BIO:  Lieut. Simon J. DILLER, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 352-353

LIEUT. SIMON J. DILLER, proprietor of the “McClellan House” Gettysburg, was born 
in Adams County, Penn., May 25, 1838, a son of Samuel and Lydia Diller, of 
French descent, natives of York County, Penn.  The father was a farmer by 
occupation, also a manufacturer of woolen goods, and to him and his wife were 
born two daughters and six sons.  Simon J. is a member of the sixth generation 
of the original Caspar Diller, who settled in Lancaster County about 1731.  The 
family, originally from France, came from Germany to America.  Caspar was the 
first who settled in Pennsylvania, and it was from him the Hanover branch of the 
family came.  Of the sons and daughters of Samuel and Lydia Diller, Cyrus was a 
colonel of the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, served as 
a railroad contractor after the war, and died at Hanover in 1884, leaving one 
child - Mabel; Belinda M. is wife of Thomas Evenden, of Williamsport, Penn.; 
Isaiah P. (deceased) went to California, where he was engaged in mining, at 
which he made a fortune, and returned in 1863; Elizabeth is the widow of Dr. 
David Ridgely, of Washington, D.C., who died in 1867; Adam S. is a farmer near 
Hanover; Simon J., the subject of this sketch, is in Adams County; William S. 
served as a major in the army, and is now in the custom house in New York City; 
Luther Y. served as captain in the army, and is now engaged in the coal and 
lumber business in Adams County.  As will be noticed from the preceding remarks 
the Diller family in question was represented in the civil war by four brothers, 
who were commissioned.  The several members of the family are noted for their 
strength, and are generally large men.  Simon J. and his five brothers were once 
weighed, and their combined weight was 1,636 pounds.  Our subject grew up and 
was schooled in Adams and York counties, served as a lieutenant in the war of 
the Rebellion, and has in the main been occupied through life as a hotel-keeper.  
In 1867 he was married to Miss Ella, daughter of Henry Albright, of Hanover, 
Penn., and to this union were born five children:  Carrie Mary, Elizabeth R., 
Mammie, Simon and Daisy.  Mrs. Diller is a member of the German Reformed Church, 
and Lieut. Diller of the Lutheran Church.  In politics he is a Republican.  He 
is a member of the G. A. R. and the Masonic fraternity.