The Dillon Family: Education in the Rural South

O. W. Dillon

As we culminate Black History Month, I’d like to take a moment to salute the contributions of a few great men and women in my family. The 13 sons and daughters of my great great grandparents, Thomas J and Angeline Dillon of Pike County, Mississippi. Thomas J and Angeline raised a family of visionaries and leaders, equipped with a desire to make a meaningful impact on the lives of all those they came in contact with. In the early 1900’s they began to venture out on a quest to obtain a higher education at some of the most notable institutions available to them at the time. Alcorn State University, Tuskegee Institute, Hampton Institute, Southern University, Dillard University and Grambling State University to name a few. Returning one by one, determined to extend the opportunity of an education to the rural south. Under the leadership of their oldest brother, Professor Oliver Wendell Dillon, they were sent out into the rural areas of Louisiana and Mississippi on a mission to improve the educational opportunities available to African Americans in the early to mid 1900’s. 

O. W. Dillon

In 1917 Oliver Wendell Dillon began his mission in a one room school house in Kentwood , Louisiana. Called there to teach a roomful of students, he transformed this one room into the Tangipahoa Parish Training School. By the 1940’s enrollment averaged 297 students yearly. The campus consisted of 5 buildings that included dormitories to house students who arrived from other parishes. He served faithfully until 1952 along with his wife, Verdie Powell Dillon of Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
Younger sister, Carrie Dillon Noble also served the school as an elementary teacher under the leadership of her brother O. W. Dillon.    

With a determination to impact as many lives as possible, he sent his brothers into other parishes to transforms lives.

Greatly influenced by O. W Dillon, while working under his leadership,my great grandfather , Henry Austine Dillon was appointed to the principalship of Morehouse Parish Training School in Bastrop, Louisiana in the 1920’s.

His wife, Magnolia Williams Dillon, a graduate of Dillard University was the music teacher at the school.

Magnolia Williams Dillon

O.W. Dillon instilled in him the skills to become a leader and to work earnestly and diligently with students and the surrounding community. According to Henry Dillon Sr, “the training of children must be broad and as balanced as possible. The temptation is however, to put emphasis on one aspect of life to the neglect of something else. It is a fine thing to acquire much knowledge , for example the Apostle Paul reminds us that knowledge without love means nothing when it comes down to the final analysis. It is important to see the necessity of well-rounded growth in our children, for one-sided people lack perspective”. This he maintains is necessary to train the whole child for the future and sums up his life’s mission.

In the same fashion, Thomas J Dillon Jr.  was sent into the Hub community of Marion County,Mississippi to lead Globe Academy along with his wife Myrtle Thurman Dillon.


In the late 1920’s John Welmon Dillon was appointed principal of Sabine Parish Training School in Many, La. There he met and married the former Ethel B. Lowe of Pelican, Louisiana.

 So on this the final day of black history month 2019, I salute all of the sons and daughters of Thomas Jefferson Dillon and Angeline Vaughn Dillon for their contribution to the field of education.