Future grocery store magnate John S. Dillon started his business in Sterling in the early 1900s with a small general store. In 1912 the grocery-buying public had become accustomed to delivery and charge accounts, but Dillon changed all that the following year when he opened his first cash food market in Hutchinson. One of the older Dillons stores still stands in Sterling at 212 S. Broadway. John Dillon is buried in Sterling Community Cemetery.