238	HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

forty-three votes. His political alignment then for a time was with the
Republican party rather than elsewhere, until the rise of the Greenback
party, when he broke faith and parted company with the Republicans on
the money question and affiliated ardently with the new party organiza-
tion, and was president of the party nominating convention of August
3, 1878, over which he presided with ability and dignity.
	After the burning of the court-house, in 1851, be was honored with
a very important trust in his appointment as commissioner to reinstate
the records. it should not be left unsaid that early in life, while yet
a single man. Colonel Nees had a newspaper adventure, he and a school
chum having purchased a printing-office at Richmond, Indiana, which
they mutually agreed to dispose of after a very brief experience, at a
sacrifice of several hundred dollars.
	John B. Nees was a nian of many virtues in both private and public
life, whose counsel was ever sought by his fellow-citizens and freely
extended. He died July 19, 1882, aged seventy-seven years. The
funeral services, conducted at the Presbyterian church, Poland, by Rev.
E. W. Fisk, of Greencastle, attracted the largest audience ever assembled
there on such an occasion. After the regular discourse, Hon. E. B.
Payton, of Emporia, Kansas, who had been associated many years with
the deceased, called to mind the life-work and distinguished services of
his departed friend, rendered disinterestedly to society, the church, and
the state.

	Thomas Dillion, native of Columbiana county, Ohio, horn December
23, 1834. attended the common schools of his native town until fourteen
years of age, when he entered the office of the Wellsville Patriot as an
apprentice to the printer’s trade, serving three years. He attended a
normal school at Wellsville one year, then located at Salem, in the same
county, as publisher and local editor of the Salem Democrat. In the
spring of 1855 he was induced to come to Bowling Green, and in June
following bought the Advocate office and began the publication of the
Clay County Citizen, the first issue of which was made August ith.
Mechanically and editorially the Citizen was a decided improvement over
its predecessor. Mr. Dillon worked very hard, both as compositor and
editor, to give tone and reputation to his paper and succeeded admirably
well in the undertaking. The task assumed was more than he was able
to endure, and the “insatiate archer,” death, cut him down in the begin-
ning of a useful and brilliant career. After but a few days’ illness he died,
November 23, aged twenty years and eleven months.
	Intellectually, Thomas Dillon ranked much above the average. At
a very early age he evinced unusual powers in oratory and painting. He
could commit to memory any declamation of ordinary length within an
hour or two and deliver it so well as to elicit the applause and praise
of his hearers. He became a fluent and forceful speaker for one of his
age. When quite young he ornamented the walls of his sleeping apart-
ment with neatly executed drawings of objects, animals and scenery.
When in school his copy-books were ingeniously illustrated with rebuses.
	While connected with the Salem Democrat he wrote numerous
articles signed “Jeems” and “Tom Harrington,” which were eagerly
read, much admired and favorably received by the public. Socially and
morally his life was a most worthy example.