Western Pennsylvania Genealogy
Compiled by Douglas H. Lusher


Family Group Record



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Squire John Hill and Elizabeth Waltz


Husband Squire John Hill 1 2 3 4 5 

           Born: 25 Feb 1772 6
     Christened: 
           Died: 8 Jan 1848 7
         Buried: 


         Father: [Unk] Hill (      -1782) 7
         Mother: Magdalena Hower (      -      ) 7


       Marriage: 

   Other Spouse: Susannah Ament (Abt 1791-1884) 4

• Family History: from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914).
To read a brief history of the Hill family, click here.


Wife Elizabeth Waltz 1 2 5 8 

            AKA: Elizabeth Walt 9
           Born: Abt 1779 - Westmoreland Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 13 Oct 1817 2 10
         Buried: 


         Father: Daniel Waltz (Abt 1741-1822) 11
         Mother: Elizabeth [Unk] (Abt 1750-1832) 11


Children
1 F Mary "Polly" Hill 1 

           Born: Abt 1796
     Christened: 
           Died: 9 Jun 1846 1
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Isaac Townsend (Abt 1789-1866) 12 13 14

2 F Elizabeth Hill 9 15 16 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Thomas Trees (1798-      ) 9 15 16
           Marr: 1818 16

3 M John Hill 9 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Did Not Marry

4 M Jacob Hill 17 

           Born: 15 Aug 1802 18
     Christened: 
           Died: 25 Jul 1876 - Parks Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 18
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Hannah Ulam (1804-1891) 18

5 M Levi Hill 9 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Sophia Minion (      -      ) 9

6 M Eli Hill 9 

           Born: 1807 9
     Christened: 
           Died: Oct 1843 - Leechburg, Armstrong Co, PA 9
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Susan Ashbaugh (Abt 1816-1878) 9

7 M Daniel Hill 9 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1914 - Leechburg, Armstrong Co, PA
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Eliza Kuhns (      -      ) 9

8 M Hiram Hill 19 

           Born: 17 Dec 1812 20
     Christened: 
           Died: 15 Jan 1891 - Gilpin Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 20
         Buried:  - Forks Church Cemetery, Gilpin Twp, Armstrong Co, PA

         Spouse: Margaret Shaffer (1809-1887) 20

9 M Israel Hill 9 

           Born: 16 Jun 1820 - Gilpin Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 9
     Christened: 
           Died: 28 Jan 1878 - Gilpin Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 9
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Catherine Shaffer (1821-1879) 9

10 F Deborah Hill 9 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Did Not Marry

General Notes: Husband - Squire John Hill


He was ten years old when his father was captured by the Indians.
He became the possessor of the old family homestead, where he lived for many years diligently engaged in clearing and improving the farm. He frequently related to his family in after-years the trials and hardships through which they were obliged to pass, notably among them their persecution by the Indians, from whom they used to flee to blockhouses for a place of safety. It was also frequently necessary to corral their stock against the depredations of the natives. Reared as he was amid scenes of danger and toil, he became a fine type of the hardy pioneer to which the subsequent generations are deeply indebted. He was well known as an expert with the ax, and for a time followed the business of erecting log houses and barns, in which he was exceptionally successful. In an early day he erected a grist and saw mill on Beaver Run, and settlers for a radius of twenty miles visited his mill with their grists, and some-times they were so far behind owing to low water, notwithstanding the mill was run Sundays as well as week-days, that settlers would wait two weeks for their grist, camping out near the mill. About 1800 he built a gristmill on the river, to which place he moved his family. The millsite included some seventy acres of land, which was acquired by settler's right. He also erected a mill on the Kiskiminetas. In 1812 he moved to a tract of land in Allegheny (later Gilpin) township, Armstrong County, now in possession of one of his sons, and soon became one of the most successful farmers of that section. His sagacity was evidenced by his planting an orchard of 1,000 apple trees, while his farm was visited by neighbors from miles around to pick cherries from the numerous trees he had planted. He became an expert in the manufacture of wooden moldboard plows, then exclusively used. He was one of the commissioners appointed by government to clear out the Kiskiminetas river. A member of the Lutheran church, he was a man of strong religious sentiments, and church services were frequently held in his barn. [HAC 1883, 613]

Active and energetic throughout his long life, intelligent and farseeing, and with the disposition to advance the affairs of the community as well as the ability to make his own under-takings prosper, he was a man of notable worth in his day. He had various interests which brought him a good income for the time and were of value to the neighborhood, and there were few citizens of his time and place who did as much for the general welfare. His activities and generosity in behalf of school facilities, his services as justice of the peace, which office he continued to hold for a number of years, and his various business enterprises, especially "Hills Mill," brought him into contact with the majority of the residents of his section. However, he was the victim of a foreigner who thought he had a grievance against the Squire. This man, a Hungarian doctor named Shultz, had been called to treat the Squire's daughter Leah, who was an invalid. He fell in love with the girl and wanted to marry her, but she was indignant and alarmed at his proposal and complained to her father and brother. The Squire ordered the Doctor to cease his visits and attentions. This infuriated the Doctor so that he threatened to burn the barn and kill all the family then at home. In March, 1847, he made the attempt, but only succeeded in burning the barn and in blowing up the Squire's office, a small building in which two of the boys, Salem and Shiloh, slept. That night a neighbor boy was with them. The boys were awakened by the light of the burning barn, so they were up at the time of the explosion of the powder Shultz had placed in the building, through a broken window, for the purpose of killing them. The force of the explosion was such that the boys were thrown in different directions. The one end of the building and the door were blown out, but the boys were not seriously injured. Shultz, however, did not fare so well. He had been about to break into the house where the other members of the family were sleeping, but heard the boys getting up and fearing the powder would not do its work until the boys had left the building, he had gone back to the door, with a rifle, and a butcher knife, to meet the boys when they would open the door; he just got there in time to receive the full force of the door as it was blown outward by the explosion, and was so badly injured that he was disabled for a time, being thrown back against the garden wall, where some of the people discovered him. His face, too, was very much lacerated by the butcher knife, which he was holding between his teeth. By this time the inmates of the house were aroused, and it was necessary for all to give their attention to saving the house, as the roof was already ignited by specks from the barn. The house was saved without being very much damaged. Salem was prevented forcibly from attacking Shultz, though when the latter cried for water no one would give him a drink until Mrs. Hill, the Squire's wife, said he should have it and went to the spring herself. The next day Shultz was taken to Kittanning, and lodged in jail. He had his trial at the June term of court, and was found guilty of arson, and sent for life to the penitentiary, where he died. The barn he attempted to destroy was the largest in Allegheny township, which then comprised what is now three townships, Gilpin, Parks and Bethel. At the time it was burned it contained one thousand bushels of wheat, besides other grain, farm implements and horses. Such a calamity was a heavy burden for a man already worn by many years of toil in a frontier life, and may have hastened his death.

He erected a grist and saw mill on Beaver Run, the grist mill doing the grinding for the settlers within a radius of twenty miles, and during low water it was often run even on Sunday, to accommodate those who had camped with their grists to await their turns. Afterward he built grist-mills on the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers, and in 1812 he settled in Gilpin township, Armstrong County, where he planted a large apple orchard, one thousand trees. He was a successful farmer, and also manufactured wooden moldboard plows. He was appointed a commissioner to clear out the Kiskiminetas river. In religion he was a Lutheran.

He was one of the earliest and most prominent settlers on the Kiskiminetas River, and on it, in Allegheny township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, very early erected a flouring-mill at what became Bagdad Station, which was swept away two years after, as was another, built by Shiloh Hill and John Schwalm on the same site, a year later. The Hill family was of Irish extraction.

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Sources

1 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 677.

2 Robert Walter Smith, Esq., History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins, & Co., 1883), Pg 613.

3 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 470.

4 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 1123.

5 Scott Lee Boyd, The Boyd Family (Santa Barbara, CA: Self-published, 1935), Pg 53.

6 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 470, 571.

7 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 571.

8 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 470, 576.

9 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 572.

10 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 470, 572.

11 Scott Lee Boyd, The Boyd Family (Santa Barbara, CA: Self-published, 1935), Pg 52.

12 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 488.

13 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 125.

14 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 726.

15 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 440.

16 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 133.

17 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 572, 573, 958.

18 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 573.

19 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 518, 572.

20 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 518.

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