John Dillard

Who was John Dillard?

John Dillard was an American soldier and pioneer settler, and a prominent figure in the establishment of Buncombe County, North Carolina and Dillard, Georgia.

Dillard was born in Culpeper County, Virginia and served in the American Revolution, achieving the rank of lieutenant. A later resident of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, he participated in the Battle of Guilford Court House. Dillard's ancestor George Dillard had arrived from England to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1650. John Dillard resided in Buncombe County, North Carolina, for some 33 years where he was active in the formation of the county and the selection of its county seat of Asheville.

In 1780, the General Assembly of North Carolina enacted a statute granting 3,000 acres of vacant land "not fit for cultivation" for iron works as a bounty from the State to any persons who "would build and carry on the same". At the October term of court in 1792, John Dillard and others were ordered by the court to be on a jury to view a piece of land "entered by Robert Love and William Trodway" to erect iron works and report thereon agreeably to the act of the Assembly.

At the April, 1792 term of court it was ordered that a jury consisting of John Dillard and others view and lay off a road from the Wagon Ford of Rims Creek to join the road from the Turkey Cove to Robert Hunters on Lindsay Creek of Cane River, the most advantageous and best according to law, "which jury is to meet the fourth Monday of May at John Dillard's; William Brittain to attend and qualify said jury who are to report to July court."²