his political career there falls no shadow of wrong nor suspicion of
evil.

Mr. Dilley was born in Roseville, Warren Co., Illinois, May 7, 1843. His
father, William Dilley, was a native of Mercer Co., Pa., born September 8,
1811 , and the grandfather of our subject was Lewis Dilley, whose birth
occurred in New Jersey about 1786 while his death occurred in Mercer Co.,
Pa. about 1862. He was twice married, first wedding a Miss Cooper, by whom
he had five children. After the death of the mother, the grandfather married
a Miss Elliott and they became the parents of six sons and two daughters, of
whom William was the eldest of the first family. Four of the children of the
first marriage had families and lived to advanced age. The grandfather of
our subject was a farmer by occupation and to that pursuit reared his
children, William Dilley also becoming identified with the work of tilling
the soil. When he had arrived at years of maturity, he married Miss Mary
Axtell of Mercer County, Pa.; the wedding taking place in that county,
October 24, 1833. The lady was born August 17 1814, and was a daughter -of
Joseph Axtell, who was twice married, his first union being with Miss Eunice
Tuttle, by whom he had five children, while by the second marriage he had
twelve children. With the exception of one son who died at the age of two
years, all of the members of the first family were married. While enroute to
a new home in Illinois the grandfather of our subject died, passing away at
Danville on the l7th of May 1851. He was making the journey westward by
team. William Dilley, the father of our subject, drove across the country to
Illinois in 1841 and owned two quarter sections of land in Warren Co. Ill.
After long years of residence there he disposed of his property and in 1883
came to Kansas. His life was devoted to agricultural pursuits and his daily
conduct was permeated by his Christian faith. For f orty-f i ve years, he
was a deacon of the Congregat i onal church in Illinois and Kansas, and
after coming to Sterling he occupied a similar position in the church of
this denomination until his death, which occurred August 31, 1897, when he
was eighty-six years of age. His had been a strong and vigorous manhood, in
which he experienced little illness. His wife passed away in Sterling in
February 1886 at the age of seventy-five years, and they were laid to rest
in Cottonwood Cemetery. They had ten children, namely; Joseph A. who was
born in 183.6 and died in 1846; Eunice who was born in 1839 and became the
wife of John Rodenbough a farmer in Pottawatamie Co., Iowa; Margaret, the
wife of William Morningstar of Roseville, Ill.; Thomas A. of this review;
Ruth C., the wife of W. H. Swagger of Mercer Co., Pa; William N., a farmer
and stockman of Welsford, Kansas; Amanda, who died in childhood; Mrs. Mary
J.Gordon, who died leaving one son; and Charles Sumner, who died in 1847
when only a year old.

Thomas A. Dilley, the present representative of the family in Sterling,
received the ordinary common-school education continuing his studies until
the time of his enlistment in the Civil War. On the 4th of August 1861, he left
the farm and joined the volunteer company organized at Prairie City. He was
mustered into the Engineers' Regiment of the West at St. Louis, Mo., on the 18th of
August 1861. (Crossed out on the original "and in February, 1864, the regiment was
consolidated with the Twenty-fifth Regime nt of the Missouri Volunteers').
He joined the army as a private, but served as corporal during his three years'
term. He was very fortunate in that he escaped wounds and was never sick,
being always found at his post of duty, faithful to his country and the old flag.

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Company C was with the First Battalion of the regiment and rebuilt the
bridge across the Lamine River east of Sedalia, Mo., in the fall of 1861. It
was then attached to General Fremonts army to operate against the rebel
troops under General Price. His command spent the winter of 1861-62 in
getting out timbers, building bridges and fortifying the places against the
approach of the Confederates. In February 1862, the regiment proceeded to St
Louis, thence down the Mississippi River to Commerce, Mo., whence it marched
across to New Madrid and there aided in planting the batteries to bombard
that place. With his command, Mr. Dilley aided in cutting the canal around
Island No. 10. After its capture, he went with General Pope's army to
Hamborg, Tenn. and took part in the siege of Corinth, Miss. In the summer of
1862, the regiment repaired the railroad to Jackson and Memphis, Tenn., and
in the fall and winter of 1862-63, they repaired the Mississippi Central
Railroad to Oxford, Miss., where with his command he was located at the time
of Van Doren's raid on Holly Springs. A detachment of the regiment was at
the battle of Corinth on the 3rd and 4th of October 1862. Subsequently, the
Union forces with which Mr. Dilley was connected opened the railroad from
Jackson, Tenn. to Columbus, Ky, and then went to Memphis, Tenn., proceeded
down the Mississippi River to Young's Point opposite Vicksburg. They planted
the batteries on the canal opposite the city and then returned up the river
to Grand Lake, where they cut the levee and then took a steamboat through in
order to get through a bayou to the Red River. This enterprise, however,
proved a failure and they proceeded to Memphis and out upon the line of the
Memphis and Charleston Railroad, where they spent the summer in getting out
bridge timbers, building block houses and doing other similar work. In the
fall of 1863, they repaired the railroad east from Corinth almost to the
Tennessee River in order that Sherman's army might then go from Memphis to
Chattanooga. On the last of December 1863, they went from Corinth to Memphis
and on by boat to Cairo, Ill., and up the Ohio River to Southland, Ky, where
they spent the memorable New Year's day of 1864. Afterward they went up the
Cumberland River to Nashville, Tenn. where the Engineer Regiment of the West
and the Twenty-fifth Missouri Volunteer Infantry was consolidated, on the
4th day of Feb., 1864, taking the name of the First Missouri Engineer
Regiment, Co., C of the old organization making Company E. After the
reorganization was effected, the regiment built the railroad from Nashville
to Johnsonville on the Tennessee River, which work occupied the summer and
included the building of the block houses in order to protect the railroad.
The regiment then returned to Nashville, where on the expiration of the term
of enlistment, the members of the regiment were mustered out. Those who
re-enlisted and whose time had not expired went with Sherman on his march to
the sea.

After his military services were ended, Mr. Dilley returned to his native
state and was married on the 21st April 1868 in Macomb, Ill., to Miss
Margaret Gordon, who died December 20, 1870. Their infant child also passed
away. On the 13th of March, 1873, Mr. Dilley was again married, his second
union being with Caroline M. Condit., who was born in Mercer Co., Pa., a
daughter of William and Margaret (Gordon) Condit, both of whom are now
deceased. Nine of their eleven children are now living: Rev. John G. Condit,
the eldest, is the pastor of the Fairfield Presbyterian Church of Fairfield,
Iowa. The Fairfield Presbyterian Church of Mercer Co., Pa., held its
one-hundredth anniversary in Sept. 1899. The Condits were among the founders
of that church and the Rev. Ira Condit, the great uncle, was one of the
pastors, serving from 1814 to 1836. Amanda, the second member of the family,
is the widow of Thomas Dickey of Oil City, Pa.; Samuel J. resides in Pratt
Co., Kansas. Nancy J. is the widow of John West of Millbrook, Pa.; and Mrs.
Dilley and Sarah E. Condit are the younger members of the family.

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Unto Mr. and Mrs. Dilley has been born but one child, Condit W., whose birth
occurred Jan 27, 1878 in Roseville, Ill., where Mr. Diliey resided from his
birth until 1883, being at one time the owner of the old home farm there. In
the year mentioned, he sold the place and came to Sterling, Kansas, settling
on a farm of sixty acres, much of which is now within the corporation limits
of the town, and is occupied by the Missouri Pacific Railroad depot and the
Sterling Salt Works, while many residences have also been built on the
place. He has another farm which lies just across the Arkansas River. In his
business affairs, he has prospered and is now the possessor of a comfortable
competence. In his political views he is a staunch Republican and has served
as assessor and supervisor of his township in IIIinois, whiIe in SterIing he
has been township trustee for three terms, and has been a member of the city
council for four terms and for two terms mayor of the city. Socially he is
connected with Meade Post, No 14, G. A. R., of which he has been commander
and also belongs to the Congregational church. In all of life's relations he
is known and honored for his sterling worth and is justly regarded as one of
the most influential and prominent men of the community. This article
published in the Biographical History of Kansas page 1552.

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