Charles Louis Dillahunty

Full Name:  Charles Louis Dillahunty

Birth Date:  June 16, 1832

Died:           February 2, 1900

Spouse:      

Biography:

Charles Louis Dillahunty was born in Florence, Alabama, June 16, 1832, and he married Frances Norwood in Clarksville, Texas, on August 10, 1853. He was educated in Nashville, Tennessee, as a civil engineer, and he followed that profession, along with others, throughout his life. His family home occupied the entire Block 40 in the City of Mt. Pleasant, which is the block on which the Mt. Pleasant Hospital is located. At the beginning of the Civil War, he volunteered in the 22nd Texas Infantry, Hubbard’s Texas Infantry Division. His entire activities were west of the Mississippi River, getting supplies and food for the various armies. He was discharged with the rank of Captain, and was known to all of his friends and acquaintances as Captain Dillahunty. It is not known just how long he was in the Confederate Army, but it was evidently not during the entire period of the war as he did quite a bit of surveying Titus County during the Civil War. He began surveying land in Titus County and continued until about 1880. He doubtless surveyed more land in Titus County than any other surveyor. After the war, with no jobs available, he opened a private school and for a period of time he had a cotton gin in Omaha, Texas. Also the US Government employed him to help survey the Indian Territory prior to its being opened to the public. He did much surveying in Titus and other adjoining counties for the Cotton Belt Railroad and, in fact, it is said that he laid out this railroad from Gilmer to Texarkana, and from Mt. Pleasant to Greenville. He bad a paint factory located near his home in Mt. Pleasant, and some of his acquaintances say that he spent much time in trying to perfect a paint that would not burn. His wife died on October 9, 1896, and he died on February 2, 1900. They are buried in the Edwards Cemetery.