Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/278

 HILL

HILL

daughter of Noyes Payson Hawes, of Boston, Mass., and their son, the Rev. George Hermann Hill, became pastor of Beachwoods Presbyterian church, Rock Dale Mills, Pa. The degree of D.U. was conferred on him by Wasliington and Jetfer- son college in 18G'J. He publislied several sermons and an address on : The Aims and Operations of the XiifioiKil Rcfonn Association (1S«U). He died at Blairsville. Pa.. Aug. '^'2. 1895.

HILL, George Handel, actor, was born in Bos- ton, M;iss., Oct. 9, 1809. He was a brother of Uriah C. Hill, the musician. He spent his boy- hood in Taunton, Mass., and in 18-2.J went to New York city, where he worked with a jeweller. He was a supernumerary in the Cliatham Street theatre ; joined a travelling company and for several years led the life of a strolling player, entertainer and lecturer. He married in 1828, and settled as a country storekeeper in Lero3% N.Y., but after two years he returned to the stage and also lectured in the central and southern states. He played the part of Jonathan in " The Forest Rose," for the first time at the Arch Street theatre, Pliiladelphia, Pa., and then at the Park theatre. New York city. His Yankee de- lineation struck the popular chord and his serv- ices after this were souglit eagerly in all parts of the country, and he became known as Yankee Hill. He visited England in 1836, performing at the Drury Lane and Olympic theatres, and also playing in Glasgow, Edinburgh and other large cities. He again visited England in 1838, appeared at the Adelphi theatre and visited Paris, returning to the United States in 1839, when he found that his popularity had ended. Dissipation ruined his health and necessitated his retirement in 1847. He died at Saratoga, N.Y., Sept. 27, 1849.

HILL, George William, astronomer, was born in New York city, March 3, 1838 ; son of John William and Catherine (Smith) Hill ; grandson of John and Ann (Musgrove) Hill, and of William and Mary (Cole) Smith ; and a descendant of Jolin Hill, wiio came to America from London in 1816, and resided in Philadelphia. Tiie progeni- tor of the Cole family is said to have come from Holland to New York city in 1635. He was grad- uated from Rutgers college, Ph.D., in 18.59, and during his college course was awarded the first prize in a general competition of mathematical students in the United States for an essay pub- lished in the Mathematical Monthly. He was ap- pointed an assistant in theoflfice of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanacin 1861, resign- ing his position in 1892, to devote his time to re- search. In 1880 he went from Lake Superior to Hudson's Bay in a canoe, and on his return pub- lished a map of the route and numerous photo- graphs of tiie scenery. He liecame lecturer on celestial mechanics in Columbia university in 1893.

He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1874 ; foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical society ; a member of the American Matliematical society in December, 1892, its vice- president, 1893-94, and its president, 1894-96; and an associate fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1887 the Royal Astronomi- cal society awarded him a gold medal for his researches on lunar theory, and he received the Damoiscan prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences for 1898. He received the honorary degree of Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge, England, in 1892, and that of LL.D. from Columbia in 1894, and from Princeton in 1897. He is the author of : The Thcorij of Jupiter ami Saturn (1890), and of numerous articles ;ui<l incinoirs.

HILL, Hamilton Andrews, merchant, was born in London, England, April 14, 1827; son of Hamilton and Anna (Andrews) Hill. His early school training was received in the City of Lon- don school, of which the Rev. John Allen Giles was then the head master. He removed to the United States in the winter of 1840-41, and studied in Oberlin college, Oiiio, of which his father was the treasurer, 1841-64. He left before completing his collegiate course, and in 1849 be- came a shipping and commission merchant in Boston, Mass. He was a director of the Boston board of trade, and its secretary, 1867-73. He represented Boston as a delegate to the Detroit commercial convention of 1865, and to the Boston commercial convention of 1868. He was a dele- gate to the meeting of the board in Philadelphia, Pa., June, 1868, which organized the National Board of Trade, and was elected its first secretary. The years 1873-75 he spent in Europe, being en- gaged in promoting the interests of immigration to America. In 1877 he was chosen a vice-presi- dent of the National Board of Trade, and in 1879 was again elected its secretary. He was a member of the Massachvisetts house of represen- tatives in 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1881. In 1881 he was a member of the joint legislative committee on the revision of the statutes, and one of the representatives of the commonwealth at the Cen- tennial celebration at Yorktown. He was a member of the Massachusetts board of state char- ities, 1878-79. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical society, the American Antiquarian society, the American Piiilo.so]>hical society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ; was made vice-president of the Ameri- can Statistical association and became a director in, and the treasui-er of. the American Social Sci- ence association. He received the degree of A.M. from Oberlin in 1867. and from Williams college in 1868. and that of LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1S93. He is the author of : A Memoir of Abbott Lawrence (1883); The Histonj