Lewis County, West Virginia Biography of SUMMERS B. HILL This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 576-577 SUMMERS B. HILL with his wife conducts the leading mercantile establishment at Gaston, West Virginia, and they are also owners of a farm in Lewis County. They are progressive business people who have made excellent use of their opportunities, limited largely to their own achieving since they started out for themselves with limited means. Mr. Hill was born in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, June 22, 1886, son of W. B. and Alice (Snedgar) Hill. His father was born in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, in 1857 and his mother in Greenbrier County in 1857. W. B. Hill spent his active life as a farmer and had a place of 500 acres in Pocahontas County. He is still living, a repub- lican, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was three times married and had eleven children. His second wife, Alice Snedgar, died in 1894, and the five chil- dren of this union are: Ibena M., wife of G. B. Hill; Summers R.; Lerna S., wife of Frank Clark; Mrs. Lessie I. Cultip; and Flossie M., wife of Roy H. Mace. Summers R. Hill was eight years old when his mother died. He continued to live at home until he was fourteen and during that time he completed the work of the common schools. Since then he has been doing for himself, and through his early efforts he paid for a higher course of training in Valparaiso University in Indiana. Since then he has been giving his time and energies to farming and merchandising. He and his wife own 267 acres in one farm in Lewis County, and have other farming interests. He has been in business as a merchant at Gaston since 1913. Mr. Hill is a republican, and is a past noble grand of Golden Lodge No. 139, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also a member of the Rebekahs. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite and is affiliated with Weston Lodge No. 10, A. F. and A. M., and also the Royal Arch Chapter and Knight Templar Commandery. He and Mrs. Hill are members of the Methodist Protestant Church. He married. September 6, 1911, Bertha M. Mace, who was born in Webster County, West Virginia, in 1876. She was a teacher before her marriage and postmistress at Hacker Valley for more than ten years, having been ap- pointed in 1898. For ten years she was a partner with her brother, F. H. Mace, in merchandising.