England Born Pioneer and Linn County Iowa Miller.

The prompt for today comes again from Genealogy Girl on Instagram and the prompt is beard. This time I'm going to the other side of the tree to blog about an ancestor of my maternal sibling.

William Leach HILL is the third great grandfather of my half brother. I recently stumbled across a few new photographs of him that were uploaded by a fellow subscriber to Ancestry. And you guessed it, he has a beard!

I find it so neat that both my step parents had ancestors that immigrated to the United States from England much later in time than any of my own personal ancestors, or even those of my husband. 

According to his death certificate, William Leach HILL, was born 25 April 1835, in England. His parents were Abraham HILL and Mary LEACH. He was a miller by occupation and he died at the age of 90 on 20 March 1926 in Central City, Boulder Township, Linn County, Iowa. The informant was his son-in-law, Verner Conklin, who is the 2nd great grandfather of my half brother.

There's a record index on Family Search for his baptism, that took place 5 Oct 1836 at Bradford Yorkshire England, UK. 

The 1851 England and Wales census finds 14 year old William living at home with his parents, four siblings and a servant on Wakefield Road, in Yorkshire, Yorkshire (West Riding), England

A picture even exists of William and two of his brothers when they were younger! Left to right is Thomas, Rowland, and then William according the FamilySearch user Stewart M. Marshall who shared it there. 




I'm not entirely certain when he immigrated. According to his obituary it was after the death of his father. 

Moday, March 22, 1926, Page 10, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA

I do however have his marriage record to Miss Catharine WILKINSON. There is a lot of information on this record so I'm going to include it and hope that it is large enough for you to see. Their information is in the middle column. They were married 10 Sept 1873 in Brantford, Brant, Ontario, Canada. His age was 38. He is a miller and a bachelor. Again, his parents are Abraham and Mary HILL. His current residence is Coralville, Johnson County, IA. Again, his birthplace is given as Yorkshire, England. The bride is Ms. Catharine WILKINSON, age 37, single, the daughter of Thomas and Nancy WILKINSON. She was born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England. William gives his religion as Baptist, and Catharine is Wesleyan. They were married by a minister named John ALEXANDER. 

The first US census he shows up in is the 1880, Boulder, Linn, IA census. In the course of 7 years he and Catharine have become to parents of three children, Alice age 5, William age 3, and Mary R. age 1. Alice is my half brother's ancestor. 

The same Family Search user also shared pictures of these children. 

William Wilkinson HILL, Mary Rhodes HILL, Alice Hannah, HILL

His occupation is always listed as miller in every record I've found. A little online searching and I came across this :

Linn County Civic Plus

Kansas-Nebraska Act in Iowa; page 23

When William died he left his son and eldest daughter, Alice as administrators of his estate. 




Only two months after the death of William, his bride, Catherine passed away 17 May 1926. 




The two of them, as well as two of their children, William and Alice, are buried in Prairieburg-Boulder Cemetery, in Prairieburg, IA. Their daughter Mary is buried in Jordans Grove. 

I wanted to leave you with one more bearded picture. This one is of William with his two daughters, Mary (L)  and Alice (R). 

And a link to a much more in depth biological sketch of William and his family that can be found on Google Books. 

Until next time,
Becky