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Dillon was started about the same time as Latta, 1888, and under the same or similar influences, about one mile from Little Pee Dee, and about seven miles from the North Carolina State line. The growth and prosperity of Dillon have been somewhat phenomenal, for a railroad town in a sparsely settled country, backed up by only agricultural products. I think Duncan McLaurin was first to settle there, a level-headed, progressive man; he was soon followed by others.
The founders of that town had an eye to the future of the place. It is well and sensibly laid out; the streets are wide and at right angles to and with each other, and in this respect is the Philadelphia of the county. The location was uninviting, it was comparatively in a pond. The writer waded through the site of Dillon, sixty-one years ago, several times in the water from ankle to half-leg deep, along a little winding footpath, leading from about Dothan Church to Stafford's Bridge, on Little Pee Dee. It is now well drained and apparently high and dry.
The town presents gentle undulations of hill and dale, and is pleasant to look upon or to travel on. Dillon had a large territory, and the best agricultural section of the county to draw from. Its trade extends over Little Pee Dee to the North Carolina line and into that State. It absorbs the whole Little Rock section and about to the Marlborough line, including the whole of Harlleesville Township, also Carmichaels, Manning and Hillsboro, and down into Reaves Township to the lower end of the Fork.
Its territory covers the best portion of the county, and within that territory are many men of large means. When all this is considered, it can be seen why and how Dillon has outstripped Latta, and, I may say, all other towns of the county; she is only thirteen years old. By the census of 1900, she had within the corporate limits of the town 1,015 population, and including her suburbs, which take in the cotton factory people, she has at least 1,500. While Latta has a good country around it, it is not near as extensive as that of Dillon, nor are there so many moneyed men in it.
Dillon has three churches for whites, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian. The Baptist Church is of brick, large, commodious, and well finished and furnished.
She has had for eight or ten years a large cotton seed oil mill which has been very successful; its stock paying annually twenty-five per cent, or more.
Has had for several years a fine and large brick structure as a graded school building, in which is kept from year to year a first class school, under the supervision of a first class man as Superintendent, with a corps of able teachers.
There is also a $150,000 cotton factory, built by local capital, and is now running successfully, and in a few years more its capacity will be doubled by additions. Also, an Electric and Water Power Company, with what capital is unknown.
Likewise a bank founded entirely on local capital, of sufficient strength to run the finances of the growing town and its varied business interests.
There are also two large and well equipped tobacco warehouses, one of brick, together with pack houses sufficient to handle the staple of the surrounding country, and in the near future will have a stemmery.
There are two or three colored churches in the town. All the churches, white and colored, have a minister, and are well attended. The colored people share in the benefits of the graded school.
There are shipped from Dillon annually for the last few years from 10,000 to 15,000 bales of cotton, and the shipments are increasing every year, besides large shipments of tobacco. It is said to be the strongest station on the "Short-cut" Road, except, perhaps, Fayetteville, N. C, and it will surpass Fayetteville in a few years more. It will be remembered that Fayetteville is over 100 years old, and for fifty years or more of the nineteenth century Fayetteville had a monopoly of trade for many miles around, extending down into South Carolina.
As another evidence of the growth and prosperity of Dillon, the post office there has lately been raised from a fourth class office to a third class, or Presidential office. There are many large two-story brick buildings going up, and are long the wooden structures will give place to brick ones. The wooden dwellings are well built, present a good appearance, are commodious and comfortable, and but for fires (occasional), would be as safe and convenient as brick dwellings.
Everything about Dillon indicates life and a spirit of progress. She is looking forward to become the county seat of a new county, of which she is deserving, in the event a new county is ever or in the near future established. Dillon, if she continues to grow and progress, is destined to become a city of no mean proportions. May it be realized.
Don't know how many mercantile establishments there are in Dillon. Some of the leading merchants of the town are:
J. W. Dillon & Son
Dr. J. F Bethea & Co.
J. H. David & Bro.
A. J. C. Cottingham
T. S. Richburg
E. L. Moore & Co.
Huger & Co., supply store, wholesale and retail
J. C. Dunbar
J. H. Hursey
I. I. Foss and others not known.
Corps of cotton buyers and corps of tobacco buyers every season.
Source: A History of Marion County, South Carolina, by W. W. Sellers, Esq., Columbia, South Carolina, 1902.
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