Diller Genealogy - Page 11

The following data is extracted from The Diller Family, By JL Ringwalt.

I extract from Mr. Levi A. Diller's letters the following statements of general family interest, viz., speaking of the New Holland recollections of the Hanover branch, he says: "They are a family of very large stature. All their de scendants, particularly the men, were of enormous strength. Some wonderful stories were told of their Herculean deeds, such as loading a hogshead of sugar on a wagon, unassisted, in the days when it was fashionable to haul by wagon all the goods between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; holding a barrel of whiskey at arm's length and drinking out of the bunghole. My father says he remembers some of them well, and of striking stories told of their strength."

A considerable number of the Dillers and descendants of the Dillers of the present and preceding generations are, and were, unusually strong, large, and bulky. The height of from six feet to six feet two inches, and a weight of from two hundred to three hundred pounds, with proportionate strength, has been by no means uncommon among any of the branches of the family.

Mr. Levi A. Diller also says: "There are other Dillers in Germany, and they are still coming to this country slowly. I met one fresh from there three or four years ago, in Sterling, Illinois. Having heard my name, and it being the same as his, he called on me. He had only been in this country three or four months, and could speak no English. He was a young man and intelligent. he was very much disappointed on meeting me. He had expected to find one from the Fatherland, who could sympathize with him, and talk about Germany, and he had a very severe attack of home-sickness. He was a baker, and was traveling looking for work. He had an uncle in Chicago. He did not know there was any family besides his own by the name of Diller in the wide world, and when I told him that in the county I came from the woods were full of them and their name was legion, he was struck with astonishment. I the name in Chicago, Illinois, Directory, while there once, of Julius Diller. I called on him, found him to be a German, a printer on a German paper. He took no interest in the name. The interview was short. This man was the uncle of my friend the baker, and had been in this country some twelve of fifteen years."

I have been informed that the leader of Dodworth's band in New York, about 1867, was a Diller, who had recently immigrated from Germany. A few years ago there was a Diller living in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who was also a recent immigrant. There are several Dillers now living in Philadelphia, who immigrated to this country from Germany about thirty years ago.

DEVOTION TO AGRICULTURE -- FIRST AMERICAN HOMES OF CASPAR DILLER

Source: The Diller Family, By JL Ringwalt

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