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Colonel <em>John Charles Fermont Tillson</em>, U. S. A., Ret., died at his home in Elmira, N. Y., December 15, 1941, at the age of eighty-flve, after a prolonged illness.</p>
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Colonel Tillson was born in Elmira, May 26, 1856, the son of James and Ruth Stebblns Tillson, who had settle in Elmira after leaving their ancestral home in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Col. Tillson was a descendant of Elder Brewster, Richard Warren and wife, John Alden and Priscilla Mullin, who were among the original Plymouth colonists.</p>
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He graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in June, 1878. In June, 1938, Col. Tillson attended the 60th reunion of his class, which was also the occasion for the graduation of his grandson, Acting Captain John C. F. Tillson, U. S. A.</p>
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Col. Tillson was commissioned additional 2nd Lieutenant, 5th Infantry, June 14, 1878, and 2nd Lieutenant, June 21, 1878. He spent the first ten years of his military life at Fort Keogh, Montana, campaigning against the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Apaches under General Nelson A. Miles, and was present at Little Wolf’s capture. In March, 1883, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. In 1881 he married Adelaide Meek of Frankfort, KY., the youngest daughter of Benjamin and Mary Meek of Virginia. Mrs. Tillson survived her husband’s death by only five days.</p>
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During the next decade, Col. Tillson was stationed at Brownsville, Ft. Bliss, and El Paso, Texas; St. Augustine, FL.; Ft. McPherson, GA.; and Jackson Barracks, LA. It was while at Ft. McPherson, near Atlanta, GA., that he received his Captaincy, a promotion that brought him the most pleasure of his military life. In 1897 he was assigned as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at North Georgia Agricultural College at Dahlonega, Georgia, where he also taught Spanish and French.</p>
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During the early part of the Spanish-American War he was assigned to recruiting duty at Cleveland, Ohio. Subsequently he was sent with his regiment, the 14th Infantry, to the Philippines, where he was Provost Marshal of a dangerous district.</p>
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In 1900 his company left the Philippines for China for active service in the Boxer Rebellion. He participated in the Allied attack on Peking, his company capturing and holding the Chien Mien Gate. When the city fell, he became Provost Marshal. During his administration he ruled over more than 500,000 inhabitants and gained for himself an enviable reputation as a great administrator of justice and a just disciplinarian. His main task consisted of restoring order, reestablishing hospitals and schools, and feeding hundreds of thousands of homeless people. He was so successful in his work that when it came time for the withdrawal of American Troops from that section of China, the people of that worthy city petitioned him to remain as their Chief of Police because of his virtues of benevolence, justice, charity, and kindness.</p>
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The year 1902 proved to be a notable year in his life. The first event was when he attained his Majority. The second was at the occasion of the Centennial Ceremonies of the founding of the U. S. Military Academy, when he was cited in the speech of the Secretary of War as being an exemplary graduate of that institution.</p>
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In 1905 and 1906, Col. Tillson was in charge of the Officer’s School at Ft. Thomas, KY. In 1907 and 1908 he was once more in the Philippines, where he was stationed at Camp Keithley, Island of Mindanao. While here, during the Moro Insurrection, he took an active part in restoring order among the Moros.</p>
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At the end of 1908 he returned to the United States to attend the Army War College, from which he graduated in 1910.</p>
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In 1913 he returned for the last time to China, where he was stationed in Tientsin in command of the 15th Infantry.</p>
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Upon his return from China in 1915, he was placed in command of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division, commanded by Gen. Wood. When trouble threatened on the Mexican Border, he was placed in command of a garrison of 6,000 men at Ft. Jones, Douglas, Arizona.</p>
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In 1917 he became the Commanding Officer of Ft. Jay, Governor’s Island, and detachments of the 22nd Infantry. On April 6th, 1917, at 3:20 A. M. Col. Tillson performed the first overt act of the World War I by taking possession of all the ships of German Registry in New York Harbor, among which was the Vaterland, later rechristened the Leviathan, and interned their crews. During the remainder of the war, Col. Tillson was in command of more than 15,000 men engaged in guarding all shipyards, munitions plants, and transportation systems leading into the principal cities of the Eastern Seaboard area, and also directed all military trials.</p>
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He retired because of age in 1920. He was then appointed Commandant of the New York State Soldier and Sailors Home at Bath, N. Y., where he remained for nine years.</p>
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He was a graduate of the Army War College at Washington, D.C., and member of the Council of the Order of Indian Wars, the Order of the Caribao, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Order of the Dragon, and the recipient of numerous military decorations.</p>
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Col. Tillson’s reputation as an efficient officer, a strict disciplinarian, and a thorough gentleman of the old school is known wherever there is a post of the Regular Army.</p>
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He is survived by a son, Col. John C. F. Tillson, Jr., U. S. A., and several grandchildren.</p>
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