John Hill (planter)

John Hill (March 12, 1824 – June 7, 1910) of Homestead Plantation was a wealthy industrialist, sugar planter, philanthropist, and benefactor of Louisiana State University.

Early life in Scotland

John Hill was born in Old Monkland[1] (now part of Coatbridge), Lanarkshire, Scotland, where his family operated coal mines and iron works, on March 12, 1824 to George Hill (b. January 1785, d. 1852.[2]) and Isabella Christie (b. 1787, d. about 1837)[3] (sister to coal mine owner Alexander Christie (b. 1789, d. 1859) of Milnd). Hill was baptized on March 28, 1824 at Old Monkland Parish Church.[4] Hill was the second-born of six children. After the death of his mother and siblings, he was reared for part of his life in the Milnwood, (near Bellshill) Lanarkshire home of his uncle, coal and iron mine owner Alexander Christie, along with his cousin, Mr. John Christie (1822-1902).

Hill entered the iron foundry of his uncle, Alexander Christie, at an early age and acquired a knowledge of foundry work.[3]

Hill was reared in the Presbyterian denomination and claimed descent from Scottish Covenanters and an ancestor who fought at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679.[3]

Adult life in the United States

John Hill came to the United States for a visit in 1844, by a voyage of seven weeks on a sailing ship, arriving in New York City on July 4, 1844[5] but never returned to Scotland. He travelled through the Northeastern states and Canada and then came to the South in 1845 by sailing ship. He also travelled around the South. Seeing opportunity in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he settled in Baton Rouge in 1846.

Hill started an iron foundry in partnership with Mr. J. William Markham at the foot of North Street in Baton Rouge at the age of twenty-four (1848).

Hill lived with John McKenzie, a thirty-five-year-old blacksmith and native of Scotland, and his family in Baton Rouge in 1850.[6]

John Hill met a Scottish lady, Catherine McPhail (b. about 1819) of Glasgow,[7] in Baton Rouge and they were married in 1851 by Reverend Jahleel Woodbridge,[3][8] pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.[9] The Hills were members of the First Presbyterian Church until their deaths.[10]

Hill is reported to have employed nineteen "bondsmen" in his foundry at the northeast corner of Front Street and North Street in Baton Rouge.[11]

Hill also owned a sawmill on the bank of the Mississippi River, which was near the present location of the Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit, and a steam-powered ferry boat named the Sunny South.[12] James Irving was the engineer and Alexander Banes was the fireman of the Sunny South.

John Hill applied for naturalization as an American citizen on October 2, 1856. however the naturalization was interrupted by the American Civil War and was never completed. He remained a British subject for the rest of his life.

The Hills built a beautiful two-story mansion (no longer extant) at 638 Lafayette Street in Baton Rouge, which they named Homestead, as indicated by a brass plate near the front door. The mansion was situated on the northernmost lot on the east side of Lafayette Street. It was just to the south of the Pentagon Barracks. Inside there were double parlors divided by pocket doors to the left of the hallway and a large dining room to the rear. A library was accessed through a door under the steps. There was a garden on the south side of the mansion.

Children

The children born to John and Catherine Hill were:

The children of John Hill and their spouses are buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

Life during the American Civil War

Hill made cannonballs for the Confederacy in his foundry after Louisiana seceded. [18] After Baton Rouge was captured by the North in May 1862 during the American Civil War, John Hill's home was commandeered to be used as quarters for officers. He obtained permission from Admiral David Farragut, aboard his flagship, USS Hartford, to move his family across the Mississippi River to West Baton Rouge Parish.[19] The Hill family took refuge along with two other families in the small "hut" of a Mr. Watson near the plantation of Abraham Lobdell.[20]

His industrial properties in Baton Rouge were destroyed by Northern forces in 1862. Although most structures north of North Street were burned by the Union forces, the John Hill mansion survived because it was used as the Union headquarters.[21]

Post war life

After the war, Hill purchased a bankrupt sugar plantation, the property of Mrs. Mary Ann Barrow, widow of Senator Alexander Barrow, at Sheriff's sale on February 6, 1866,[22] which he subsequently named Homestead Plantation and went into the cultivation of sugar cane. He reportedly made the first sugar in West Baton Rouge after the Civil War. Little by little adjacent properties were acquired to add to his agricultural property.

John Hill had become friendly with his former slave, Alexander Banes. In 1874, he helped Banes to purchase a tract of land in West Baton Rouge Parish on the River Road north of Homestead Plantation. There Banes developed a three-street community known as "Sunrise."[23]

John Hill resided at Homestead Plantation on the banks of the Mississippi River in an existing Louisiana raised cottage style house[24] for the remainder of his life. Catherine McPhail died at Homestead Plantation on December 22, 1889 (about age 70),[3] and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

John Hill's daughter, Katherine, remained at home and served as his housekeeper for the remainder of his life. After his death, she moved to the family mansion at 638 Lafayette Street in Baton Rouge.

Donation of de Boré sugar kettle

John Hill purchased the cast iron sugar kettle, which had been used by Étienne de Boré in 1795 in the first successful granulation of sugar in Louisiana. This event marked the start of the sugar industry in Louisiana. John Hill subsequently donated the sugar kettle to Louisiana State University where it remains on display.[25]

Donation of Hill Memorial Library

John Hill's elder son, John Hill, Jr., predeceased him on November 10, 1893. John Hill wished to create a memorial for his son, who had been a member of the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University (LSU). He donated $33,000 to the University for a library which was constructed on the campus of LSU on North Third Street in Baton Rouge and completed in 1903. The library was named the Hill Memorial Library in memory of John Hill, Jr. The donation of the library was sorely needed and of great importance to LSU, because the university previously had had to house its books in an old powder magazine.[3][26]

LSU moved to a new campus and a new library was constructed in the new campus and named the Hill Memorial Library. The original Hill Memorial Library became the State Library of Louisiana, however it was eventually pulled down and replaced with a newer library building on the same site.

Death

John Hill died suddenly in his office at Homestead Plantation on June 7, 1910 at the age of 86 years and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge. The First Presbyterian Church built a Sunday school annex behind its former sanctuary (no longer extant) at Florida and Fourth Street in 1911, which it named the Hill Memorial Annex. It was dedicated "To the Glory of God and Mr. and Mrs. John Hill."[10]'

References

  1. ↑ Old Monkland, British History Online
  2. ↑ George Hill is buried in Shotts Kirk, North Lanarkshire graveyard.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 John Hill In: Chamber, Henry E. (1925). History of Louisiana. Chicago and New York: American Historical Association, Inc. pp. 120–1.
  4. ↑ Old Monkland Parish baptismal records.
  5. 1 2 Stewart, Averill. Alicella. London: John Murray, 1955: p. 256.
  6. ↑ 1850 Baton Rouge Census, Entry 586
  7. ↑ Catherine McPhail was the daughter of Lachlan McPhail and Margaret Bain or McBean (sources differ)
  8. ↑ Jahleel Woodbridge
  9. ↑ Marriage License, Clerk of Court of East Baton Rouge Parish.
  10. 1 2 Jennings, Virginia Lobdell. By These Stones: A Narrative History of the First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baton Rouge: First Presbyterian Church, 1977.
  11. ↑ Draughton, Jr., Ralph.  "Down By the River: A History of the Baton Rouge Riverfront" (PDF).. New Orleans: U.S Army Corp of Engineers, 1998: p. 11.
  12. 1 2 Gueymard, Earnest. John Hill, Astute Scotsman. Baton Rouge Advocate.
  13. ↑ Calumet Plantation, historical marker. West Baton Rouge Parish Museum.
  14. ↑ Marriage license on file at Clerk of Court of West Baton Rouge Parish.
  15. 1 2 George Hill. In: A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 294, by Henry E. Chambers. The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.
  16. ↑ Carrie Lee Taylor was the granddaughter of William "Brickhouse Billy" Taylor, Sr.
  17. ↑ Births, deaths and marriages recorded in John Hill family Bible.
  18. ↑ War Claims Commission.
  19. ↑ Note from Admiral Farrugut, dated May 28, 1862.
  20. ↑ East, Charles, ed. (1992). Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman. New York: Touchstone. ISBN 978-0-6717-8503-1.
  21. ↑ Carleton, Mark T. River Capital: An Illustrated History of Baton Rouge. Tarzana, California: American Historical Press, 1996: p. 94. (ISBN 0-9654754-0-9)
  22. ↑ Conveyance records of West Baton Rouge Parish
  23. ↑ Sternberg, Mary Ann. Along the River Road: Past and Present on Louisiana's Historic Byway. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. (ISBN 0-8071-2055-3)
  24. ↑ Edward J. Cazayoux, AIA. The Climatic adaption of French Colonial Architecture into the Louisiana Raised cottage Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine..
  25. ↑ "Sugar Kettle - Louisiana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  26. ↑ History of Hill Memorial Library
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.