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Cleanup To Be Held At The Hill Family Cemetery
Trillium blooms near the headstones of the Hill Family Cemetery off Hog Rock Road in Edneyville.
This Saturday, volunteers will be cleaning up the cemetery.
(CHRIS CLEVENGER/TIMES-NEWS)
April 12, 2005
Jennie Jones Giles
Times-News Staff Writer
[email protected]
In the 130 years since the death of Jonathan "John" Hill Sr. in 1875, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who can trace their ancestry to him.
Hill had 15 known children by his first wife, Sarah "Sally" Wheeler Hill, and at least five by his second wife, Nancy Ann Gilbert. His tombstone near Reedy Patch Creek between Edneyville and Bat Cave states he had "21 children, 9 of whom were sons," and many of those 21 children had large families.
Their descendants number in the hundreds in Henderson County and they are scattered throughout the United States and Canada, according to family research.
The Walt Bryson Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans hopes many of those descendants will join them in the cemetery cleanup at 10 a.m. Saturday.
"We're doing the cemetery cleanups for historical preservation," said Norman Miller, who chairs the cemetery project for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "We don't just clean up cemeteries with Civil War veterans.
"We want to preserve the historical cemeteries in this county, no matter the heritage or race," Miller said. "We hope the residents of Henderson County will help us. We want to clean up all the old cemeteries in this county."
Hill, a farmer, and his first wife settled sometime after 1808 in an area of Rutherford County that became Henderson County when the county was formed from Rutherford and Old Buncombe counties. Many of their descendants continued farming in the county and over the years became some of the first apple growers in the county.
He served in the N.C. 8th Regiment, 9th Co., detached from 1st Rutherford Regiment (N.C. Militia) in the War of 1812.
"John Hill was a remarkable man; he never chewed tobacco, never swore an oath, and never drank liquor," states an article in a local newspaper about a Hill reunion in 1929. "The first Baptist association, called the Carolina Association, was organized in his own home, and John Hill cut the first pole to build the first church erected in these parts of the then wild woods."
Hill and his first wife's known children are: Lewis Hill, 1810-1890, married Nancy Taylor; Mary Hill, married Bradley Dalton in 1827; Nancy Hill, married James Hicks Laughter in 1830; Alva Hill, married a Laughter; John Hill Jr., 1812-1869, married Dorcas Gilbert; Robert Hill, married Nancy Brown; Manson Carson Hill, 1817-1890, married Mary Ann Arledge; Johnson Hill, 1825-1890, married Elizabeth Lyda and second, Collie Crawford; Sarah Hill, married a Mills; Louisa Hill, 1830-1898, married Jonathan Hampton Hyder; Hampton G. Hill, married Debra Parris; John Henry Hill, 1832-1885, married Fanny Brock; William Walter Hill, 1835-1909, married Mary M. Brown; Bertha or Ruth Hill, married a Mullins; Patsy Hill.
His five known children by his second wife include Reuben Hill; Harriett Hill, who married an Elliott; Elizabeth Hill, who married an Elliott; Mary Jane Hill, who married Isaac Monroe Lyda Jr.; and Ellen Hill, who married Fletcher Owensby.
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2005