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INTRODUCTION TO THE PRICE DILLEY CLAN OF MERCER CO., PA
I dedicate this family history of early Dilley ancestors to my mother Eva Mildred Dilley b 1895 d 1942, a daughter of William Newell Dilley b 1849 d 1931 and Mamie Grace Findlay b 1862, d 1935. Eva married my father Jay Straney Andrews in 1915 and she lived the rest of her life on a wheat and cattle ranch at Bloom, Kansas south of Dodge City. Wm N. Dilley was the son of William Dilley b 1811, d 1897 at Sterling, Kansas where he is buried. A manuscript genealogy of the descendants of William Dilley is deposited in libraries at Roseville, Ill., and Sterling, Kansas.
William Dilley, the oldest son of Lewis Dilley b 1786 married Mary Axtell the oldest child of Joseph Smith Axtell b 1792. The Dilleys and Axtells continued to live in the same communities beginning in Morristown, N. J., then Washington Co., Pa., next Mercer Co., Pa., then Roseville, Ill., and finally Sterling, Kansas. Therefore, many records of the Axtells have been included in the Price Dilley manuscript. The Axtell book published in 1945, and written by Carson Axtell, has been an important source of information along with Condit, Lindley and Dodd genealogies, all of which cover the same communities.
Personal visits to Sterling, Roseville, Mercer Co., Pa. and Washington Co., Pa. have provided much data on the two clans that intermarried. Data from personal visits and published records are included. Mrs. Hazel Dean Mook, a descendant of Price Dilley, who lived in the Fairfield Church area during her formative years, was an important source of information because she was actively engaged in genealogy as a regent for the DAR in Pennsylvania.
For the early New Jersey records on the Dille-Dilley clans, I am indebted to V. Winthrop O'Hara who lived at Montclair, New Jersey and spent 25 years searching for the relationships of early generations in New Jersey. He was a descendant of Price Dilley and Daniel Axtell too. Ruth and Gerald Dilley of Wind Lake, Wis., discovered tax records in New Jersey that support the belief that Price and Lewis Dilley were sons of Ichabod. The Dille Family by George Earl Dille and his wife and son contains brief lists of Price and Ichabods' descendants from letters by Mrs. Mook and Louanne Barrett. Fortunately, Price Dilley was the only one to move to Mercer Co. before about 1850, therefore, all the Dilleys in the Fairfield Church area were related to Price. The Fairfield, Roseville and Sterling cemeteries are all active burial grounds with good gravestone inscription records. Russell Dilley, a grandson of William Dilley, who lived at Roseville for the first 30 years of his life was invaluable in identifying Axtells and Dilleys at Roseville. He also provided anecdotal information on many of the clan. This manuscript covers only three generations of Price Dilleys descendants. For later generations see the manuscript on William Dilley's descendants. The indices are limited to the genealogical section for Dilleys and key persons by other family names.
The descriptive material has been arranged in five sections to facilitate finding information by living sites. Genealogical material is never complete, therefore, I welcome new information and corrections. I sometimes find my mistakes but others do it more quickly! There is a great need for information on the distaff side of nearly every family. For example, I can deduce the approximate ages of Price Dilley's four daughters, although they left the family long before census records provided names in 1850. I have not bothered to put them in their proper order in Price's family because I have no information on them. The essays on census records and dates of migration are based on some data but remain speculative. The establishment of family relationships in the early Dilleys of New Jersey is particularly speculative and much effort has not clarified the record much. It is clearly established that Lewis and Price were not sons of David Dille Sr. as the Dille book assumes, but their parents have not been confirmed. J. D. Andrews
NOTE ON USE OF NEW ACCOUNT OF PRICE DILLEY DESCENDENTS
It became clear to me that my Price Dilley account of 1989 was not easy for descendents to use, unless they knew that Price was their great, great, grandfather. I tried to add or insert the later descendents of William for whom I have nor produced an account into the Price account. But, it became too complex and a great amount of work to revise and combine the two accounts. Therefore, I have decided to produce a separate revision of the Price Dilley genealogy, to be followed by an account of William's descendents. Also, I will have some 15 copies made by a printing company for wider distribution.
This account on the early generations of Dilleys and Axtells in North America is, confined to the descendents of Price Dilley born in 1754. Price had married Abigail Totten in New Jersey in 1774 at age 20 years. No further record of Abigail has been found. Price appeared in Washington Co., PA in the 1881 tax record and joined the Presbyterian Church that year alone, apparently as a single man. He named a daughter Abigail, and a son Ichabod b 1783, the first son. Sarah Cooper was a second wife, apparently. Win 0'Hara and I, both descendents of Price, concluded that Price and Lewis Dilley were sons of Ichabod b 1724, who was probably a son of John Dilley Jr. b 1781, a son of John Sr. of Woodbridge, N.J.
This account of Price Dilley is confined to four early generations of his descendents, and the four sites where they lived. It is a revision of the 1989 account which was limited to 3 or 4 photocopies. The revised account will be taken to a print shop for making copies. I have a William Dilley born 1810 account which has never been fully compiled for binding. This will become a second account on William Dilley's descendents up to about 1960. I have lost contact with recent generations of William's descendents except for the California Dilley clan, all descended from Harold, a son of William Newell Dilley. Thomas Anderson Dilley left no descendents, and William Newell left only the CA Dilleys of Harold with the Dilley name. I have some data on nearly all the descendants of William 1811 with their family names.
The index for this account is confined to the genealogical
section listing all families by generations (pages 15 to 29).
For entry to other data, refer to the List of Contents. I will
appreciate new information and corrections of data. Copies will
be sent to DAR, LDS, some living site libraries, and some State
libraries in PA, IL, and KS.
Jay D. Andrews
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WESTWARD HO! DILLE AND AXTELL CLANS FROM NEW JERSEY TO WASHINGTON
CO., PA.
Between 1776 and 1800, several groups of members of the Morristown, N. J. Presbyterian Church migrated to "Redstone" west of the Monongahela River in Washington Co., Pa. They settled as a community on a northern branch of Ten Mile Creek about six miles south of Washington, Pa., and three miles northeast of Prosperity where their church was located in later years. They became known as the Ten Milers who are described in genealogy books of the Axtells, Condits, Lindleys and Dodds. Other family names in this Presbyterian community were: Dilles, Cooks, Weirs, Sanders, Rutans, Mintons, and Andrews into which Dilles and Axtells married.
In an affidavit to support the pension application of David Dille Jr. in 1832, Asa Dille, his brother and close neighbor throughout their lives, stated that David Jr. migrated in the spring of 1776 (when he was 9 years of age--b 1767) and that his father David Sr. moved west in the fall of the same year. The Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, a graduate of Princeton, visited the Ten Mile settlement in 1777 but returned to New Jersey and brought his family west in 1779. He became their religious leader and organized a church at Amity in 1779 and at Prosperity in 1781. He served both church groups about six miles apart which were located where early forts were erected for protection from Indians. During the migrations and later, Rev. Dodd baptized, married and preached to the flock, but his records were lost when he died in 1793. Only church records were available before 1781 when the county of Washington was established.
David Dille Sr. b 1718, and Daniel and Thomas Axtell b 1748 and 1750, were charter members of the combined Lower and Upper Ten Mile congregations that later built churches at Amity and Prosperity. They attended meetings alternatively at the two sites. Apparently, all of David Sr.'s sons were single during the migration but they soon married into local families and began their own families about 1781. Daniel and Thomas Axtell and their cousin Luther Axtell began families in New Jersey before the migration.
In 1790, Aaron Dille the oldest son of David Sr. came west with his family and probably at the same time, Lewis Dille and his father Ichabod b 1724 who were relatives. They joined the community on Dilles Run a branch of Ten Mile Creek. By 1793, John, Samuel and Aaron disappeared from the tax rolls of Washington Co., because they had moved to Belmont Co., Ohio across the Ohio River. Shortly after the 1800 census, David Jr., Caleb, and Asa also moved to Belmont Co., Ohio. Not until about 1816 did the remaining two sons of David Sr., Israel and Isaac1 move west to Richland Co., Ohio following their sons. Of the early generation, only Lewis Dille remained in Washington Co. He was probably the son of Ichabod who died shortly after the 1800 census.
Price Dilley, believed to be a brother of Lewis and son of
Ichabod, moved north to Mercer Co., Pa. where many Axtells, Condits,
Dodds and other church members established a community around
Fairfield Presbyterian Church in the northeast corner of the county.
They were still moving as a religious group. The pattern of migration
was always that of young men or families moving west seeking new,
cheap land and the older generation often followed.
J. D. Andrews
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