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Mary A. (Horn) Hill (1923)

HILL, JOHNSON, STANTON, THOMAS, HORN

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 1/10/2009 at 09:16:08

Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
October 11, 1923
Page 1

DEATH CALLS FINE PIONEER WOMAN

Mrs. M. D. Hill Passes to Her Reward After Brief Illness at Whittier, Cal. Her Residence Here, Begun in 1873, Saw Most of Town’s Development.

Mrs. M. D. Hill, resident of Earlham for almost forty years, passed away Saturday at her home in Whittier, Cal. Following an illness of about a month, in the last stages of which it was evident that her recovery was impossible. She sustained a severe fall on the 10th of September while engaged in bathing one of her grandchildren, being precipitated to the tile floor when her chair slipped, producing a fracture of the hip. This serious injury combined with heart weakness and her advanced age to make her condition hopeless almost from the beginning, and for the past week she has repeatedly been at the point of death. Mrs. Hill has been in delicate health for several years and the accident mentioned merely hastened the end. She was 82 years old the 2nd of October just past.

The arrival of Mrs. Hill’s daughter Mrs. Carl Johnson and her twin babies Mark and Mary, of Oskaloosa together with another granddaughter Mary Hill shortly before her accident was a great delight to both the grandparents Hill, who had long anticipated the reunion. The tragic death of their son Harry W. Hill and Mrs. Hill on the eve of their departure to join the aged parents in California was a great shock and they especially wanted to see Mary Hill, only survivor of the Harry Hill family.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill lived in Earlham continuously from the time of their coming here from Indiana in 1873 until they went to California about twelve years ago to spend their declining years. They were married November 12, 1862 in the Conservative Friends Meeting House at Winchester, Ind. Standing up according to the custom of the Friends and repeating the marriage vows without the intervention of a minister. After coming to Earlham Mr. Hill engaged in the hardware business with his brother Will Hill, in a building approximately on the site of the present Walker drug store. Later they were joined by another brother Jesse Hill, the firm being known as Hill Brothers. In 1878 Mark Hill founded Earlham’s first bank, the Exchange Bank of Earlham in the south apartment of the hardware store, and this bank, later the Citizens State Bank, remained in the Hill family until early in the present year.

After their arrival in Earlham Mr. and Mrs. Hill first resided in the residence south of Mrs. Shepherd’s later removing to the present W. H. Y. Taylor residence and finally to the house north of it, which remained the Hill homestead until Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hill vacated it in 1923. The entire community has very cherished recollections of this gracious woman, her kindly, motherly ways and the never-failing hospitality of the Mark Hill home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill’s last visit here was in June and July 1922, when they spent about a month with relatives in this vicinity, Des Moines and Oskaloosa. No shadow of the tragedy which was to darken their lives was evident to mar their visit. Since that time five deaths have occurred in the immediate family, that of Mrs. Barclay Stanton, sister of Mr. Hill, Mrs Mas--- Hill, a sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hill and finally the mother herself.

Mrs. Hill is survived by three children, Luther, of Whittier, Mrs. L. J. Thomas, of Imperial, Cal. And Mrs. Carl Johnson, of Oskaloosa; also two brothers, Isaac Horn, of Whittier, Cal. And Dan Horn, still residing at the old home in Winchester, Ind.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at the First Friends Church in Whittier, conducted by Rev. Frank Dell assisted by Dr. Rosenberger and burial was in the Whittier Heights Memorial Cemetery.

Gravesite
 

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