| Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
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Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Pages 296-297
Joseph E. Hill has for thirty-three years been influentially connected with farming interests in Cream Ridge township and his enterprise, his ability and his success have contributed much toward the agricultural development of the community. He owns and operates a fine farm and by his progressive methods and careful supervision has made it a well improved property. He was born in West Virginia, November 26, 1849, and is a son of A. C. and Mary (Cartwright) Hill, the former one of the pioneers in Livingston county.
The father came with horse teams by way of Knox county, where he remained for three years, after which he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Livingston county, which by degrees he increased until his holdings comprised two hundred acres. In 1878 he moved to Barry county and there died in 1895, at the age of seventy-two. He had survived his wife one year, her death having occurred when she was sixty-eight years of age, and both are buried in Barry county, near Golden.
Joseph E. Hill acquired his education in the Livingston county district schools and in the Chillicothe public schools, laying aside his books at the age of twenty in order to assist with the work of the homestead. He remained with his parents until 1879, when he purchased eighty acres of land on section 21, Cream Ridge township, a portion of his present farm, and later eighty more on section 21. He has since made two more additions to his holding, purchasing eighty acres on section 16 and eighty on section 14, range 24, and this property he has substantially improved with a fine residence, two large modern barns and a silo. The farm is in a high state of cultivation, owing to Mr. Hill's progressive methods, and it constitutes a valuable addition to the agricultural resources of the county.
On March 26, 1979, Mr. Hill was united in marriage to Miss Esther Hurst, a daughter of Joseph and Margaret Hurst, the former of whom was for many years engaged in farming in Grundy county. He died in January, 1879, and is buried in the Wallace cemetery, in Medicine township. Mr. and Mrs. Hill became the parents of two children. Virgil, a prominent farmer in Montana, married Jennie Stone, a daughter of Dr. Stone, of Laredo, Grundy county, and they reside at Polson, Montana. Eva passed away at the age of six years.
Mr. Hill is a director in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Chula. He is a democrat in his political beliefs and has been on the township board for several terms. His religious views are in accord with the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been a steward for over thirty years, and in his upright and honorable life he exemplifies the principles in which he believes. He is well known in Livingston county, where he has resided since 1857, and he has witnessed almost the entire growth and development of this part of the state. He has demonstrated in his life the value of integrity and industry, for he started out empty-handed and has won his prosperity through intense and well directed energy.