Diller Genealogy - Page 12

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

During the last century, nearly all members of the Diller family were engaged in agriculture at various places within the townships of Earl, Leacock, and Salisbury, Lancaster County, where some of their descendants still reside. Many of them were skillful and industrious farmers, and deeply imbued with the earth thirst, as it has been called, which forms a leading feature of the character of the Pennsylvania Germans.

In Governor Pownal's topographical description of various portions of North America, published in London in 1776, he made the following interesting reference to the district immediately south of that in which the immigrat ing Dillers lived more than a century ago, and it is doubtless, to a great extent, also descriptive of their homes. Governor Pownal says: "There are amongst the hills into which this mountain (the Kittatinny) spreads itself, between the Susquehanna and Schuylkill Rivers, to a breadth of from fifteen to thirty miles, several valleys. A succession of such, divided from each other by little hilly branchings of the main hills, run from Wright's Ferry, on the Susquehanna, to the Swedes Ford, near Norristown, on the Schuylkill, some two miles broad, some more. The lands are of a limestone, good farming soil. Every farmer has linekiln, burnt for the dressing of his land, and they raise a great deal of wheat. The sides of the hills are covered with woods, the timber is generally oak, chestnut, and hickory. The first valley which the road from Philadelphia to Lancaster passes through, runs from the Swedes Ford to the middle branch of Brandywine Creek, and is about two miles wide. Hence the road runs slanting over three ascents and three rivulets, about thirteen miles, and comes to a second valley, which runs along the south side of the range, called Welsh Mountains, to Lancaster. Hence, it continues in a bosom of gently swelling hills, to Wright's Ferry, on the Susquehanna. These successions of valleys appeared to me, as I rode along them, the most charming of landscapes. The bottoms of the vales were full of cultivated farms, with houses, such as yeomanry, not tenants, live in. Theses were busked up with gardens, and with peach and apple orchards all around them, and with every convenience and enjoyment that property and plenty could give to peace and liberty. My heart felt an overflowing of benevolence at the sight of so much, and such real happiness.

The local habitation of the Dillers who remained in Lancaster County a few years ago, in the adjoining townships of Earl, East Earl, Leacock, Upper Leacock, and Salisbury, confirms the supposition that they gradually removed over short distances, from a central point located a short distance south of New Holland. A Roland Diller operated an iron mill in Altoona about 1845.

Source: The Diller Family, By JL Ringwalt

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