THE HILL FAMILY NEWSLETTER

May, 2002 Volume 5

Edited and Published by:

Jerry Webb 8706 Salisbury Lubbock, Texas 79424 jerrydwebb@aol.com

HELLO HILLS!!!!!

How time flies when you procrastinate. It has been exactly one year since the last “Hill Newsletter.” I have had intentions to put another out but was waiting for a little more information. I would like to say that I have uncovered some amazing news about our family but seems that it just doesn’t come easily. I know that I am a little more into this than most of you and will do my best to make it interesting.

I will report some information on Jack Velton Hill, son of Henry Augustus and Martha Jane Thigpen Hill. Wanda Laurel Hill Whitten, Jack and Lenna Groom Hill’s daughter submitted this information. This is a wonderful collection of material and I will share only a part due to space. The rest of the information will be on the Hill Family Website a little later.

I will also give some information and an article concerning Alexander Kennedy and his son, David Kennedy. They were rifle makers in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and David went on to make rifles in Lauderdale County, Alabama. This is an avenue back through our family that may qualify those interested in the Daughters of the American Revolution. I have been unable to find any family that was in the revolution. To be qualified for membership you must be able to prove your ancestors involvement in the revolution. Our relationship to the Kennedy family is through Lydia K. Hamill Harrison. Lydia was Elizabeth Kennedy’s daughter from her marriage to Hugh Hamill. Lydia’s second marriage was to Alfred G. Hill, also his second marriage. There was six children born to this union. They were, Olive Hill, Alphreta Hill, Sarah Arella Hill, Alfred Hugh Hill, Henry Augustus Hill, and Jacob Lee Hill. Of course you recognize our line as Henry Augustus Hill.

JACK VELTON HILL By Wanda Hill Whitten.

Very little is known about Jack's life prior to his marriage to Lenna Groom. It is believed he was born in Hopkins County, Texas, perhaps at Sulphur Springs as was his just older brother, Grady Parmer Hill. He talked very little about his childhood and/or youth, at least to his daughter, Wanda Hill Whitten, who wrote these notes. What is remembered about his youth is what her mother related to her, and that wasn't much. One story that was repeated a number of times over the years was that after he would drive the team pulling a wagon of cotton to the cotton gin and get the cotton unloaded, Jack would turn the team toward home, climb into the wagon and go to sleep, knowing the team would go directly home.

He also liked to talk of the time he and some other men from Sudan went to Palisade, Colorado, on what is known as the Western Slope, to pick peaches to bring back home. He always told of having seen the Colorado River at the Continental Divide and how, he insisted, it ran upstream.

Jack liked to fish, though he had little opportunity, busy as he was being a farmer, raising cotton, grain, and watermelons on different farms on which he and his family lived through the years. His watermelons are still remembered by many in Sudan as the biggest and sweetest ones around. The family used to wonder why he always took the biggest ones to town - the very biggest one always to the bank - and would not let the family eat the big ones but it was okay for them to eat the smaller melons. More than once, the children got a good scolding for having gone to the watermelon patch, picking out a big melon, bursting it and eating just the heart from it, then throwing the rinds off to the side into the cotton field or grain field. Then when the cotton stripper or grain combine would be run, the rinds would cause the machine to jam up and he would have to lose time by getting off the tractor to clear the rinds. He would tell them that it was okay for them to have the melons, but for them NOT to throw the rinds over into the cotton or grain field.

Jack was a man of few words around most people. He enjoyed people, though. He made a trip to town several times a week and would spend time visiting with his sons who worked in town, his friends who had different shops or places of business. His brother, Grady Parmer Hill, lived just a couple of miles from him when Jack lived on the Eva Browning place halfway between Sudan and Muleshoe, and they visited quite often. Sometimes both families would get together and the grown-ups would play dominoes and eat very large pans of popcorn.

All of the places that Jack farmed were dryland until in later years on the Browning place. Then he had row irrigation and spent long, long hours changing the water and watching for breakovers. Several times he got caught on the far west end of the place when summer clouds came up. One times specifically that is remembered is that a storm came up in the afternoon and it started hailing. Lenna got Lynette and Wanda into the pickup truck and started up the dirt road to try to get to Jack. Large hailstones hit the pickup and one broke the windshield. She managed to get to where Jack was and he had gotten behind one of the large back tires of the tractor, trying to escape the hail, but he had been hit in the head by one stone and it had cut through his straw hat and made a rather nasty gash in his head which was bleeding gushers (so Lynette and Wanda thought). They got him back to the house, cleaned the wound and bandaged it and he was, thankfully, all right. He was caught more than once in hailstorms, but none quite so bad as that one.

A dog of one description or another was always around the places they lived, and several of them would accompany Jack to the fields. He had at least two dogs that were quite the rattlesnake killers. They would catch the rattlesnakes and shake them to death. Jack told of several times he had to get down behind the tires of the tractor to keep pieces of rattlesnake from hitting him.

While there may not have been much conversation between him and members of his immediate family, Jack was loved and respected by all of them. Townspeople recall him as being dry-humored, helpful to those who needed help, a hard worker, a kind man, an honest man, a good friend and neighbor. His children remember those things about him, too, plus that he was a strict disciplinarian. Once he said for them to quit doing whatever it was they were doing they weren't supposed to be doing, they soon learned they had better quit. Now that they are all adults and most of them with children of their own, they realize that he did love them and that he provided for them the best he knew how. He commanded and had their respect; he did not ask for, but had their love.

He was healthy and active all of his life until he "retired" from farming and moved into town (Sudan). Then, except for his continued visits to places downtown in the mornings and afternoons, he found little to interest or occupy himself. He gradually seemed to grow quieter and quieter. On the 7th of February 1975, after an evening meal of one of his favorite foods, fried catfish, Jack suffered a cerebral hemorrhage or aneurysm. He was taken to the hospital in Littlefield, Texas, where he lay in a coma until the 15th of February before quietly slipping away from his wife of almost 50 years, his six children, and his eleven grandchildren to whom he was known affectionately as "PapPaw."

Descendants of Jack Velton Hill

1 Jack Velton Hill b: July 26, 1902 d: February 15, 1975

. +Lenna Romilda Groom b: July 18, 1907 d: August 11, 1998

. 2 [1] Cloyce Donald Hill b: August 20, 1927 d: June 14, 1987

..... +Glenda Joe Burns b: July 22, 1932 d: February 16, 2000

. *2nd Wife of [1] Cloyce Donald Hill:

..... +Matha Illene Cardwell Aldridge b: October 27, 1935

. 2 Theron Lavoy Hill b: May 22, 1929

..... +Ann Jane Legg b: June 30, 1935

. 2 Eugene Dale Hill b: July 09, 1932

..... +Ruth Levelle Callaway b: November 29, 1941

. 2 Orville Vadeane Hill b: August 22, 1934

..... +Dorthy Ann Barber b: August 04, 1943

. 2 [2] Wanda Laurel Hill b: December 17, 1939

..... +Charles Taylor Thompson b: January 25, 1938

*2nd Husband of [2] Wanda Laurel Hill:

+Kermit Lawrence Whitten b: July 27, 1939

.... 2 Lynette Hill b: October 20, 1941

..... +Edward Gaylon Burns b: August 31, 1938

. 2 Beryl Hill b: January 1948 d: January 1948

THE KENNEDY RIFLE.

Quoted from the Book "My Southern Family", by Hiram Kennedy Douglas

"David Kennedy served in the General Assembly of North Carolina until 1790 and with his brother Alexander was appointed a Trustee of Mount Parnassus Academy in 1809 (Laws of N.C. 1809, Chapter 76). Under his wise and talented handling the manufacture of guns progressed greatly after the family was established in Moore County; they employed seventy-five men making it a large industry for that day; this enterprise is still remembered in North Carolina and the Kennedy rifle was rather famous and specimens still existing are valued. He and his wife when they were in their fifties moved to Lauderdale County, Alabama, and lived with their son Hiram on his plantation, about fifteen miles north of Florence near Green Hill; and in the old family cemetery they are buried."

"The manufacturing process was unique. Large grindstones operated by water power shaped the barrels into octagonal design the metal was then drawn out and molded by large trip hammers also operated by water power.

At last came the test of truing the sights. This was accomplished by shooting across the mill pond to a target on the other side, close to which stood a man to mark the deviation from the bull's eye. Patiently, the sights were varied until found absolutely true. Being shrewd, and a talented fiddle player, Kennedy used this for his business. Not wanting to keep paying such high prices for gun locks he imported from New York, Kennedy made a horse back trip to the factory with just one thought in mind. Upon arrival it was not long until Kennedy learned the method was a carefully guarded secret. It wasn't long before he was winning the hearts of the workers with his violin, soon he was inside the factory and this meant access to "The Big Secret." He observed and remembered. It was no longer necessary to import locks, he made his own."

Records show that the gunmaker was church-minded. He gave the land and bore the expense of the construction of the Mechanic's Hill Baptist Church. A frame building 40 x 60 feet. Inside are narrow uncomfortable wooden benches of an earlier day, the pews divided from each other by plank wood railings. Kennedy served as the first deacon of this church. An "act of God", saved his life from a rolling timber in his log yard. He was said to have declared that because God had allowed him to live he would use some of his logs for spiritual purposes.

Despite his devotion to religion and his business success, misfortune over took him when he stood security for his brother for a large stock of merchandise. He was forced to sell out for a song. One 300 tract of land sold for $4.00. Thousands of dollars of gold dust was mined later from this same tract.

Discouraged, David Kennedy disposed of all his possessions and moved to Alabama with his son Hiram. The Kennedy Homestead located the road from Robbins to the Standard Mineral Company. One person describes the Kennedy house "a splendid house for its age". The long covered passageway with banisters on each side, which connected the house and the kitchen (100 feet apart). In the parlor the mantelpiece was "intricately" carved in bias-relief, in grapevine design, with the leafy vine running up both sides and across the top of the mantel.

Where are the Kennedy rifles? They still exist but have vanished from public view. Their scarcity compared to the number who want them makes them collector's item. There are still Kennedy rifles around Robbins but they say folks don't want it known -- it's a big secret."

A Historical Marker located at Highway 43 and County Road 47 in Lauderdale County, Alabama.

KENNEDY GUN FACTORY

(1823 - 1837)

.....

The famous Kennedy Long Rifle was introduced

at Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War

by Alexander Kennedy who fled to Moore

County, N.C. when the British invaded. About

1823 his son David moved the factory to Green

Hill, Alabama, locating 400 yards east of the

present Tabernacle Cemetery. Green Hill became

an early gun manufacturing center with the

advents of other gunsmiths: McDonalds, Garners,

Stutts, Keys, Higgins, Richardsons, Davidsons, and

Myricks. Property willed to the City of Florence

by Hiram Kennedy Douglass, a Kennedy descendant,

became the Kennedy - Douglass Center for the Arts.

FAMILY REUNION?

Are there any of the descendants of the Henry Augustus Hill Family that would like to try one more time to have a family reunion if someone were to plan it? I have some thoughts on the subject but I am a little apprehensive to start such a project. Let me have your feedback.

Some ideas are:

1. Have it where air service and hotel accommodations are handy.

2. Have arrival on a Friday with a reception and registration.

3. Have Saturday for show and tell. (Family Trees, Documents, Stories, Artifacts)

4. Have the Saturday lunch catered at a per person cost to each in attendance.

5. Sunday Departure.

6. Make and effort to make it enjoyable to all and have it on a two year rotation.

7. Make plans to have it in late summer of 2003.

8. We will need several involved to have success.

Let me know your thoughts on the subject. If I hear from no one then that is telling me that you are not interested. I really think it would be fun if it is well attended.

Maybe it won’t be a year till the next newsletter!!!!!!!! Jerry Webb