J. D. M. Dillard left his home in Rabun County, Georgia in his early twenties about 1884 and settled in Westminster, South Carolina. He was there in the saw mill and lumber business. At one time he was in this business with his brother, William M. Dillard. He purchased timber tracts in Oconee County connected with that business. His wife, Mattie Center Foster Dillard was a daughter of Joel Foster 1812-1887, farmer, banker, industrialist (South Carolina Manufacturing Company mining iron ore and making iron products) and state senator from Spartanburg County, South Carolina and Charlotte Bookter Foster 1821-1866 of Richland County, South Carolina. He married Mattie Center Foster in Westminster in 1885 and lived there until 1892. In 1892 J. D. M. Dillard moved to Greenville, South Carolina where he went into the lumber processing and contracting business with T. C. Gower under the name of Dillard and Gower. This business constructed buildings, including textile mill villages, during the development of the textiles in the Greenville area. He was also in the business of manufacturing of doors, windows and blinds in a factory powered by steam engines using wood scrap as fuel. His first wife, Mattie, died in Athens, Georgia in 1910 where they had resided for a short period of time. He at age 51 married his second wife, Bertha McIver, age 35, of Maxton, North Carolina and lived only a few months in Athens, Georgia. His last child was born after his death. Sources: Descendants of James Dillard and Sarah Barnard Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia, John M. Dillard, Lulu Press, 2012, page145.
United States Census, 1870 image of document
July 24, 1870 - Clayton, Rabun County, Georgia
1880 - Tennessee Valley, Rabun County, Georgia
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