SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Lyman D. Hill, Page 503

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Lyman D. Hill, who owns a good farm on section 36, is one of the well-to-do and respected citizens of Lyndon Township.  He is a native of Chenango County, N. Y., his birth having occurred July 28, 1838, and is the only child of Lyman A. and Lavina (Gardner) Hill.  The father was also a native of the Empire State, born January 11, 1810.  He was brought up on a farm, and from boyhood was accustomed to hard work.  His education was that of the primitive schools, which he was not privileged to attend to any great extent.  He commenced the battle of life a poor boy, and made a brave fight.  With his wife he came to Milwaukee in the spring of 1846, making the trip on a lake sailing-vessel, the voyage consuming three weeks before they reached Milwaukee.  In that city they remained until the next year, thence coming to Sheboygan County with ox-teams.  Out subject, a lad of nine years, walked the entire distance bare-footed, and drove twelve head of cattle.

    The first settlement of the family was on an eighty-acre tract of land on section 36, Lyndon Township, and their humble home was a log cabin, roofed with hollow logs, the holes between being filled with moss.  The only house which stood in Adell was a log cabin, and Mrs. Hill was the first woman who ever slept in that town.  In the possession of our subject is a piece of the old door, which was made of black walnut, and was brought from North Carolina.  The eighty-acre homestead was bought from the Government at a cost of $1.25 per acre.  Indians were a common sight, and they were proverbial beggars.  An old Indian by the name of Solomon often visited their home, and Mr. Hill has a photograph of the old chief.  Only three miles distant from their early home was a spot where the red men had their planting-ground.  Our subject often remembers seeing deer within gunshot of the cabin, and has killed them himself.  The father was an old-line Whig and a prominent Abolitionist.  He later affiliated with the Republican party.

    As has been said, Lyman D. Hill was a lad of nine years when he came to Sheboygan County.  Here he acquired such education as was afforded by the primitive schools.  He has always been used to industrious and energetic labor, and the success he has attained has been owing to his own well-directed efforts.  On the 4th of December, 1858, he was united in wedlock with Miss Elizabeth Johnson, a native of Maine, whose family history appears in the sketch of D. H. Norton, which may be found in another part of this work.  She was educated in the common schools, and has been a loyal and true helpmate to her husband in all the years that have come and gone since her lot was cast in with his.  Miss May E. Gardner, a cousin of Mr. Hill, is a member of his household.  She was born May 31, 1869, in Sheboygan County, and was educated in the Hingham Public Schools, under Prof. Drury, and for the five years just past has been one of the successful teachers of the county.

    Mr. Hill is a Republican in political sentiment, and cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln.  He is a man of good principles, and having made up his mind as to what is right, is firm in his convictions.  he has never desired official preferment, but devotes his time to his business affairs.  In his homestead in Lyndon Township, he owns a good farm of sixty-five acres, and also owns a tract of twenty-four acres in Sherman Township.  His beautiful country home is built on the brow of the hill west of Hingham, and overlooks the surrounding country to the east, one of the most beautiful landscapes of the county.  The barns and outbuildings are well constructed, and indicate the careful and thrifty farmer, a name our subject bears in this section of the country.  He is rightly classed among the best citizens of Lyndon Township, and we are glad to present to our readers this history and tribute to so worthy a man.