Northville Review
Northville, Mich.,
Friday, July 9, 1897.
FATALLY
KICKED.
George
Hills was by his horse Monday Night.
WAS ONE OF NOVI
TOWN’S MOST
SUCESSFUL
FARMERS.
Had
Often Expressed a Desire for a
Sudden
Death
The news
that during Monday night George Hills, a well known and wealthy farmer living
three miles northwest of town, had died from the result of a kick from a horse
reached here early Tuesday morning.
Mr. Hills
had been to Novi during the evening and returning about nine o’clock drove to
the barn where he unharnessed as usual and let the horse go at the stable. The first known of the calamity was when a
few moments later Mr. Hills came toward the house with head bent and arms held
tight across his stomach calling for help.
Upon
getting into the house about all he could say was, “I guess the old mare has
done me up. She kicked me as she ran
out of the back stable door”. The
mare’s stall is in the farther end of the stable and instead of entering it she
went on out into the barn yard through
the open door and it was assumed when Mr. Hills tried to head her off she let drive with her heals. If this is the way of it, Mr. Hills could
hardly have realized the extent of his injuries for he not only went on out
into the yard and caught the animal but brought it back into the stall and tied
her before starting for the house.
Physicians
from Novi were hurriedly summoned but all they were able to do was to relieve
the pain , and death resulted about three o’clock Tuesday morning.
Just every
particular of the accident will never be known, two marks from the horse’s
hoofs show that he was either kicked at two different times or from both the
horse’s feet at one time. One bruise
was over the right breast, the other on the abdomen. One of the older boys says that when his father drove into the
yard he was up stairs in bed near the window overlooking the barn and heard his
father say to the horse as it ran on out through the barn “ You can’t fool the
old man that way”. Then he heard the
horse snort considerably as though his father had caught her in the nostrils,
after which he heard him lead her into the stall again. The next he heard was the horse’s heels
kicking against the sides of the stable as though being punished and soon after
he saw his father coming out of the stable calling for help.
Whether Mr.
Hills received a kick as the horse ran out of the door and another after he had
gotten her tied again in the stall, or whether both were received at the door
and he still had will power enough to catch and tie her is only a
conjecture. The mare was of a very
nervous temper and was quick as a flash although apparently very gentle as the
children were permitted to drive her repeatedly. Mr. Hills had often been heard to express a hope that when he
came to die, it would not be with a lingering disease. He wanted to go quickly when the summons did
come.
George
Hills, the last of a family of three children, was one of the wealthiest and
best known farmers in the township of Novi.
He was born in Batavia, N.Y., Feb 13, 1837. When a mere child he came to Michigan with his parents who
settled in Highland. At the age of
thirteen he came to Novi town where he has since resided for nearly half a
century. In January 1880 he married for
his second wife Louise N. Lercheon[1]
who with five sons and two daughters, besides twochildren by the first wife,
survive him.
The funeral
occurred from the home yesterday afternoon.
Rev. Mr. Boyden of Kalamazoo officiating. The burial service was under the auspices of the Northville
Masonic lodge of which the deceased was a member. Hr. Hills was also a member of the Knights of Honor and the
Northwestern Masonic Association in which orders he carried something like
$2,000 insurance.
Transcribed by David Charles Hills, December 29, 2005
From a microfiche copy of the July 9, 1897 Northville Review –
Front Page article
The document was obtained at the Northville District Library,
located at
212 West Cady Street, Northville, Michigan 48167