Dillingham Church History

Dillingham Church and cemetery in section 13 of Corinth township perpetuate the family name of individuals in the first class of Americans who frequented Williamson county—the hunters. Three Dillingham brothers began coming to the area in 1810 on hunting expeditions. They came as the Indians did, made a temporary camp, hunted over the surrounding country, and returned to their homes in Kentucky with their peltry. Such a party was killed by the Indians in 1766 near the southeast corner of the county.

The Dillinghams had no trouble with the Indians, whom they met frequently and greeted as comrades. The new country of the Illinois attracted them, and they finally chose a homestead and marked it as their own by tomahawk right, blazing the trees on the boundaries.

Vachel S. Dillingham, one of the three hunters, rode off to fight the Indians of northern Illinois in the summer of 1832. He was enrolled as a private in Captain George P. Bowyer’s company at the Illinois River, north of Peru. After ninety days service he was discharged at Fort Dixon. The day before his enlistment ended, his brothers must have voted for his captain as representative, for Captain Bowyer went to Vandalia in 1832 to make the laws.

Vachel Dillingham had a son born in 1838, whom he named Alfred. In 1855, the Dillinghams and their neighbor south of Bank Lick Creek, Levi Summers, organized a Methodist church that was part of Corinth circuit with Zion church. Part of the Dillingham homestead was given for churchyard and cemetery. Alfred Dillingham and his sons were active in this church.

The Dillingham war record was continued into the World war. Alfred Dillingham, a veteran, lies buried in the cemetery, called in the neighborhood, Dillingham sheds.

The Dillingham land passed into the hands of William Dallas DeWoody, a member of the legislature.

Back to the top

(Extracted from Pioneer Folks and Places, Barbara Barr Hubbs, 1939, on sale at the Williamson County Museum)