My Genealogy Hound

COSMO S. HILL, the subject of this biographical memoir, is a prosperous farmer in Riverdale township, and one of the very earliest settlers of Buffalo county. He is a native of the State of Vermont, and was born September 5, 1848. His father, Stephen S. Hill, also a native of Vermont, was born at Sharon, February 21, 1822, and is still living at the ripe old age of three-score and eight years, a resident of Kearney, having emigrated West and located in this county in the fall of 1872. He was married to Adaline Hicks, the mother of our subject, September 5, 1840. The mother was a native of Vermont, born August 19, 1805. To them were born three children — Cosmo S. (our subject), Francela and Rosa.

The paternal grandfather, Benjamin Hill, was a native of Massachusetts, born in the year 1789. He was by occupation a farmer. The paternal grandmother, Sarah (Scales) Hill, was a native of New Hampshire, born in 1779. The paternal great grandfather, Ickaber Hill, was a native of Massachusetts, but beyond this fact little or nothing is known.

Cosmo S., our subject, resided in Vermont until twenty-one years of age, engaged part of the time on a farm and part of the time as sales clerk in a wholesale shoe store at Saysville, Vt.; attaining his majority he emigrated West in 1869, locating at Princeton, Ill., where for two years he was engaged in a livery barn. He moved, in 1871, to Palatine, Ill., where for one year he worked in a harness shop, and then returned to Vermont; remaining there one year, be finally decided to seek his fortune in the far West. Acting upon this decision he came to Buffalo county in May, 1873. He pre-empted the quarter section in the Wood River valley, in which he now resides. The country was sparsely settled at that time and looked wild and barren. An occasional Indian strolled by his door, stopping long enough to beg a mouthful of food, but never molesting or offering to harm his family. There were a few buffalo, plenty of antelope and deer, and an occasional elk to be seen. For the first five years he had a hard struggle for existence. The drought and grasshoppers destroyed his crops to such an extent that he hardly got back the seed that he sowed. In the summer of 1876 he met with the same result.

During the first five years, when crops were a failure, Mr. Hill cut wood on government land and hauled it to Kearney, disposing of it at a nominal sum, and thus keeping the wolf from his door. He was united in marriage, October 3, 1872, to Mary (Higby) Hill, a native of Vermont, born August 26, 1846. To them have been born three children — Earnest, Rolla and Earl.

Mr. Hill is a firm believer in the principles of the democratic party.