return to 1880 Denver
Extracted from History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado
by O. L. Bakin & Nelson Millett
(O.L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers 1880), page 461 (no photo)
Contributed by: Mary Wilson Miller
Mr. Hill was born in Mercer County, Penn., in 1829. At the age of seventeen, he
engaged in running a canal-boat and such was his industry and economy that
before he had attained his majority, he was the captain of his own boat. At
twenty-one, he sold out and emigrated to Davenport, Iowa, when that city
contained a population of but 1,500. The first seven years, he was successfully
engaged in buying and selling stock, after which he followed the livery business
for fifteen years and was identified with the growth of the city to a population
of 25,000. In 1873, failing health compelled him to visit Colorado, where he
derived so much benefit, that he twice returned to his old home in Iowa,
confident that his health was sufficiently re-established to admit of his
remaining there, but was as often obliged to return to Colorado. He has
contributed to the upbuilding of Denver by the erection of several buildings,
including the Denver transfer barn. In the spring of 1878, he bought out the
Transfer Company and continued to run the transfer and livery business until
May, 1879, when he sold out to Marrs & Brown, by whom it is still continued.
Since then, Mr. Hill has confined his attention to general business and looking
after some real-estate interests, which he has at Leadville. He was married in
Davenport, Iowa, in 1854, to Miss Amanda J. Blair, of that city and has three
children.