COL. LOUIS DILLMANN DIED IN CALIFORNIA

HE SERVED DETROIT FOR FOUR YEARS AS CITY CLERK

Was First Superintendent Appointed for Belle Isle Park

Col. Louis Dillmann, an old resident of the city, died in Pasadena, Cal., on Friday.

He was born in Friedrickshafer, Wirtenburg, Germany, December 25, 1831, and was the son of a celebrated physician of southern Germany, who was court physician to the king of Wirtenburg.

Col. Dillmann spent his  youth studying in France, but, in the year 1848, sympathizing with the revolutionists, he emigrated to America. He met his first success in Buffalo as a tanner. Later he came to Detroit, where he established a leather and findings store in the old Checker block on Woodward avenue, now occupied by Sanders, the confectioner. Owing to fire, he removed to the Coyl building, now the Wright, Kay & Co. block, where he continued business until 1861.

In this year, having been captain of the old Scott Guards, he enlisted with that company as a volunteer in Company A, Second Michigan, and served with McClellan in the peninsular campaign. After three years of faithful service he returned to Detroit as lieutenant-colonel, although he had been in command of the regiment for some time.

On his return he was nominated for auditor-general of the state on the Democratic ticket,, and later for city treasurer, but met, with defeat in both cases. In 1874 he was elected a member of the board of estimates, in 1876 to the state legislature, and the following year as city clerk, which office he filled for four years. He was then appointed first superintendent of Belle Isle for five years. At the expiration of this time, having been afflicted with rheumatism contracted during the peninsular campaign, he departed for California in search of health, where he had lived in retirement ever since.

Col. Dillman was a Mason, a member of Schiller lodge, a Knight of Honor and a G.A.R. veteran. He is survived by three children, Louis F. Dillman, of this city, and Charles and Pauline Dillman, of Pasadena, Cal.

From the Detroit Free Press, 1 March 1903