Monthly Archives: February 2011

HILL, Northwest Territory, Ohio, Pennsylvania, TIDD

James Hill and His Sister Rebecca

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A History of the Tidds of Ohio has material on not only the Tidd family, of course, but also the Hills. It is difficult to know how much of it is accurate. For example, Maryland is mentioned as the home state of the Hill family, but all census records of James Hill record Pennsylvania as his birthplace. But there are lots of clues and tidbits, including potentially beneficial sources.

Among the neighbors with whom the Tidds became acquainted was a family from Maryland. Actually there were two families. A Robert Lawton, wife and small daughter had left Maryland about 1792. A young man named James Hill and his young sister Rebecca were also desirous of going to the new Ohio river settlements. Their father, a soldier, had died either during the Revolutionary War or immediately after; and their mother had died shortly after the war. The brother and very young sister, thus orphaned, had lived with an uncle for several years. The uncle had died and family difficulties had arisen. James, having heard much about the new country to the westward, felt that he could provide for himself and his sister as well there as elsewhere; hence the two joined a wagon train headed for Pittsburgh. He hired space in a transport wagon for their few belongings. Rebecca soon became acquainted with the small Lawton girl, and the Hills and the Lawtons came to know each other. A strong friendship developed between these two small groups. They had decided to settle, at least for the time being, near the growing town of Pittsburgh; therefore, they built a double log house on the north bank of the Ohio river about two miles below the town. Robert Lawton died in about two years, thus upon James Hill fell the responsibility for support of both families. James was a shoemaker and set up his shop in a back room of the double cabin. James Hill was a tall, dark-eyed man thirty years of age. His sister, Rebecca, was much younger but gave promise of the type of brown haired, dark eyed beauty that needed only time to fulfill. A strong attachment developed between James Hill and Sally Tidd which resulted in their marriage.

AJH

Crime, News

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Two people have an odd connection on February 14. Both incidents involve radical Islamist terrorism. In 1979, Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police. Ten years later, in 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because his book The Satanic Verses was considered blasphemous.

ajh

HILL, Ohio

Seven Calico Dresses

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Martin Hill, my great-great-great-great grandfather (what I call four-gee, 4G or 4g), was apparently given what’s called a calico dress after he was born in 1803 or 1805. (His gravestone has 1805 on it.)

Five children were born in the township this year, and it is related that seven calico dresses were presented to the natives [not American Indians, but the newborn children] by Mrs. [Thomas] Kinsman — two to the Randall twins born the year before, one to Martin, son of James Hill, one to James, son of Robert Henry, the first two boys (cousins) born in the township, one to a daughter of Robert Laughlin, one to a daughter of Zopher Case.  Who the other was does not appear.

(This is from Historical Collections of the Mahoning Valley.)

ajh

HILL, Ohio, TIDD

The Summer of 1810

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Ebenezer Zane's original home in Logan County, Ohio was built in 1805 and used as an army headquarters during the War of 1812.
Ebenezer Zane's original home in Logan County, Ohio was built in 1805 and used as an army headquarters during the War of 1812.

County histories are remarkable things. Often these books can provide some insight into ancestors, as is the case with one published in 1880, the History of Logan County and Ohio. (Another county book I wrote about in October, also relating to the Hill and Tidd families.)

During the summer of the year 1810, James Hill and family, consisting of a wife and six children, and Samuel Tidd, a brother-in-law, with his wife [Rebecca Hill], left the shore of Lake Erie, in Ashtabula County, for that far away “land of promise,” Zanestown (now Zanesfield), of the superior advantages of which the most wonderful stories were told. The mode of transit, a team of horses; the route along blazed lines, through dense woods, in many places almost impassable. At last, after many wearisome days of travel, they reached the end of their journey. They remained at Zanesfield seven years, removing to the southwest portion of what is now Richland Township during the early summer of 1817. Mr. Hill erected his cabin upon the farm now owned by James Sims. Samuel Tidd settled just south, in what is now McArthur Township. None of either family are now living n the vicinity except Mrs. Nancy Colvin, a daughter of Mr. Hill, who now lives in Hardin County, and to whom the writer is indebted for many facts of early history. Soon after Mr. Hill’s arrival Thomas Rutledge and Thomas Burton, who each had a numerous family, located in the immediate vicinity. These three families are the pioneer settlers in Richland Township.

I have found no evidence that the Hill and Tidd clans ever lived in Ashtabula County. They did, however, live in Trumbull and Mahoning counties.

ajh