Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 406
DR. FRANCIS M. HILL

Dr. Francis M. HILL, a practicing physician, located at Persia, Iowa, is a native of the Buckeye State, and was born in Kelloggsville, Ashtabula County, Ohio, August 11, 1844, and when only sixteen years of age went to London, England, where he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital for one year, and then returned home and practiced medicine a year, and June, 1861, enlisted in the Hospital Corps, and was detached, serving as nurse and assistant steward in the hospital, and was discharged September, 1861, but returned in about two months to take his old place in the hospital. In 1862, when Buell moved up the Mississippi, our subject was in one of the hospitals on duty, but Gen. Halleck's order No. 22 found him unfit for duty, and he was booked for discharge, and, being ordered to Louisville, started for that place December 16, 1862, and on his way was overtaken and captured by that notorious raider, Morgan, and his men, who placed a rope around his neck to hang him, but through the interferance of officers the hanging was postponed, and he was taken to headquarters in the presence of Gen. John Morgan and Gen. Basil W. Duke, who treated him more like a prince than a prisoner, and sent him on his way to Owensborough , Ky., and while there asleep in a wharf boat, the rebels out a hole in the boat and came near drowning him. A hospital boat came that way and he boarded it for Louisville, arriving there on the 26th of September, and while hunting the quartermaster, went into the Gault House just as Gen. Jeff C. Davis, of Indiana, shot Gen. Nelson. From this place our subject was transferred to the parole hospital at Indianapolis, Ind., but on account of ill health was discharged. We next find him going to New York, where he remained until February, 1863, when he went to Pennsylvania and was mustered into service and put on duty at Elmira, N. Y., in the hospital, and was transferred from that place to Washington, D. C., and served in most of the hospitals in the vicinity of the National Capitol. When Richmond and Petersburg were surrounded by Grant's army, he was transferred to the Army of the Potomac, where he remained until the close of the war.

He then made a visit to Ohio, after which he went to Forkville, Sullivan County, Pa., and practiced medicine eighteen months, at the end of which time his health failed him, and January, 1868, he came to Iowa, stopping for a short time at Burlington, where he practiced medicine.

From there he went to Adams County, Iowa, remained a short time, when he removed to Shelby County, and settled at the old village of Manteno, where the Doctor will long be remembered.  He remained there until May, 1883, and then came to Persia, where he has practiced his chosen profession ever since.
He is proprietor of a drug store, and has been connected with various newspapers since 1860, and is at present connected with the Missouri Valley News.

The Doctor was married to Miss Kate KEARNS, in Afton, Union County, Iowa, October 16, 1869, by which union four children were born -- Emma O., the wife of Samuel ALTER, now living in Persia; Maude, Virgil A. and Robert B.

Politically our subject believes in the great principles of the Democratic party, believing it best serves the interests of the masses of the American people.

In their religious convictions, the Doctor and his wife are believers in the Diety of a magnanimous God. While his wife believes in the Revelation, the Doctor does not believe in the Pentateuch.

Remarkable indeed has been the vicissitudes of this man's career, leaving the place of his nativity at the youthful age of sixteen years, and braving the dangers of the ocean's deep to England, to prepare himself for his profession, which he had thus early chosen, arid his enlistment in the Union army at the very commencement of the great Civil War, his faithful professional duty in the numerous hospitals, where lay the wounded and dying; his narrow escape from being sent into eternity by the Morgan raiders, for loyalty to the old stars and stripes, as well as the successful medical practice and journalistic work, which has marked the last two decades of his life, go toward making up a life replete with historical events.

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