My Genealogy Hound

John T. Dillard, the subject of the present sketch, ranks among the prominent planters of Howard County. He was born in Lawrence County, S.C., August 6, 1842. His parents, Sims P. and Molicia Hendricks Dillard, were natives of that county and were married there. Of this union were born seven children, viz.: Manney, Martha, Josephine, John T., Nancy A. (who married J. L. Williams), Moning W. (who married Safrona Reed), Rachel J. (who married J. K. Fland), and Josephine (who married W. A. Dildy). The father was farmer by occupation, and emigrated from South Carolina to Arkansas in 1853, locating in Howard County, where he resided until his death. He was a man who took an interest in all worthy public matters, and was a member of the Masonic lodge. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The subject of this sketch was educated in Howard County at private schools, and at the early age of eighteen enlisted in the army as a private in 1861, under Gen. McCullough, of Company I, Nineteenth Arkansas. He was and in the battles of Oak Hill, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry, and returned home in 1865. On September 14 of the same year he married Miss Martha P. Briggs, a native of South Carolina, and a daughter Charley and Martha Briggs. They have no children but are raising six of his brother's children. Mr. Dillard owns 640 acres of very valuable land, is a Mason, and a thoroughly prosperous man in every sense of that term.