He married Mary Easby of Philadelphia in 1850, and they had four children: John Dialogue Jr., who eventually took over his father's shipbuilding works, and three daughters, Adelaide, Stella, and Lillie.

Despite being a Democrat, Dialogue ran unsuccessfully for New Jersey state senator from Camden in a voting district that was strongly Republican.

In 1854, he purchased the Elias Kaighn foundry where his workers performed general machine work, as well as building Corliss stationary engines under a special license for the inventor.

Dialogue then acted as subcontractor for Wilcox and Whiting, which took over the shipyard during the "weak" economic period from 1865 to 1870.

By the late 19th century, the Dialogue & Company shipyard was quite large and had the honor of doing reconstruction work on the famous USS Constitution.