By Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

EDINBURG -- This small Portage County township of about 2,500 residents could easily be described as Anytown, Ohio, U.S.A.

There's the town square, the local hardware store, a volunteer fire department, small churches and caring, friendly, salt-of-the-earth people.

The Dillon family exemplifies these traits, according to friends, former neighbors and fellow church members at Edinburg United Church. So it was no surprise that community members felt the same shock and sadness as the Dillons when they learned of the death of 22-year-old Benjamin Dillon, a U.S. Army Ranger.

The details of Dillon's death were released Tuesday. According to the U.S. Army, he died in northern Iraq early Sunday from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Prior to the announcement, the family said they had no knowledge of Dillon's whereabouts. Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced later today.

The town's support for the family was evident Tuesday. Pettigrew Feed and Supply on S.R. 14 put up a sign outside on their billboard reading "You will be missed Bennie." A memorial -- 22 small American flags, a yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon and flowers -- went up on a fence outside Southeast Primary School on Tallmadge Road in Palmyra.

Next door to the primary school is Southeast High School, where Ben Dillon graduated in 2004 and where his sister-in-law, Julia, is a teacher. Across the street from the high school is where Ben Dillon's cousin, Matt Dillon, teaches reading and language arts at Southeast Middle School.

In "downtown" Edinburg, where S.R. 14 and Tallmadge Road intersect, is Edinburg United Church where Anne Marie Mann said she remembers Ben Dillon as a small-statured child who excitedly lugged a guitar about the size of his entire body to lessons.

Ben Dillon was probably "8 or 10 years old at the time," said Mann, who knew him also as the child who did his homework at the church's Kidwatch latchkey program, a program run by his mother, Linda.

"He was just the sweetest thing," said Mann, now a resident of Stow who on Tuesday fondly recalled her years in Edinburg. Linda Dillon also taught Mann's youngest daughter in preschool at Kidwatch, said Mann, the former secretary at the Edinburg church.

"Everyone in the church knew" Ben Dillon and his family, said Marty Hatcher, a former Southeast teacher and organist at the church where Terry Dillon, Ben's father, was chairman of the church board of trustees.

Mann remembered Tuesday that one of the first things she did when she moved into Edinburg more than a decade ago was to sign her daughter up for softball, where she met the family. "And that's Dillon heaven, softball and basketball," she said.

The Dillons are "the most wonderful, giving family I know," said Mann. "That was one of the things about the Dillon family, is that they always made everyone feel so welcome in the community."

Jared Hartung, a Southeast High School graduate and former Edinburg resident now living in Phoenix, Ariz., grew up "about 300 yards" from the Dillon's Stroup Road home. On Tuesday, he recalled knowing Terry and Linda Dillon and sons Ben, Nick and Steve from school and sports.

The family "always had a big Halloween, big Christmas celebration," said Hartung, who played baseball with Nick Dillon. He remembered that "Ben and Steve were good at golf," and said he was shocked to hear the news of Ben Dillon's death over the weekend.

"We always laughed and said that's 'Dillonville,' Stroup Road at Giddings Road," he said. "The Dillons are Edinburg."

Staff writer Mike Hixenbaugh contributed to this report.