Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/280

 HILL

HILL

5, 18S4. See Service Commemorative of the Life and Work of John Henry Hill irith a Memorial Sermon, by the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens (1S82). He died in Athens, Greece, July 1, 1»82. HILL, Joshua, senator, was born in Abbeville district, S.C., Jan. 10, 1812. He received a liberal education, studied law. and was admitted to the South Carolina bar. In 1840 he removed to Madi- son, Ga., where he practised law and was a dele- gate to the Whig na- tional convention of 1844. He was a rep- resentative in the 35th and 36th congresses, 1857-61, and served on the committees on public lands and for- eign affairs. He was opposed to secession, and wlien his state passed the ordinance he resigned his seat in the senate, as he could not honestly re- present his constitu- ents, and during the civil war he took no part in the conflict. He opposed Joseph E. Brown as governor of Georgia in 1863, and was defeated in the election. In 1865 he again entered politics as a Republi- can, and used his influence in the state con- stitutional committee of 1866 to secure for the freedmen, suddenly made citizens, their rights before the law. He was an unsuccessful candi- date for U.S. senator in 1866; was named as col- lector of the port of Savannah by President John- son the same year, and in 1867 as register in bank- ruptcy, both of which appointments he declined. He was elected U.S. senator in July, 1868, for the term expiring March 4, 1873, by the legislature of Georgia, but was not permitted to take his seat till Jan. 30, 1871. He was made a member of the committee on privileges and elections and on pensions, and opposed Charles Sumner in debate on the civil riglits bill. On leaving the senate he retired from public life, except to serve as a mem- ber of the state constitutional convention of 1877. He died in:\radison. Ga., March 6, 1891.

HILL, Mark Langdon, representative, was born in Biddeford. Maine. June 30, 1772. He attended the district school, and in 1792 was elected totlie Massachusetts legislature, serving several terms in both liouses. In 1810 lie was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas; was a representa- tive from Massjichusetts in the lOtli congress, 1819-21, and from Maine in the 17tli congress, 1821-23. He was later postmaster at Pliijipsburg, Maine; collector of the port of Bath, and held several town and county offices. He was over-

seer of Bowdoin college, 1796-1821, and a trustee, 1821-42. regularly attending every meeting except one during the period of forty-six years. He died in Phippsl.urg, Maine, Nov. 26, 1842.

HILL, Nathaniel Peter, jurist, was born in Montgomery, N.Y., Feb. 4, 1781; son of Peter and Isabella (Trimble) Hill, and grandson of Nathaniel Hill, who came from the north of Ireland to New York state in 1734. He was educated at Montague academy, and became a lawyer in his native i)lace. He was a lieutenant in Capt. Peter Millkin's cavalry company in the war of 1812, and was commissioned by Governor Clinton captain of the Orange Hussars in 1819. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1816, 1819, 1820, and 1825; sheriff of Orange county, and judge of the court of common pleas, 1823-25; a member of the board of supervisors in 1833; and a presidential elector in 1836. He was married to Matilda Crawford, and had six sons: James King. Natlianiel Peter, Moses Crawford, Charles Borland. Augustus and Jonathan Alden. He died at Montgomery. N.Y., May 12. 1842.

HILL, Nathaniel Peter, senator, was born in
 * Montgn)ery, N.Y., Feb. 18,1832; son of Nathan-

iel Peter and Matilda (Crawford) Hill. He was prepared for college at Montgomery academj', entered Brown university in 1853, and was graduated from there A.B. 1856. He remained at the university as instructor in chemistiy applied to the arts, 1858-59, and as pro- fessor of the same, 1859-64. He then went to Colorado, where he became in- terested in gold and silver mining, and from there went abroad, spending sev- eral months in Swan- sea, Wales, and Fire- burg, Saxony, exam- ining the methods employed for treating gold and silver ores. Returning to Colo- rado in 1866, he organized and became manager of the Boston and Colorado Smelting company. With a Mr. Pierce from Wales, who was associ- ated with him in business, he invented a process of extracting gold and silver from matte, which was really the foundation of the mining indus- tries of Colorado. He was mayor of Black Hawk, Col., in 1871; a member of the territorial coun- cil, 1872-73, and was a U. S. senator, 1879-85. He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution during a part of his residence in Washington. In the senate he advocated a system of postal