Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/259

  was elected to the House of the Tenth General Assembly, was chairman of the committee on schools and was untiring in efforts in behalf of liberal laws for the promotion of education. In politics he is a Republican.  GERSHOM H. HILL was born at Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa, May 8, 1846. He went to Grinnell in 1800 and was employed on the farm of Hon. J. B. Grinnell, the founder of the town and college. One night in June, 1861, young Hill drove a wagon load of escaping slaves from Grinnell's house, which was a station on the “underground railroad,” to Marengo, on their way to Canada and freedom. He obtained his education in the public schools and in 1863 began school teaching in Marshall County. Soon after he enlisted in the Forty-sixth Iowa Regiment and served under Colonel David B. Henderson. In 1865 Mr. Hill entered Grinnell College, graduating in 1871. He then began the study of medicine at the State University, and later at Rush Medical College, where he graduated. In 1875 he was chosen a physician in the Hospital for Insane at Independence, and in 1881 he was promoted to superintendent and has continued in that position up to the present time. His management of that institution has been marked for peculiar ability in the administration of its affairs. He writes for several medical journals and is a member of the leading medical associations of the country. He is a lecturer on insanity at the Medical Department of the State University, and is often called upon as an expert in that malady.  SYLVESTER G. HILL was born on the 10th of June, 1820, in Washington County, Rhode Island. He received an academic education at Greenwich. In 1840 he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in the lumber business. In 1849 he went to California with the great emigration of gold seekers. Failing to find profitable business, he came the following year to Iowa, locating at Muscatine. In July, 1862, he recruited a company of volunteers of which he was chosen captain. In August his company was assigned to the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry. On the 10th of August he was promoted to colonel of the regiment. He led it in the Vicksburg campaign and McPherson's expedition to Brownsville and was also in the Red River campaign under Banks and later served with Sherman. In the Battle of Nashville, fought in December, Colonel Hill commanded a brigade and while making a gallant charge on the enemy's works, was shot through the head and instantly killed. DAVID B. HILLIS was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, July 28, 1825. He was educated at the University of South Hanover, studied medicine at Madison and for eleven years practiced his profession in his native State. In 1858 he removed to Iowa, locating at Bloomfield. In 1860