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140 August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Jler- cantile battery of Chicago, serving until Deocinber, 1864; he then took a position with the firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter, and was advanced by them and their successors until, in 1878, he became a part- ner in the house of Marshall Field & Co., being placed in charge of the credits of the concern, a position calling for the most on- erous and deli- cate duties. Not- withstanding his business engage- ments, Mr. llig- inbotham has de- voted much time to public affairs as president or trustee of vari- ous institutions, and as chairman of the execu- tive cominitteeof t he Field Colum- bian museum, to which he has been a munificent donor. He became a celebrity by his un- solicited and unanimous election to the presidency of the World's Columbian exposition when its affairs were in a critical condition. The success of the exposition was largely due to his great capacity and untiring devotion.

HILDRETH, Charles Lotin, poet, b. in New York city, 38 Aug., 1856; d. there in 1896. He was educated in the College of the city of New York, studied medicine, and practised surgery for four years. Owing to financial troubles in the family, he was in his sixteenth year compelled to support himself by his pen while at college as well as while studying medicine and surgery. He published in his eighteenth year" Arts and Artists in America," followed by "Judith: A Novel," " The New Symphony," and other works. His first poem appeared in his fifteenth year, and he contributed poetry constantly to magazines. His collected poems were published in 1888 under the title of " The Masque of Heath." This was fol- lowed by "01, the Mysterious City," and otiier works. He became one of the editors of " Bel- ford's Magazine." and contributed many poems, articles, and reviews to that and other periodicals, also contributing articles to encyolopicdias, and edited several volumes of English verse. He was a descendant of Richard Hildreth, who emigrated from England in 164;j, and a nephew of Richard Hildreth, the well-known historian {q. v.).

HILL, Britton Armstrong, lawyer, b. in Blil- ford, Hunterdon co., N. J., 7 Dec, 1816; d. in St. Louis, 31 Oct., 1888. He was educated at Ogdens- burg, N. Y., admitted to the bar of Albany, and after practising two years in Ogdensburg settled in Missouri, and established a successful practice in St. Louis, devoting himself specially to land prac- tice and insurance, and railroad cases. In 1861-'5 he was a partner, with Thomas Ewing and Orville H. Browning in the legal firm of Ewing, Hill & Browning, in Washington, D. C, but he returned to St. Louis, and resumed practice in that city. During the civil war ho ardently supported the National cause, and was an organizer of the Union leagues of St. Louis and other towns in Missouri. He has devoted much time and study to the reform and perfection of the constitution of the state and National governments, to abolishing the system of granting to railroad corporations the public high- ways, with unlimited power to tax freight and passengers, and to establishing the greenback sys- tem of finance. On that subject his opinions in his work " Absolute Money " (St. Ijouis, 1875) were sustained by the decision of the supreme court of the United States in 1884, declaring the greenback to be a legal tender. His other works are " Lib- erty and Law Under Federative Government" (1873) and "Gold, Silver, and Paper" (1877).

HILL, John Henry, missionary, b. in New York citT in 1791 ; d. in Athens, Greece, 1 July, 1883. He was graduated at Columbia in 1807, studied at the Protestant Episcopal theological seminary, Alexandria, Va., was ordained deacon in 1830 and priest in 1831, and the same year was sent to Athens as a missionary. In July, 1832, with his wife, he established a girls' school in that city, which they successfully conducted for half a century. He became chaplain of the British lega- tion in 1845, and held that post for many years. Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856, and Columbia that of LL. D. in 1868. Dr. Hill trans- lated devotional and other books into modern Greek. In recognition of his services in the edu- cation of the women of Athens, he was buried with the honors of a taxiarch, by special orders of the government, and the municipality of Athens erected a marble column over his grave. See "Service Commemorative of his Life and Work, with Memorial Sermon, by Rt. Rev. William Ba- con Stevens" (New York, 1883).

HILLEBRAND, William Francis, chemist, b. in Honolulu, Hawaiian islands, 13 Dec, 1853. He was educated at Cornell and Heidelberg, receiving the degree of Ph. D. at the latter institu- tion, after which he studied in the chemical labo- ratories in the universities in Strasburg and Frei- burg. In 1878 he returned to this country, and in 1879 opened an assay office in Leadville. Col., but a year later entered the service of the U. S. geo- logical survey, and in 1880 was sent to Denver to establish a cliemical laboratory for the Rocky Mountain division of the survey. For five years he remained in charge of this laboratory, and then was transferred to the chief laboratory in Wash- ington, where he has since remained. His most important chemical researches have been the me- tallic separation of cerium, lanthanum, and the original didymium, the determination of the specific heats of the above metals, the detection of nitrogen in the various varieties of uraninite, which led to the discovery that the gas was a mix- ture, the major part of the supposed nitrogen being helium. The results of these researches have been published in " Liebig's Annalen"and " Poggendorff's Annalen " abroad, and in this country in the "American Journal of Science," the " Proceedings of the Colorado Scientific So- ciety," the "American Chemical Journal," and the " Journal of the " American Chemical Society." Dr. Hillebrand is a memberof the American chem- ical society and other scientific organizations.

HILLERN, Bertha von, artist, b. in Treves, Germany. 4 Aug., 1857. She came to this country in 1877, and for two years devoted her time to advocating athletic exercises for women, apiiearing in public as a pedestrian. She then devoted herself to the study of art, which she has since pursued as a profession in Boston. Among her pictures are "The Monk Felix," from Longfellow's " Golden Legend " ; " Evening Praver at the Way-side Shrine, Germany " (1883) ; " I'he Conversion