Clarence Hill (1901)

HILL

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 10/2/2009 at 10:43:41

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, July 18, 1901
Page 8

Earlham

W. R. Hill has received notice from the war department to the effect that the body of his “soldier boy son,” who died in the Philippines, had left San Francisco the 13th, and is expected to arrive here at any time.
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Winterset Madisonian
Thursday, July 25, 1901
Page 8

Earlham and Vicinity

The body of Clarence Hill arrived from the Phillipine Islands last Wednesday morning the 17th on the 7:50 train. Undertaker Scott Hatfield who took charge of the body, said that it was in excellent condition, that it looked very natural and that any one who knew him in life would easily recognize him. The funeral was held Friday at the Friends Church the sermon being preached by the Rev. John Stribling, after which the body was laid to rest in the cemetery east of town. The body was accompanied to its last resting place by a detachment whom also acted as pallbearers. It was one of the largest funeral ever known at this place.
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Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
Thursday, July 25, 1901

The funeral service of Clarence Hill was held last Friday afternoon in the Friends church at two o’clock and was largely attended, many being unable to gain admittance. The church was beautifully draped with the national emblem, and flowers were there in great profusion.

Rev. J. W. Stribling conducted the services and he delivered a most excellent address. He was intimately associated with the deceased.

The funeral was a semi-military one, the veterans of ’61 acting as a guard of honor and a number of Spanish war boys from Stuart, Van Meter and DeSoto acting as guard and pall bearers.

The choir, composed of Mrs. I. L. Wright, Mrs. W. H. Monroe, Miss Gertrude Hockett, W. H. Monroe and W. A. Bickford, rendered some patriotic songs.

The floral offerings were many and beautiful.

The deceased was a young man of much promise and was spoken of very highly by those who knew him. He was born in Earlham, Iowa, July 7, 1879, and spent his boyhood days here. On June 22, 1899, he enlisted in Des Moines and was assigned to Co. M. 4th U.S. Infantry, then on duty a few miles southeast of Manilla, Philippine Islands, where he joined the regiment and took part in many of the engagements of that region. Health failing him last fall he was transferred to the commissary department, but his broken health continued and he was sent to the Bacoor hospital, where he died on April 23, 1901, aged 21 years, 9 months and 10 days. His body was shipped from Manilla on May 10, and from San Francisco July 12, arriving here on the 17th from whence he went over two years ago in the full vigor of his young manhood to fight the battles of his country.

He was a patriot and a good soldier and did his duty as God gave him light to see it. Echo readers will remember the many entertaining letters he wrote for us during his first year at the front.

Nothing we could say would show the character of the boy half so well as the following extract taken from a letter he wrote to Perry Haxton a little over a year ago: “We had one man desert from our company last week, but he was a coward. If there is anything on God’s earth I hate, it’s a coward. I am no fire eater, but I can stand as hot fire as the rest, I think just this way I can’t die, but once, so die like a man.”

His remains were laid in Earlham cemetery there to await the assembly call on the great white tented field, where the marshaled hosts shall pass in review before the Grand Commander.

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