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as Henry Reed called him. Several Henry Reed tunes came from Quince Dillion, and one has come in recent decades to bear
his name: “Quince Dillion’s High-D Tune.” People ask me about Quince Dillion and sometimes speak of him as if he were a
legendary fiddler. They debate about how to spell or pronounce his name. And they occasionally even tease me that either I
or Henry Reed might have just made him up as an archetypical fiddler and fifer from the Appalachian past. Jim Costa, a great
Monroe County fiddler and devoted collector of the artifacts of local culture, is in possession of an animal horn said to have
been Quince Dillion’s hunting horn, which only burnishes the archetypical luster surrounding him.
On January 1st, 2005, my wife Karen and I attended the wedding of Delnora Reed and Howie Acuff in Bluefield, West
Virginia. Earlier that day we visited the grave of Henry Reed in Pearisburg, Virginia. Then we drove into West Virginia to visit
the cemetery containing the grave of Quince Dillion. These are a few of Karen’s photos from our visit to Quince Dillion’s grave.
The grave is in Broyles Cemetery in Monroe County, West Virginia, not far from Peterstown. The cemetery is located on a
farm, and, following the old custom for Appalachian cemeteries, it is situated high atop a ridge, affording a commanding view
on every side. Like many rural cemeteries in the Appalachians, it bears a local family name, but the names of people actually
buried there show that it evolved from a family cemetery into a community cemetery. The photos included here feature Quince
Dillion’s gravestone, which spells his name “Quincie Dillion,” the gravestone for his wife Jennie, and a broader panorama of
the cemetery. His wife's stone uses the spelling “Dillon,” the spelling adopted by family members in later generations.
All the photographs were taken by Karen Singer Jabbour. The captions for these photos include my transcriptions of the
gravestone texts, but they are not easy to read, so readers may be able to divine other readings than my own poor efforts. If
so, feel free to share them (jabbour@myexcel.com).
Alan Jabbour
“QUINCIE DILLION. DIED FEB. 12, 1901. Aged 79? [75?] Yrs. 1 Mo. 16 Ds. [illegible inscription]”
“JENNIE WIFE OF QUINSIE DILLON 1848-1920"
