Coffee County AlArchives Biographies.....Hill, Benjamin A. 1833 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 16, 2004, 1:03 am

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    BENJAMIN A. HILL, M. D., physician and surgeon of Elba, was born in Greene
county, Ga., in 1833. He is a son of Abner R. and Minerva H. (High) Hill, the
former of whom was born in Brunswick county, Va., in 1808, and the latter in
Greene county, Ga., in 1812. Abner R. Hill was reared on a farm and received but
a limited education, while Mrs. Hill received no education at all. He came when
a young man to Georgia, and married here, and in 1851 removed to Chambers
county, Ala. He removed to Pike county in 1854, and to Texas in 1874, remaining
there until his death in 1887, which occurred, however, while he was on a visit
to Troy. He was a natural mechanic and a wealthy farmer until the war, when he
lost his property, which consisted mostly in slaves. He served in the Indian war
in 1836, and was a Mason for many years. Both he and wife were prominent members
of the Missionary Baptist church. His father, Abner Hill, was a Virginian by
birth, as also Abner Hill's wife. She died in Virginia, and after her death he
came to Alabama and died here in 1855. He was a farmer by occupation, was of
English and Scotch descant and was of the same family as the distinguished Hills
of Georgia. John High, the maternal grandfather of the doctor, was a native of
Georgia, in which state he lived and died. He left a family of sons and
daughters, some of whom are now prominent in Atlanta, Ga. The mother of the
doctor died in 1844, and his father married again, and reared a family by his
second wife. The doctor was the eldest of six children by his first wife; after
him came Beverly, who died when young; Sarah, wife of Thomas K. Brantley of
Troy; Mary, deceased; Susan, deceased; Virginia, deceased. The subject of our
sketch was raised on a farm with good educational advantages. In 1851, when but
eighteen years old, he married Adeline, daughter of Jefferson and Amanda Comer,
natives of Georgia, whence they moved to Chambers county, Ala. Mr. Comer served
two terms of enlistment in the Mexican war, and died from the effects of his
service in that cause. His widow is still living. Mrs. Hill was born in Georgia
and died in 1868, leaving four children, viz.: Abner R., deceased; Cassandra,
wife of Lovaga Hill of Troy; Alberta C., wife of John E. Law of Texas; and James
B. of Pike County. In 1868 Dr. Benjamin A. Hill married Mrs. Elizabeth Allen,
nee Vincent. She was a native of Coosa county, Ala., and died in 1871. The
doctor then, in 1871, married Mrs. Eliza Carpenter, daughter of James Turner.
She was born in Stewart county, Ga. In 1835 Mr. Hill began the study of medicine
with Dr. James M. Gunn, of Fredonia, Ala. In 1856 and 1857 he attended the
Graffenburg Medical college in Tallapoosa county, now extinct. He then attended
the Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia in 1839-60. He graduated from
Richmond, Va., Medical college, and practiced medicine in Chambers county one
year, and then he removed to Montgomery county. In 1871 he went to Texas and
remained there six years, when he returned to Troy and remained there until
1884, when he came to Elba, where he has since continued his practice. In 1878
he was admitted to practice law in Houston, Tex., and he has practiced that
profession more or less, successfully, ever since. In May, 1862, he joined the
Thirty-seventh Alabama infantry, company K, as a private soldier, but was made
assistant surgeon till his eye-sight failed in 1864, when he returned home. This
regiment was commanded by Col. James F. Dowell, and served under Gen. Sterling
Price. The doctor's first engagemnt was at Iuka, Miss., then he was in the
Mississippi campaign, and from Grenada, Miss., he was sent to Mobile, Ala., with
some invalid soldiers, he having been previously appointed assistant surgeon and
inspector-general of the hospitals in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. He was on
duty in that capacity in those states during the siege of Vicksburg, in the
defense of which city the regiment was engaged. Upon his arrival home he was
made colonel of the Pike county reserves and had charge of the hospital at Troy.
Since the close of the war he has been notary public and ex-officio justice of
the peace for many years. He has also been a druggist, hotel keeper, a farmer,
etc. He is now secretary of the Coffee county Medical society and has been
county health officer for many years. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist
church, and while he is an active worker in the democratic party, yet he is not
a politician in the ordinary sense of the word.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 668-669


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