Dill’s was the creation of the Richmond brothers J.D. and Adolph Dill, who created Dill’s Best, according to The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Tradition by Robert Sobel.

J.D. Dills

J. G. Dills is still recognized as a pioneer in American Tobacco and was once one of the greats. The product gained world wide renown but has long since left production; pipe cleaners under the Dill name are still manufactured today.

Tobacco Leaf

Originally produced by J.G. Dill Co. of Richmond, VA, this blend was quite popular from the turn of the 20th to about the 1950s. Not much information about the actual blend is known, but it did come in a wide variety of packaging and cuts. It has been called either a straight Virginia blend or consisting of "pure cigar leaf". Having been bought out by the American Tobacco Company, production stopped in the 50s when pipe smoking saw a decline and the product no longer sold as well as it once had. The brand does live on in it's line of pipe cleaners, still widely available almost anywhere pipe tobacco products are sold.

Dill's Best

The 1946 trademark application for Dill’s Best from U.S. Tobacco points to the first use of the Dill’s Best name in 1885, though other packages say 1848. Dill’s also made a nautical-feeling brand called Look Out cut plug, and had sister brands like the cigarette called Sano (an early low tar), as well as Tweed and Model. It is unclear when U.S. Tobacco (or J.G. Dill) started selling pipe cleaners.