MRS. MARY HILL

HILL, GUILE, NIGHSWONGER

Posted By: Steven G. Emery (email)
Date: 2/20/2005 at 00:38:34

This obituary was given to me by my mother, Beatrice (Smith) Emery which were given to her by her mother and father, Nellie (Harl) Smith and Elmer James Smith. My mother was born in Moulton. (No date on newspaper article)

MRS. MARY HILL OF MOULTON IS 100

MOULTON. -- Saturday was the 100th birthday of Mrs. Mary Hill.
As has been the custom for 18 years, Mrs. Hill and her sisters. Mrs. Hattie Nighswonger 95, and Miss Anna Guile 92, celebrated the anniversary together in the Nighswonger home. It is a little white house on West Broadway. one block West of Main Street.

Into a family where long life is more of a rule than an exception Mrs. Hill was born July 16, 1855, on a farm a mile West of Drakesville. She lives on her farm two miles West of Moulton with her daughter, Olive, the wife of Ross Childs. Mrs. Nighswonger and Miss. Anna live together in Moulton.

ACTIVE LIFE
Mrs. Hill has led an active life that still includes trips with her daughter's family to such events as the Pella Tuplip festival and state plowing matches. She also rides in a Jeep when her daughter drives to the harvest field.
In the past three months her eyesight has nearly failed. Her hearing has been impaired the past year.
There is nothing she enjoys more than going into town and visiting with her sisters, Hattie and Anna. They were a family of ten children and their parents were Richard L. and Hannah M. Guile. The parents came to Iowa in a covered wagon from Shelbyville, Ind., and located on this farm in April 1855. Mary was born in July. At the age of 19 she came to Moulton with her sister Elvira, who had taken dressmaking lessons in Bloomfield. They established a millinery store in 1874 and continued until 1890, when she married Will Hill. She started housekeeping on the same farm on which she now lives.
It is a constant delight for neighbors and friends to go to the home of Hattie and Anna. These congenial soft-spoken and neat-appearing white-haired ladies carry their years so gracefully.
They have articles of furniture and other items that they treasure highly. But they have kept in step with the times and are just as proud of any new articles of furniture or a new dress or a new hat.

KEEN MEMORIES
The memories of these three sisters are so keen and quick. Often people seeking data or other information of early history pertaining to the community go to these women for material.
Mrs. Hill, when asked about her first home, replied quickly, "Oh yes. I remember the old brick house with its fireplace. Mother would bake bread in an old heavy black skillet with lid on it, and put it in the fireplace."
They related to their visitors that their father was the first one in the community to buy a kerosene lamp.
It had a little glass bowl that held a pint of kerosene and had a little handle on one side. Their neighbors came to see their father light the lamp for the first time. It was just to dangerous to have in the house so he took it out under a large tree in the yard to light it and with all the neighbors silently gathered around. He lighted it and Hattie, who was a very small girl at the time remembered hearing someone say, "Oh my! What a brilliant light!" Nothing else happened so their father said, "Lets take in the house, it's safe."
They recalled seeing one neighbor woman step up to the lighted lamp and burn her hand by grasping the chimney. It happened after her husband had said, "Betsy see how smooth that is."

WHITE DRESSES.
Mary laughs and tells us "We always had a white dress to wear the first Sunday in May to church no matter what kind of day it was."
She enjoys telling about the Rock Island railroad through Drakesville and what a thrill it was when their teacher Addie Wilson took them over to watch the work of grading.
These three sisters are members of the Moulton Christian church. They are belived to be the three oldest living sisters in the state.
The dinner Saturday was prepared by Mrs. Hill's daughter. Mrs. Childs. A niece and her husband Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Buttry of Monroe, spent Saturday with them.