Walter D. Hill; Rusk Co., TX., then Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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Walter D. Hill.  Large business interests are centered at Alexandria, 
Louisiana, involving vast capital, and giving profitable employment 
to hundreds of workers in store, mill, field or office.  These big 
enterprises, covering many industries, are well managed, but none 
are so methodically adjusted as to dispense with the careful guidance 
of those far-visioned business men to whose clear brain and keen 
judgment the development and expansion of these enterprises are due.  
Identified thus prominently with many important concerns at 
Alexandria and Rapides Parish, is Walter D. Hill, who has been 
a resident of this city since boyhood.

Walter D. Hill was born at Henderson, in Rusk County, Texas, October 
29, 1879, son of William and Emma (Willson) Hill, the latter of whom 
was also born in Rusk County and was married there.  William Hill 
was born and spent his early life at Nashville, Tennessee.  Afterward 
he went to Texas and operated a cotton business there until 1888, 
when he came to Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and resumed business 
activity at Alexandria, where he continued until his retirement in 
1922.  In politics he is a democrat, and he belongs to the Masonic 
fraternity and attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his 
wife is a member.  Of their family of eight children the following 
are living :  Mrs. Lottie Herakenerth, of Alexandria;  Walter D.; 
F. R., a major in the United States Army Medical Corps;  Robert H., 
in the cotton business at Alexandria;  John B., associated with his 
brother on the cotton business;  Louise C., assistant secretary and 
treasurer for the firm of Alexander, Bolton & Lewis, Insurance agency, Alexandria; and  Harold W., with the law firm of Overton & Hunter, 
Alexandria.

Walter D. Hill was nine years old when his father came with his 
family to Alexandria, and here he was reared and educated.  After 
completing his high school course he determined upon a business 
career, and on October 22, 1896, went to work as an employe of the 
First National Bank of Alexandria, of which he is now vice president, 
having previously served as bookkeeper, teller, assistant cashier 
and cashier.  His sound business policy in connection with his 
other numerous business enterprises here has entrenched him in 
the confidence of the public and for many years he has been a 
recognized leader in the financial field.  In addition to interests 
mentioned, he is president of the bond and investment firm of L. E. 
French & Company, president of Hill, Harris & Company, Incorporated; 
secretary-treasurer of the Adams Brick Company; secretary of the 
Alexandria Ice & Cold Storage Company; vice president of the Louisiana 
Title & Mortgage Company; president of the Louisiana Stationery Company, 
and on the directing boards of the Guaranty Bank & Trust Company, the 
Enterprise Lumber Company, and the Central Hardware Company.

Mr. Hill was married in 1922 to Miss Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of 
L. A. Stafford, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1923, 
and one son, Walter D., Jr., born in 1924.  Mrs. Hill is a member of 
the Catholic Church.  Mr. Hill owns much valuable real estate at 
Alexandria including his handsome private residence.  In political 
life he has always been more or less active in the democratic party, 
but has seldom accepted any public office, a service of eight years 
on the Police Jury being about the extent of the same.  He is a York 
Rite Mason and a Shriner, and belongs also to the Order of Elks.  He 
is a member of the Boston Club of New Orleans and is president of the 
Rapides Club of Alexandria and a member of the Rapides Golf and 
Country Club of Alexandria.

NOTE:  The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject with his/her autograph.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 209-210, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and 
New York, 1925.