The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 261

I. H. DILLS.

I. H. Tills needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he is at
the head of the oldest and largest clothing business of the Yakima valley,
having long ranked with the most progressive merchants of the city of Yakima,
where he took up his abode in 1888 and in the fall of that year established his
present business, which is conducted under the name of the Star Clothing
Company.

Mr. Dills was born in Adams county, Illinois, in 1862 and is a son of Henry and
Elizabeth Dills, the former a farmer and a mechanician. The son acquired a
public school education in his native state and was reared to agricultural life,
early becoming an active assistant in the work of the fields through vacation
periods. He continued to aid in the labors of the farm until he reached the age
of twenty years, when he opened a butcher shop at Corning, Missouri, there
continuing for a year. He afterward supplemented his earlier education by a
term's study in Shelbina. Missouri, and later he again spent a summer in
Illinois. He subsequently devoted a year to farming in Missouri, residing there
during 1884, and in 1885 he removed to Kansas, taking up a homestead claim in
Clark county, upon which he lived until 1886. In that year he again became a
resident of Missouri, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits for two
years, but the opportunities of the far west attracted him and he made his way
to the Pacific coast country.

It was in the spring of 1888 that Mr. Dills arrived in Yakima and established
the business of which he is now the head. In this undertaking he was associated
with Harry Hampton and the store was opened in the old postoffice building,
where they continued for a year. A removal was then made to First street,
adjacent to the postoffice, where the business was conducted until 1891, when
they removed to Yakima avenue, occupying a building with the firm of Fechter &
Ross. With the growth of their trade, however, they took over the whole building
and later, or in 1898, purchased a building on Yakima avenue, between First and
Second streets. He there remained until the spring of 1909, when he established
his store at the corner of Second street and Yakima avenue in a building with a
fifty-foot frontage. This is the oldest and largest clothing house of the Yakima
valley. The company was incorporated in 1900 with I. H. Dills as president and
treasurer and W. L. Lemmon as vice-president and secretary. They employ nine
people and the two officers are also active in the conduct of the business.
During the busy season a still larger force of employes is secured. They carry a
very extensive and attractive line of goods, showing all the styles that the
market affords, and their reasonable prices, their straightforward dealing and
their progressive methods have brought to them a constantly growing patronage.

It was in 1900 that Mr. Dills was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Blanker, a
native of Tennessee, and they have become parents of five children: Leslie H.,
William H., Herbert, Elizabeth and Richard, all of whom are yet under the
parental roof, the family circle being still unbroken by the hand of death.

In his political views Mr. Dills is an earnest republican, having supported the
party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. In his fraternal
relations he is an Elk, loyal to the teachings of the order, and he is also a
charter member of the Commercial Club and a valued member of the Country Club.

While Mr. Dills is perhaps best known as a leading clothing merchant, he has not
confined his efforts alone to this line and has become an important factor in
the valley's progress and development in any fields of activity. He is now the
president of the Yakima Fruit Products Company, which indicates one of the
points of his interest. He is likewise the vice-president of the Hub Mercantile
Company of Wapato, which he aided in organizing. He has long been interested in
farming and is part owner of the U. S. Development Company, cultivating four
hundred and eighty acres of wheat land in 1918. Mr. Dills is president of this
corporation. During the season of 1896 Mr. Dills was in Alaska, sledding in
from Diah and crossing the Diah Pass on the 14th of April, 1896. He reached Fort
Selkirk and there met George Cartnack and his wife, who made the Dawson
discovery. Mr. Dills went up the Pelly river and Mr. Carmack went to Dawson,
where he found gold. Upon coming out of Alaska in the fall Mr. Dills heard of
Mr. Carmack's discovery and was within two days' drive of the place but decided
to return home instead of going to the gold camp. In 1915 he went into the
Behring Sea country on a mining venture and made five hundred miles with
rowboats, going as far as Alamma lake and up the river, then crossing to Cook's
inlet, where he had to remain for two weeks, waiting for a steamship. He had
planned to cross the inlet with a Frenchman, having given up the steamship, but
was picked up by a gas launch and proceeded to Kodiac Island, where he found the
boat. On this trip his son, Leslie H., accompanied him. His travels in the
northwest have been extensive and his experiences varied. For thirty years he
has been identified with the development of this section of the country and his
efforts and energies have constituted a potent force in the work of general
progress and improvement, especially in the Yakima valley, where he has become
identified with a number of lines of business, all of which have profited by
his cooperation and support, his energy, enterprise and business sagacity
constituting a stimulating force toward the attainment of success.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.