Hill Family

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Hill Family

 

HILL.–From a brief account of the early history of the Hill family,
compiled by Lewis A. Hill, and read to the Hill heirs at the annual Hill
reunion, 1907. 

At our first reunion, as president of our association, I was expected to
give some history of grandfather and of his ancestry. I got together some
facts that were of enough interest to a few that I have been asked to repeat
them, which I will do in substance to-day. Such a paper is necessarily brief,
for all the history I can find, either of record or tradition, is but a meager
account of a long and busy life and an ancestry that was in this country for
three quarters of a century before the Revolution, and which gave a number of
sons to take part in that struggle.

The earliest history of our Hill ancestry of which we have any knowledge
goes back to a time when they were Protestant refugees in Switzerland, having
fled thither probably on account of religious persecutions elsewhere, but from
what section we do not know. In Switzerland they were called Scotch, but we
know they were certainly not Scotch, but more probably French Huguenots.

Later they had gone down the Rhine, making common cause with the French
Huguenots. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 they were in
the Palatinate in the Hunricher Mountain district and near Coblentz, where
they were called Switzers.

Tiring of the unsettled condition of the country resulting from religious
wars and persecutions, they came to America with the Palatine emigration in
the earliest years of the eighteenth century. In America they are called
Pennsylvania Dutch.

Among these emigrants were five Hills, said to be brothers; although two of
them had the same name, Jacob, it was not an uncommon thing then, as we shall
see later, for two or more of a family to be given the same name. Of these
five Hills, Michael Hill settled in Montgomery county, Jacob, Senior, in Oley
township, Berks county, Adam Hill in Frederick township, Montgomery county,
Gottlieb in Lancaster county, and Jacob Hill, our ancestor, in Maxatawny
township, Berks county. He was one of the founders of the Moselem Stone
Lutheran Church in Berks county.

Another of our emigrant ancestors of equal or greater importance in the
genealogy of at least some of us was John Crissman Merkling, or Markle, as it
is now spelled, who was born in Alsace on the Rhine in 1678. After the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when John Crissman was about eight years
old, his parents with their family fled down the Rhine to Amsterdam, Holland.
He married Jemima Weurtzin, a sister of the admiral of that name. He came to
America in 1703, settling in Berks county, where he purchased 1,500 acres of
land from the Penns. He was by trade a coachmaker; he there established a
wagon shop, blacksmith shop and gristmill. Of his nine children we have only
to do with two, Maria Appolonia and his youngest child, Gaspard.

But to return to the Hills. The emigrant Jacob Hill had three sons, Daniel,
Frederick and John Jacob. Daniel married Catharine Sieberl or Saberline. His
son Jacob served in the Revolutionary war for over seven years. Jacob Hill of
Oley township and John Frederick Hill of our lineage were also in that army.
After his first wife’s death Daniel Hill married again and some time after the
Revolution came to Westmoreland county, where he died in 1813 or 1814.
Frederick Hill married Maria Hottenstine, the seventh daughter of a French
Huguenot family who brought with them their baptismal certificates from a
French Huguenot Church in Alsace. He is the progenitor of the Hills on the
north bank of the Susquehanna. John Jacob, the oldest son of our emigrant
ancestor, was born about 1716, was married July 3, 1739, to Maria Appolonia
Merkling, and settled in Windsor township, Berks county. He had ten children,
Anna Maria, Anna Catarine, John Christian, John Jacob, Magdalena, John, John
Peter, John Jacob, John Frederick, and John Casper. A remarkable feature of
this family of John Jacob is that the sons all have John prefixed to a second
name except the one born June 20, 1751, who was simply named John. A number of
these Johns came West and probably some of them settled in Westmoreland
county. One of them, which one I am unable to say, as among so many Johns one
may lose his identity in a century, or more, was married to Magdalena Hower,
and had three children, John, Jacob and Hannah. John, the eldest of these, the
grandfather of some of us, and the great- and great-great-grandfather of a
still larger number, was born Feb. 25, 1772.

In 1782, when grandfather was ten years old, his father was captured by the
Indians. Of his fate we have only the traditional account of a Mrs. McVeigh,
one of his neighbors, who was taken at the same time, and who by some means,
either escape or exchange, was enabled to return to the settlement.

But to remind you of the condition of the country at this time I want to
call your attention to a few facts not just appertaining to this history.

At the time of grandfather’s birth, Westmoreland county was still a part of
Bedford county. Westmoreland was not organized as a separate county until the
year following. Pittsburgh was at that time a village of such minor importance
that litigants there were accustomed to take their disputes to Hannastown for
adjudication. Hannastown was destroyed by Indians later. In 1781 a company of
one hundred men from Westmoreland county, under the county lieutenant
Archibald Loughry, going down the Ohio river to join an expedition under
George Rogers Clark against Indians, while preparing a meal on a sand bar in
the Ohio river, were surprised by Indians under Brant, and all were either
killed or captured and afterward murdered.

During these closing years of the Revolutionary war frontier settlements
and garrisons had to care for themselves without much help from what little
there was of a central government, so about this time, 1781, the garrison at
Fort Pitt was reduced to very short rations and to replenish their larder sent
out hunting expeditions for considerable distances into what was admittedly
Indian country, and in reprisal the Indians ravaged this section until the
settlers were scarcely safe any distance from the forts or stockaded houses to
which they could flee in time of alarm. One of these marauding parties
captured our great-grandfather while he was returning home from a distance
with a load of fruit trees he had procured for planting. He with other
captives was taken to a point up the Allegheny river locally known as Hickory
Flats. Of the exact location we are uncertain. Some reports say that it was
near the mouth of Creek in Venango county, others that it was nearer the New
York State line in Warren county. There they were required to run the
gauntlet, which great-grandfather did successfully, and while he was standing
by watching the fate of the others Mrs. McVeigh fell and was being clubbed;
when our great-grandfather ran through a second time, he picked her up and
carried her through, thereby doubtless saving her life. Mrs. McVeigh after her
return said that by such deeds of strength and daring great-grandfather had
gained some favor in the eyes of the Indians, had been allowed some freedom,
and had been able to perfect a means of escape, having secured and concealed a
canoe on the river bank, intending to leave on a certain night. That day he
confided his plans to a fellow prisoner, a German, offering him the chance of
escape, too. The German, to gain favor, revealed the plan to the Indians, who
securely tied great-grandfather to a tree, and left him to whatever form of
death the wilderness might bring.

It was in such a frontier life that grandfather received his earliest
schooling, with such men around him, then considered worthy of emulation, as
Captain Brady, and John John or “Jackie of the Forest,” as he called
himself, in honor of whom Johnstown was named, and with whom grandfather spent
days, camping and hunting. Grandfather was one of the company who went in
pursuit of the Indians who captured Massey Harbison. However, they failed to
overtake the Indians. Amid such surroundings, grandfather grew up into a fine
type of pioneer, strong, energetic and resourceful.

Grandfather was twice married, first to Elizabeth Waltz, of whose ancestral
history I have learned very little, but to us of the second family it may be
of interest to go back to the Gaspard Markle or Merklin already mentioned.

He was born in Berks county in 1732, married Elizabeth Grim and came to
Westmoreland county in 1770. Soon after his wife died, and he returned to
Berks county, where he married Mary Roedermel, whom he brought to his home in
Westmoreland county. His residence was the post of refuge to which the settler
fled in time of lndian alarms and was known as Markle’s fort, at which Col.
Loughry and his company spent their last night in Westmoreland county before
starting on the expedition referred to above.

Gaspard Markle entered large tracts of land along Sewickly creek and in
1772 built a gristmill. Here was made some of the first flour made west of the
Allegheny mountains. It was transported in flat boats as far as New Orleans.
For a while all the salt used in this section was transported by the Markles,
Gaspard’s sons, from eastern cities on pack horses, there being no wagon
roads.

Several of his sons served in the Indian wars, and George gained
considerable distinction in the defense of Wheeling. His brother Jacob was in
the naval service, and was with Commodore Barney on board the “Hyder
Ally” at the capture of the “General Monk.” His nephew George
was in the Revolutionary army. His son Joseph was the Whig candidate for
governor in this State in 1844. His daughter Esther married George Ament,

Another soldier of the Revolution, who spent the winter with Washington’s
army at Valley Forge. Among other things he is said to have told his children,
indicative of the hardship suffered by the soldiers that winter, that often
when they would awaken in the morning their long hair, such as the men wore in
those days, would be so frozen to the ground on which they had slept that it
would have to be cut off before they could get up. His homestead was on the
property now occupied by the town of Export. His daughter Susannah was the
second wife of grandfather.

As the oldest of the family grandfather came into possession of his
father’s house, where he lived until he was probably about twenty-eight years
old. At an early age he engaged in other business enterprises which, while
they do not seem of much importance to us now, were nevertheless of
considerable value to the community as well as remunerative to grandfather at
that time.

One of his ventures was the manufacture of gunpowder. He had a sawmill and
gristmill near Salem on Beaver Run, to which patrons came from such distances
that it seems incredible to us at this time; and customers would wait days
(doubtless visiting old friends) to get their grists home with them, and the
mill would be run night and day in a busy time.

In the autumn of 1800, or near that date, grandfather built a crib in the
Kiskiminetas river at what is now Bagdad station on the West Penn Railroad,
but which was formerly known as Hill’s Mill, where grandfather and his sons
owned and operated a mill for many years. Returning in the spring and finding
that the crib had withstood the high water and ice of the spring freshets, he
at once commenced the erection of a mill, first getting a water wheel and
grinding machinery in operation, and then covering them with a building. At
first the flour was bolted through a common sieve, then a bolting cloth was
procured and each customer was required to take hold of the crank and turn it
to bolt his own flour.

In 1812 grandfather bought and moved onto the farm that has since been
known as the Old Hill Farm. This farm was taken up by P. Berrickman, who
received his title from the State April 20, 1793, and was called in this and
subsequent transfers the “Hustings Mill Seat.” Berrickman sold it to
George Crawford, Crawford to Nicholas Klingensmith, and Klingensmith to
grandfather by deed dated April 18, 1812; signed in German, and witnessed by
Henry A. Weaver and Philip Bolen. I have heard that Mr. Klingensmith said if a
certain very large tree on the farm should fall he would sell, as he would
never take the time necessary to clear it up. A storm having uprooted the
tree, the farm was sold to grandfather, and with the exception of two or three
years the farm has been in the possession of the Hills ever since, and is now
the property of Edward Hill.

Soon after coming onto the farm grandfather planted an apple orchard of one
thousand trees and a large cherry orchard. This cherry orchard seemed to be as
much the property of the public as if it had been growing on the commons.
There never was any question as to the proprietorship, however, as grandfather
was allowed always the privilege of boarding the pickers who were so freely
helping themselves to his cherries. Of all this planting I do not think there
is one tree standing to-day.

Grandfather was an expert with the axe, and for some time engaged in the
building of houses and barns and was considered an adept in the erection of
the log structures of those days. He had also considerable reputation as a
manufacturer of wooden mold-board plows. Grandfather was always interested in
education, having a small building fitted up for a schoolroom. He employed
teachers at his own expense for the instruction of his family and allowed his
neighbors to send their children to the school. 

The first of the teachers so employed it seems would become weary in
well-doing, or possibly having imbibed too freely of the “good
cheer” of those days would sleep the greater part of the day in school.
Then upon awakening, to stimulate the lagging interest of the children, and
possibly to thoroughly arouse himself, he would whip all the children in
school.

After four or five teachers had been thus employed, a house of Mr. Riggle
was used as being more centrally located. Then grandfather made a frolic to
build a schoolhouse; he furnished all the extras, everything except the logs,
and boarded the men while they were working at the building. Afterward the
building was used for the free schools.

Grandfather was a lifelong Democrat. He was a justice of the peace for a
number of years. In that capacity, together with dispensing justice, he was
more frequently called upon to perform the marriage ceremony than usually
falls to the lot of a justice in our day. In this connection there are a
couple of anecdotes I would like to relate, if I am not trespassing too far on
my time; but then you will please remember that our committee selected the
very longest day in the year for our meeting so that I could have time for all
of this.

At one time the father of the bride accompanied the bridal party and in the
service where those having objections are to speak, or “forever after
hold their peace,” the father objected. Then, when grandfather would not
proceed with the ceremony, the father of the bride said he did not object to
the ceremony, but that they were poor, and he had thought in that way to make
a little to start the young people in life. I remember hearing an old woman,
long since dead, tell of when she and some other girls were at grandfather’s
of two of them disguising themselves and impersonating bride and groom. They
came across a field where some of the boys were at work and inquired the way
to Squire Hill’s. The boys, supposing this to be a bridal party, skipped to
the house to be present at the marriage, which to their chagrin did not take
place.

We should not measure grandfather’s influence as a citizen in a pioneer
country by his active business life. He was a good neighbor, always willing
and more than willing to help where help was needed. He was a man of sound
judgment, whose advice was much sought after, and usually followed to
advantage.

In those days doctors were not as numerous as nowadays, consequently the
people enjoyed much better health. But even then it was not always what would
be desired, and in minor ailments and accidents grandfather’s prescriptions
were considered very beneficial, and in more serious accidents, resulting in
broken bones, etc., he was frequently called upon to reduce the fracture, at
which, if we accept the tradition, he possessed no small amount of skill.

Grandfather was a man of religious tendencies, and a member of the Lutheran
Church. Before there were any churches in this locality his large barn was
frequently used for church services and was free to all denominations. When
one of our pioneer ministers in the course of his circuit would come, there
would usually be services for several days. To these people would come quite a
distance, remaining for all the services, finding the most hospitable
entertainment at grandfather’s, and among his neighbors.

About 1846 Justice Charles Shultz of Leechburg, a German doctor, who had
frequently been a guest at grandfather’s house and partaken of his
hospitality, got an idea that he had been offended by some members of
grandfather’s family, and made threats that he would burn grandfather’s barn,
and kill all the family then at home. In March, 1847, he made the attempt, but
only succeeded in burning the barn and in blowing up grandfather’s office, a
small building in which the boys, my father and one of his brothers, slept.
That night a neighbor boy was with them. The boys were awakened by the light
of the burning barn, so they were up at the time of the explosion of the
powder Shultz had placed in the building, through a broken window, for the
purpose of killing them. The force of the explosion was such that the boys
were thrown in different directions. The one end of the building and the door
were blown out, but the boys were not seriously injured. Shultz, however, did
not fare so well. He had been about to break into the dwelling house where the
other members of the family were sleeping, but heard the boys getting up, and
fearing the powder would not do its work until the boys had left the building
he had gone back to the door, with a rifle, and a butcher knife, to meet the
boys when they would open the door, but he just got there in time to receive
the full force of the door as it was blown outward by the explosion, and was
so badly injured that he was disabled for the time.

His face, too, was very much lacerated by the butcher knife, which he was
holding between his teeth at the time. By this time the inmates of the house
were aroused, and it was necessary for all to give their attention to saving
the house, as the roof was already ignited by sparks from the barn. The house
was saved without being very much damaged.

The next day Shultz was taken to Kittanning, and lodged in jail. He had his
trial at the June term of court, and was found guilty of arson, and sent to
the penitentiary, where he died.

Grandfather’s barn was the largest in Allegheny township, which then
comprised what is now three townships, Gilpin, Parks and Bethel. At the time
it was burned it contained one thousand bushels of wheat, besides other grain,
but the loss that grandfather felt most was the fate of his fine horses,
burned in the barn, especially of his favorite riding horse, on which, when
increasing age had made walking tiresome, he would take short hunting trips,
frequently using its head as a gun rest when desiring a steady shot.

Such a calamity was a heavy burden for a man already worn by many years of
toil in a frontier life, and may have hastened grandfather’s death. After a
short illness he died, Jan. 8th, 1848, and is buried in a spot of his own
choosing on the old farm. 

Source: Page 468-496, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed May 1999 by Michael S. Caldwell for the Armstrong County Beers
Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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