M. J. DILLMAN

      It is a well attested maxim that the greatness of a state lies not in its machinery of government, nor even in its institutions, but in the sterling qualities of its individual citizens, in their capacity for high and unselfish effort and their devotion to the public good. Regarded as a citizen, Mr. Dillman belongs to the public-spirited, useful and helpful type of men whose ambitions and desires are centered and directed in those channels through which flow the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number, and it is therefore consistent with the purpose and plan of this work that this record be given among those of the representative men of the state.

      A native of Illinois, Michael Joel Dillman (or Jo Dillman, as he is familiarly called) was born on his father's farm near Plainfield, that state, on the 7th of November, 1860, and is a son of W. P. and Sarah J. (Rhodes) Dillman.  He was a lad of twelve years when with his parents he came to Sacramento, where he acquired his education in the public schools, being graduated with the class of 1876.  In his seventeenth year he left school and went to Reno, Nevada, where he entered the employ of the First National Bank as office boy, and through his fidelity to duty and his close application he won continual promotion until at the end of four years he was appointed assistant cashier, in which position he remained until 1884. Believing more in the future of California than of Nevada, he that year returned to Sacramento to accept the management of the business of the Bell Conservatory Company, and later became the sole owner of that enterprise.  In 1889 he admitted a partner to the business and to him was left the management of the nursery, while Mr. Dillman turned his attention to the colonization and settlement of various tracts of land.   He dealt in lands in Placer, Eldorado and Sacramento counties, and in 1895 he disposed of his nursery interests and placed his land in the hands of a real estate agent, in order that he might have time to assist in the organization and development of the Capital Telephone & Telegraph Company.  He became one of its leading stockholders and was made vice president and general manager.  The business has increased with the utmost rapidity and has become a very important concern in commercial circles.  It was established with two hundred and fifty local instruments, but has grown until it now has an exchange of fourteen hundred local telephones, together with territorial lines extending through Sacramento county into Placer, Eldorado, Amador and Yolo counties.  He was one of the original founders of the Sacramento Improvement Association which did so much public-spirited work.  Later he became a member of the Sacramento Street Improvement Company, and gave his time and money liberally to the work of the Sacramento Natural Gas and Development Company.

      Mr. Dillman is a most public-spirited and progressive citizen, and has withheld his support from no enterprise or movement calculated to prove of general benefit.  He was one of the pioneer members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; was one of the founders of the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce; and for two years he served with public favor as a member of the city board of education.  Also he was the president of the Sacramento County Citrus Association, which made such an elaborate exhibition of the citrus fruit in Mechanic's Pavilion in San Francisco, with other countries, in January 1895.  When the people, by the change of ownership and character in the street railway system of the city, were about to lose the line running to the city cemetery, Mr. Dillman took hold of the matter and, almost unaided, secured the right of way for the new Henry line along Tenth street and effected the increase in the bond issue to insure its construction.  So, too, in many other public enterprises he has labored efficiently and unselfishly.  He is one of that nature and disposition that pushes forward every good work on the basis of the truth that every man in the community owes it to his best energy to forward its highest interests.  Mere sympathy with a good work is not enough for him ; he believes in laboring for progressive ends as well as combating error and viciousness.

      In 1887 Mr. Dillman was united in marriage to Miss Mary Josephine Drake, a daughter of James H. Drake, one of the pioneer citizens of Strawberry valley, Yuba county.  They are the parents of three children, of whom two are living: Margaret, the eldest child, having died when two years of age.  M. J. Jr. and Pauline, aged respectively ten and six years, are both attending school.

      In his political views Mr. Dillman is a Republican, and his loyalty to the party in which he firmly believes is above question.  In September of the present year, 1900, he received unsolicited the party's nomination for supervisor from the third district, the largest in voters in Sacramento county, and was elected by a majority of three hundred and fifty-seven, over a man who was considered the most popular the opposing party could name. Certainly few men are better qualified for the office.  He is precise and correct in business methods, familiar with public affairs and has a full knowledge of the economies the county should practice in the administration of its business. In manner he is cordial and genial, yet without any assumed familiarity  which is so often characteristic of those who became candidates for public offices. He is a broad-minded, liberal-spirited progressive and determined man, and his business career and private life alike commend him to the confidence of his fellow men.

 

 

Source: “A Volume Of Memoirs And Genealogy of Representative Citizens Of Northern California” Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. Chicago. 1901. Pages 427-429.

 

Submitted by: Betty Tartas.