Col. Ephraim Washington Hill

This interesting and informative article and photo appeared in the April 3, 1893 edition of The Crittenden Press.  Articles such as these are a great help to Genealogists for they tell of things that otherwise would have been lost through the years.

Of the men who first looked upon what is now Crittenden County, before but little of its virgin forest had faced before the woodman's ax, but few are living today.  Among the thinned ranks of those pioneers is Col. E. W. Hill, born August 7, 1805, at the old Hill farm about one mile south of Marion.  For 88 years he has been a citizen of this section and his home during most of that period has been the old homestead, where he was born and where he now resides.

His father, Col. David Hill, came from North Carolina one hundred years ago this fall.  He was a young man and accompanied James Richey, a well-to-do man, who settled here and opened a farm, building a cabin on what is known as the Wm. Clement farm.

The next year of about 1784, Mr. Hill returned to North Carolina for a short visit, and then returned to Kentucky, accompanied by a number of settlers.  He began life by building his cabin and opening up the farm now known as the old Hill place.  Col. E. W. Hill remembers well when his father left home and joined the ranks of the soldiers who fought in the War of 1812-15.

Col. Hill has always been a hard working citizen, and in his day and time has earned many a dollar.  I used to make lots of money, he said, raising pork and tobacco.  I always shipped my produce to New Orleans by flat boat and got good prices.  Had I saved my money I would have lots of it now, but I loaned it out, not to make money, but to accommodate my friends, and lots of it never came home. 

Col. Hill's word was always as good as his bond, and he has been an important factor in the settlement of the county.  Col. Hill was married to Mary B. Porter, daughter of E. P. Porter.  Three children were born to them, two of them are still living - Mr. Ephraim Porter Hill and Mary Dowell, wife of Judge R. E. Dowell who moved to Kansas.

Col. E. W. Hill died Feb. 23, 1899 and is buried in the Old Marion Cemetery, where many of Crittenden County's early pioneesr and founding fathers are buried.  His stone has weathered so that it is almost unreadable.