Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE W. HILL
GEORGE W. HILL. – The cultivation of the soil is perhaps the most
important occupation the world has ever known, since all other activities
center around it; and that it can be made both congenial,
personally satisfying and lucrative is evidenced by the many men of ability who
are engaged in it. The large measure of success attained by
George W. Hill in this line of activity is due to his thorough
knowledge of agriculture in all its branches. Mr. Hill was born in
Walworth County, Wis., December 24, 1849. His father, Lanson Knox Hill,
was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. His mother, Nancy (Wellwood) Hill, was a native of County Down, Ireland,
and came from that country to St. Lawrence County, N. Y., when only
two years of age. His parents were married in Wisconsin, whither the father
removed in 1836, and their union was blessed by the birth of six children,
three boys and three girls, of whom two sons and one daughter are now living:
John K. Hill, who has charge of one of the largest dredgers at
Hamilton, Cal.; George W. Hill, of Bangor, Butte County, Cal., and
Mrs. Lucy Wilcox, now residing at San Antonio, Texas.
The parents, with their children,
including George W., crossed the plains in 1852 with ox teams, the father
engaging in gold mining at Spanish Flat, now La Porte, Sierra County,
Cal., for five years. At the end of that time he returned to his old Wisconsin
home and George grew up in Wisconsin, working on his father’s farm in Walworth
County and attending the common schools of that county. But the memory of his
young boyhood days in California remained with him, causing him as a young man
of twenty-five to return to the Pacific slope. He settled at Challenge, Yuba
County, where he worked for A. M. Leach sixteen years, saw-milling and
driving ox-logging teams.
During this time Mr. Hill was married to
his first wife, Maria Babb, who was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., and was the
daughter of L. H. Babb. Two children were the result of this union: Robert,
principal of the high school at Livingston, Cal., who married Lilly Porter,
daughter of supervisor C. E. Porter of Central House, Butte County, who has
borne him two children, Robert and Dorothy. Prof. Hill is engaged in
Y. M. C. A. war work and expects to see service in France, his
wife having taken up his educational work. The other child, Bessie, is the wife
of Prof. R. T. McGregor, late principal of the school at Nord,
Cal., and is now residing at Bangor, Cal. They have two children, Helen and
George.
In 1898 George W. Hill had the misfortune
to lose his first companion. He was again united in marriage with the widow of
the late Thomas Hart of Bangor, and daughter of Joseph Hedge, late of
Brownsville, Cal. Mr. Hill purchased his present home place of seventy acres,
lying due north of Bangor, on the La Porte road, in 1892, and has followed the
occupation of farming ever since, in connection with mining in Butte and Yuba
Counties. Mr. Hill set out ten acres of his ranch to orchard, of which eight
acres are in four-year-old Mission olive trees and two acres in Franquettes; he has also half an acre of almonds, besides a
small half-acre orange orchard.
Mr. Hill and his estimable wife have
proven their worth, mingling in the best circles at Bangor where they have many
warm friends and are very popular. Mr. Hill is a member of the Masons, having
been made a Mason in Nicolaus Lodge at Wheatland in
1878, from which he transferred to the lodge at Forbestown
the following year, where he is one of the pioneer members.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 868-869, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies