Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Lloyd Kittridge Hill
Lloyd Kittridge Hill, who is well known throughout Wayne county because of his effective, earnest labors on behalf of the Democratic party, is of the sixth generation of Hills who have lived in New England, the founder of his family having settled in that section of the United States in the early part of the last century. He possesses the business ability, good judgment and acumen for which the Anglo-Saxon race is noted, and unites with these characteristics strong patriotism and an optimistic faith in the great future in store for his loved country.
Born at North Brookfield, Massachusetts, January 8, 1844, a son of Kittridge Hill, whose history precedes this sketch, our subject's boyhood memories are of the locality where his forefathers had dwelt for more than a century. His common-school education was supplemented by a course at the academy of his native town, and instruction in the higher branches of learning at Fall River College. When twenty years of age he accompanied his parents to Indiana, and for several years he was employed in clerking in various places,—in Centerville, Liberty, Cambridge and Terre Haute, among others. Then for two seasons he managed and conducted a dramatic company, comprised of eighteen persons, touring through Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and many of the southern and western states, and was quite successful in this difficult enterprise.
Subsequently to his marriage, in 1870, Mr. Hill located at Centerville, where he has since made his home. He has owned and carried on a valuable farm adjoining the town, and has not confined his energies to agriculture, for he has been engaged in cutting and supplying hard-wood timber to various factories, has hauled material for buildings and county bridges and contracted for grading county roads. Thus he has always been kept very busy at some outside enterprise. He furnished the hard wood to the Henley manufactory for his roller skates, on which a fortune was made by that concern, and has supplied Gaar, Scott & Company, Robinson & Company and the Quaker City Chair Company with timber at times.
The cause of education has always found a strong friend in Mr. Hill, who served for six years here as a member of the school board, a portion of this period being the president and treasurer. The Democratic party has few stancher supporters in this county, which is strongly Republican, as Centerville was the home of Governor Morton and Senator Julian. For years he has served almost every election as one of the election judges, and frequently he has been sent as a delegate to local conventions of the party. He has been elected a member of the board of town trustees several times, and at present enjoys the distinction of being the president of the board. He is a firm believer in free silver and the principles ably advocated by Bryan in the last campaign, and is well posted upon all of the great questions of the day. Personally he is esteemed by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance, for he is loyal and true to his friends, courteous and kindly in disposition, and has due regard for the the rights and welfare of his fellow men.
On the 28th of May, 1870, L. K. Hill and Miss Louisa Pierce, of Knightstown, Indiana, were united in marriage. They have been blessed with six children, the eldest of whom, Ida May, is the wife of Jacob Smelser, of Boston township, Wayne county. Mr. and Mrs. Smelser have one child, Howard, who figures as one of a photographic group of the four living generations of the Hill family. Grace C., the second daughter of our subject and wife, married John Hoerner, of Richmond. Adah, a young lady, is at home; Laura B., is a student in the Centerville high school, and the younger children are Lloyd Kittridge and Addie. They are receiving excellent educations, the elder children being graduates of the high school here. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have reason to be proud of their family, and in looking back over their past they have little to regret, as they have faithfully performed the duties devolving upon them, in all their relations with their fellow men.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899