Hancock County IL Archives Biographies.....Hill, William Kuhns December 11, 1857 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sandy Morrey sandymorrey@yahoo.com November 9, 2009, 6:43 pm Source: Hancock, McDonough and Henderson counties, Illinois Author: Unknown WIILLIAM KUHNS HILL is Principal of the Carthage public schools. He is well capable of filling the responsible position to which he has been called, for he is an educator of recognized ability and has already won the commendation and favorable criticism of those concerned. He has under him eight assist- ant teachers, and the scholars enrolled number four hundred. The schools are well graded, the corps of teachers efficient, and under the able management of Prof. Hill, the cause of education is steadily advancing in Carthage. Mr. Hill was born in Leechburg, Pa., Decem- ber 11, 1857, and is a son of Salem and Esther (Kuhns) Hill, both of whom were also natives of the Keystone State. The mother was descended from an old Huguenot family, and Capt. Mar- chand, one of the commanders at Mobile, was her cousin. Her grandfather, Michael Steck, was the pioneer Lutheran minister west of the mountains of Pennsylvania. Henry Steck, who is connected with the Chicago Stock Yards, is one of the same family. The Hill family is of English origin, and settled in Philadelphia shortly after the found- ing of that city. Returning to the personal history of Prof. Hill, we note that at the age of seventeen years, he en- tered Pennsylvania College, of Gettysburg, Pa., from which institution he was graduated in the Class of '79, with the degree of A. B. When that course was finished he entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary, of Gettysburg, where he studied for three years. He then engaged in teaching in that place for a time, and in 1884 came to Carthage, to take the Chair of Science in Carthage College with Dr. E. F. Bartholomew. He continued to acceptably fill that position for eight years. He then spent the summer of 1892 as a season of rest, after which he accepted the posi- tion of Principal of the Carthage public schools, which place he yet fills. On the 23d of December, 1887, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Kate Griffith, daughter of Dr. A. J. and Margaret (McClaughry) Griffith, whom we will mention later on. The lady was born in this city and was graduated from Carthage College in the Class of '82. Three children grace their union: Esther Margaret, William Griffith and Katharine. In the fall of 1884, before the Iowa Synod of the Lutheran Church , Prof. Hill was ordained as a minister, and has supplied vari- ous pulpits, but has never regularly taken up pas- toral work, although he takes a deep and active interest in everything that pertains to the promo- tion and upbuilding of the church. Dr. Andrew Jackson Griffith, father of Mrs. Hill, was for some time a well-known physician of Carthage, and it is but just that mention should be made of him in this volume. He was born in Highland County, Ohio, in February, 1822, and was a son of Llewellyn App and Hannah (Hope) Griffith. His parents came to Illinois in 1842, locating in Fulton County. His father was a wagon-maker, and the Doctor partially learned the trade, but before he completed it, he began read- ing medicine with Dr. P. S. Secor, of Fountain Green. He pursued a course in the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis, and after a few years' practice took a post-graduate course at the Jeffer- son Medical College, of Philadelphia, Pa. He entered upon the prosecution of his chosen pro- fession in Fountain Green in 1846. The following year, Dr. Griffith married Miss Fidelia Ferris, the youngest daughter of Stephen G. Ferris. She died in 1849, leaving one child, William, who is connected with the Hancock County National Bank. In 1850, the Doctor crossed the plains to California, where he remained two years. In 1854, he removed to Carthage, where he engaged in practice some years. On the 10th of May, 1854, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Margaret McClaughry, who yet sur- vives her husband. They became the parents of two children: Kate, wife of Prof. W. K. Hill; and Ralph, a bookseller and stationer of Carthage. On retiring from practice he became the editor and publisher of the Carthage Republican, and in 1865 became interested in banking, being elected Vice-President of the Hancock National Bank. To the work connected with the bank he devoted much of his attention, and was thus employed un- til his death, which occurred March 19, 1884, af- ter a lingering illness. In politics the Doctor was a Democrat, and for forty years was a prominent Mason. He possessed hosts of warm friends, who esteemed him highly for his sterling worth and many excellencies of character, and his loss was deeply mourned throughout the community. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/hancock/bios/hill1544gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb