The ancestors of Mr. Hill came from North Carolina, and were among the early settlers of Missouri. His grandfather, Thomas Hill, was born in North Carolina, of Irish parentage. When he was seventeen years old, he became a soldier in the colonial army, in the Revolutionary war, took part in several battles, and served till the independence of the thirteen colonies was acknowledged by Great Britain. For some years he carried on a store in Lincoln county, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth WALKER, who was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina. She was the daughter of John Walker, who was also an old Revolutionary soldier. He was a patriotic man, who fought bravely against the British. The story is told of him that he one time secured permission to go home and see his family. On reaching his house, before he could dismount, the firing of guns was heard at Beatty’s Ford, on the Catawba river and, merely speaking a word to his family without getting down from his horse, he hurried back to take part in the battle. Thomas Hill lived in North Carolina until an old man, and then removed to Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, where he died.

Henry Hill, son of Thomas Hill, and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, on the 26th of October, 1809. In the year 1820, when eleven years old, he accompanied his grandfather, John Walker, from North Carolina to Missouri. His grandfather settled in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, and there Mr. Hill was raised. He had gone to school three months in North Carolina. After coming to Missouri he had poor advantages for obtaining and education. The schools were held at irregular intervals in log school-houses, with puncheon floors and slat benches. He went to school and Cape Girardeau county, two terms of three months each. After growing up, he spent four years in the lead mines, in Washington county, Missouri. On the 9th of January, 1829, he married Fanny WELTY, who was born in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, in 1821. Her father, Daniel Welty, was born in North Carolina, and when a young man went to Kentucky, and there married Mary HENDRICKS. He afterward came to Missouri, and was one of the early settlers of Cape Girardeau county, making his home there while the Indians were still numerous. Henry Hill lived in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, till 1874, and then moved to Illinois, and has since resided four miles north-east of Trenton.

William Alexander Hill, the oldest child now living of Henry and Fanny Hill, was born in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, on the 28th of December, 1842. He was raised on a farm in that part of Missouri, and obtained his education in a district school in the immediate vicinity of his father’s home. In the summer of 1862, the war of the rebellion then being in progress, he enlisted in the 8th Missouri Cavalry regiment, Confederate States army. He served under Gen. Sterling PRICE till the close of the war, taking part in campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. He was in several engagements around Little Rock, and Biameta Bridge, and Helena, Arkansas; and Iron Mountain, Arrow Rock, and Independence, Missouri. From Independence he took part in a continued series of engagements through Missouri to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he was by the side of Gen. John S. MARMADUKE at the time of his capture by the Federal troops. After the close of war, he returned to the farm Cape Girardeau county, where he remained to the fall of 1865, when he came to Clinton county, where he engaged in farming. He was married on the 18th of May 8, 1871, to Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth DRAYTON, whose maiden name was RAMSEY, daughter of John H. Ramsey. In the spring of 1881, Mr. Hill became a resident of the town of Trenton, where he bought and improved property. He owns 240 acres of land, of which 160 is in Madison County. He is a democrat in politics and is warmly attached to the doctrines of that old and time-honored organization.

Source: History of Marion and Clinton Counties, Illinois, 1881, Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia

Submitted by: Pamela Safriet

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