Mark Diggs Hill

DIGGS, HILL, HORN, JOHNSON, PEEL, THOMAS, WOOD

Posted By: Kent Transier (email)
Date: 1/4/2010 at 21:20:12

A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896

Mark Diggs Hill. – For thirty years this gentleman has enjoyed a successful career in Earlham, and as the result of his untiring labors, his ambition, his energy and well directed efforts, he is today the possessor of a handsome competence and a beautiful home, where he spends his leisure hours, enjoying the society of his family and friends in the midst of all comforts that go to make life worth Living. Nor is there in all Earlham a man who has done more for the city, Promoting its material welfare, advancing its public interest and giving a stalwart support to all enterprises calculated to prove of general benefit.

Mr. Hill was born in Randolph county, Indiana, July 29, 1841, and is a son of Matthew and Fannie (Diggs) Hill. His father was born in North Carolina, and his mother in Randolph county, Indiana where her parents were among the very earliest settlers. She was the first white child born on White river and was therefore familiar with all the experience of frontier life. Both families are of English descent.

The subject of this review was reared on his father’s farm and acquired his education in the common schools. Coming to Iowa in 1865 he located in Marshall county, where he engaged in farming for a year and then removed to (?) Iowa. A year was passed there in farming, after which he came to Earlham and in company with the firm of Sitchel Sons, of Des Moines, carried on the lumber business for three years.

On the expiration of that period he sold out and engaged in the hardware business, in partnership with his brother, W. R. Hill, under firm style of Hill Brothers, the business relation continuing for about ten years, when he sold out and with his brother and Charles Thomas organized the Exchange Bank, of Earlham. Later he bought the interest of his partners and has since successfully engaged in banking alone. He has also been extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising ever since he became a resident of the county, and still owns a fine farm of 160 acres in Penn township, and thirty acres adjoining the village of Earlham, where he continues to gratify his love for agriculture.

On the 14th of October, 1863, Mr. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Mary, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Wood) Horn. She was born in Randolph county, Indiana, October 2, 1841, and is descended from English ancestry. Her maternal grandfather, Daniel Wood, served as a soldier throughout the entire Revolutionary war. Her paternal grandmother bore the maiden name of Peel and was a near relative of Sir Robert Peel, of England. Mrs. Hill is the sixth child and youngest daughter in a family numbering four sons and three daughters, and by her marriage has become the mother of six children, namely: Luther, who is the present deputy County Treasurer, of Winterset, Iowa; Laura, wife of Bevan Johnson, of Earlham; Ella, wife of Lucius Thomas of Toronto, Canada; Charles W., who died at the age of seventeen years; Harry W. and Mabel, at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill are members of the Friends’ Church, and Mrs. Hill takes an active interest in charitable and religious work, while he is an Elder in the church. He has given his political support to the Republican party since becoming a voter, but has never aspired to political preferment. The cause of education has ever found in him a true friend. He conceived the idea of building the Earlham Academy and labored hard and earnestly for the completion of that work, being the largest contributor to the building fund. The Earlham cemetery was laid out and presented to the town by Mr. Hill, and his father was the first person buried there.

For nearly thirty years he has been a resident of Earlham and has not only done much for the material advancement of the place but has acquired a large and valuable property, and by his straightforward, honest course had won the respect and confidence of a people who appreciate his genuine worth.