Columbia County PA Archives Biographies.....DILLON, John Lloyd 1851 - living in 1899
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  Author: Biographical Publishing Co.
  
  JOHN LLOYD DILLON, whose reputation as a florist extends not only throughout the
  vicinity of Bloomsburg, where he has the largest greenhouses in Central
  Pennsylvania, but throughout the United States, is a son of Patrick and Mary
  (Emmerson) Dillon, and was born in Bloomsburg July 7, 1851.
  
    Patrick Dillon was born near Dublin, Ireland, and when eighteen years of age
  came to America. Later he located in Bloomsburg and became a clerk in the
  Irondale Company store, where he remained for eighteen years. He was united in
  marriage with Mary Emmerson, a daughter of John Emmerson and a native of
  England. After leaving the store he bought the Dimm farm of twenty acres on the
  hill north of the Normal School, where he successfully engaged in farming and
  trucking, having quite an extensive market in Bloomsburg and surrounding towns.
  The last two years of his life were spent in retirement and he died at the age
  of seventy-three years. He was the progenitor of two sons: John Lloyd, the
  subject of this biographical sketch, and Thomas Emmerson, a photographer, of
  Scranton, Pa.
  
    John Lloyd Dillon attended the public schools of Bloomsburg and also the
  Bloomsburg Literary Institute, and at the age of twenty-one years became a
  partner with his father in the gardening business. He was an active young
  business man, and after a period of three years started in business for himself.
  He built a greenhouse, 20 by 60 feet, this being the first to be built in
  Bloomsburg, and in a short time acquired a large local trade. During the winter
  months he raised lettuce, which found a large and ready sale. His success in
  this direction prompted him to cultivate flowers, which he did on a very small
  scale at first, selling potted plants and cut flowers. He eventually turried his
  whole attention to flowers, and in 1879 bought a tract of ten acres adjoining
  his father's land on the north side of the Normal School of Miss Alice Snyder,
  and there he has since conducted the Normal Hill Greenhouse. He removed his
  greenhouse to the new property and built others, and in 1887 he had 12,000
  square feet of glass. He erected a windmill and used the power to drill a well,
  drilling 150 feet through solid rock, in order to get water to supply the
  plants. On September 18, 1897, a very severe hailstorm traversed that section of
  the country and Mr. Dillon's greenhouses being in its track, the glass was
  nearly all broken and it took 1,300 boxes of glass to repair the damage. His
  loss on both plants and glass amounted to nearly $6,000. The greenhouses at the
  present time contain about 90,000 square feet of glass and are all heated by
  steam in the most approved manner. The houses contain all of the modern
  improvements suitable to carry on the work successfully. The business as now
  conducted is largely wholesale and the product is shipped to all parts of the
  United States and Canada. The specialties are plants and rooted cuttings of
  verbenas and carnations, plants of roses (grafted and on their own roots) for
  winter flowering, and cut blooms of roses and carnations. In 1898 there were
  sold 219,000 verbenas, 30,000 roses for winter flowering and 40,000 field-grown
  carnation plants. During the month of December, 1898, there were cut 26,500
  rosebuds. In addition to the ten acres on which his greenhouses were first
  built, Mr. Dillon has purchased considerable land and now has ninety acres of
  the most valuable farming land in the town of Bloomsburg, situated on Normal
  Hill, overlooking the built-up portion of the town of Bloomsburg and the
  beautiful valley of the Susquehanna. He has had it divided into lots and it will
  no doubt soon contain some of the finest residences of the town. The success
  with which Mr, Dillon's career has been marked is wholly due to his own efforts,
  as he began in a lowly way, with little means, and gradually worked his way to
  the top.
  
    In May, 1873, Mr. Dillon was united in hymeneal bonds with Eliza J. Barkle, a
  daughter of William Barkle, a native of England, by whom he had three children.
  Alice M. married Boyd Wells Furman, the assistant at the greenhouses, and they
  are the parents of two daughters: Josephine D. and Helen H. Max Grant is a
  student. J. Lloyd died in infancy. Mrs. Dillon died July 30, 1893. He formed a
  second alliance with Louise Glassell Hutchison, a daughter of Charles Hutchison,
  of Kingston, in 1895. By this union there has been born a son, Charles
  Hutchison. Socially, our subject is a member of the American Florists' Society
  of Philadelphia; the American Carnation Society; the Pennsylvania Horticultural
  Society; and the Bloomsburg Club. He is also a Knight Templar and a
  thirty-second degree Mason. Mr. Dillon and family are members of St. Paul's
  Episcopal Church of Bloomsburg.
  
    In connection with the above sketch of his life, a portrait of Mr. Dillon is
  presented on a previous page, in proximity to this.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  Extracted from:
  
  Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District
  Published by 
  Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)
  
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