Elizabeth Hill (Hampton) Jones (Parker) Written by Hazel Jones Uthoff (Re-typed from original pages numbered 1-19) Although my Grandmother Jones died at least twelve years before I was born, she was not a stranger to me because an enlarged portrait of her in a gold frame hung above the old SNETHEN family bureau in our front room down on the farm. (note: I imagine this is the first page picture. --SB) A companion picture of her young daughter Virginia hung beside it. Grandma�s eyes always followed me everywhere I went in that room. On my hands and knees I crawled around the room hiding from her eyes; nevertheless, whenever I came out from behind a chair or from under the table or from behind the stove her eyes looked directly into mine. I never felt fear of those eyes that looked directly into mine but her eyes convinced me that mother�s saying that God saw everything I did, no matter where I was, was true. I�d ask, �Here in the house under the table?� Mother always answered, �Everywhere�, and explained carefully, �Maybe mama and papa may not always know what you do but God will always see what you do and know.� I was convinced, God could see through houses, trees, roofs and absolutely everywhere. I was a little embarrassed about his seeing right through the roof of the little necessary house when I was in there. If Grandma�s eyes were always looking at me, why not God. This gave rise to my childish belief that people died because God quit looking at them. Father never talked to me about his mother but wrote, �My mother was about five feet eight inches tall, a little taller than Aunt Eliza (note: her younger sister, married to Robert Hawk/Barton Burrell -- SB). While my father was dark complexioned, my mother was fair with black wavy hair.� Her portrait was done when she was around 48 or 50 years old but to me she seemed a very old, old woman. If her hair was curly, the hair styles of the times disguised it. Her hair was parted in the middle and combed and combed with a fine toothed comb until it was slick and flat, not a hair out of place with a knot at the base of her neck. If her hair was like her sister�s, Eliza, it was ling, thick and heavy. She had a high broad forehead, direct eyes, rather small ears, high cheek bones and a very firm jaw and chin. Her cheeks were sunken and her mouth closed tight. One got the feeling that although life had not been too kind to her she had courage and determination. Father called her determination stubbornness but Janice Holt Giles who married a man from the Kentucky Hills explains, �They are a shy, proud people who had lived there since the revolution. They knew how things should be done for their way was the right way.� Elizabeth was not stubborn for she knew she was right. Grandma Jones was a pioneer woman. I doubt if she ever lived anywhere but in an ever moving covered wagon or in a log cabin. Emerson Hough pays pioneer women homage when he wrote, �...the chief figure of the American frontier...in not the long haired, fringed legging man riding a raw boned pony but the gaunt and sad faced woman sitting on the front seat of the wagon, following her lord where he might lead...her face hidden in the same ragged bonnet which had crossed the Appalachians and the Missouri. ... that was America my brother.� I can not tell for sure what her nationality was for the name �Hill� like �Jones� is a very common name. The names �John� and �William� abound on many lists of �Hills� as the names �Thomas�, �John�, �Samuel� and �Lewis� abound on lists of �Joneses�. On census records the name �Hill� is followed by the declaration, �Born in England� or �Born in Scotland� or �Born in Ireland�. I have read that the �Hill� name really originated in Scotland and was taken from the hilly land of Scotland. Since John Hill, Elizabeth�s father, was born in North Carolina there is little doubt but that our Hill ancestors were Scots because in 1772-72 there were large settlements of Scots near Cape Fear River, Bladen County and surrounding counties of North Carolina. Many had come as early as 1748. A �Hill� of this area became famous during the Revolution and most people with the name �Hill� claim him as an ancestor. Scions of these Hill families went from the swampy land of North Carolina to the South and West over the Smoky Mountains to Tennessee, to the Northwest through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and to the North through Virginia to the Ohio Valley. A large number of Hill families still reside in Tennessee and John Hill is still their favorite name. Grandma Jones� mother�s name was POLLY KIZZIRE and is very Irish. (note: Indian connections have been established. --SB) The KIZZIRES seemed to have come from Tennessee to Kentucky. (note: traced to North Carolina through Jackson Kizzire/John Kizzire/Sandifer Kizzire --SB.) Elizabeth Hill�s life from the time of her marriage to Levi Hampton was rugged, full of much sorrow and many frustrations. She was not a stoic. Love was shown by hugs, kisses and words of endearment. Anger was understood. Sorrow was a time of wailing, turning pictures to the walls and other rituals deemed appropriate by custom to express grief. There were many superstitions; for example, believing in signs of death such as a dog howling, a bird flying against the window or a hat on a bed. (note: a hat on the bed and many of these superstitions were spoken of by my mother, Dorothy Turpen -- a great-grandniece of Elizabeth�s. When someone was leaving you did not �watch them out of sight�, (what she �learned� from her mother), unless you never wanted to see them alive again. She was a devout believer after having absent-mindedly watched her father leave her home shortly after she was married, (1945). He died that evening of a massive heart attack, leaving her to �believe� she had caused it. --SB) My mother was her daughter-in-law and she always said, �Grant�s mother had a wonderful sense of humor that Grant never recognized. With eyes a twinkle, she teased him unmercifully�. (note: This seems to be a trait in women of this line--several having inherited it through the years. ---SB) Elizabeth Hill smoked a corn cob pipe as did her sister, Eliza, and her daughter Polly Ann. Rebecca Boone once commented that learning to smoke a pipe had brought her so much comfort when, �D�niel (note : Daniel Boone --SB) was away so much�. Pipe smoking had a utilitarian value as well because of the hoards of mosquitoes along the Missouri rivers and creeks. Whole towns were abandoned because of mosquitoes. In spite of her pipe smoking her death certificate records that she died of malaria fever and acute gastritis. Her descendants who have pains from allergies caused by eating such foods as head lettuce, hazel nuts or tea appreciate her acute gastritis from eating canned peaches. Elizabeth Hill was a good mid-wife. My mother mentioned that the attending doctors gave way to her skill. She knew exactly where to place her hands to lift, to press, to ease the pain. (note: my mother spoke of stories of �a relative� possessing these skills as a midwife, in almost these exact words, but I didn�t know who the stories were about. --SB). She was well versed in folk medicines and went often to give aid to those who needed her skill. Uncle Billy Jones said, �if you are a Jones you can walk. Let me test your skill.� Grandma Jones had this walking skill and could walk easily and rapidly for long distances through the countryside dangerous from man, reptiles and beasts. (note: my mother and I shared �fast walking� and heard and hear �slow down� from just about anyone ever walking with us. --SB) Because Grandma Jones� mother POLLY KIZZIRE was born in Kentucky, I have often heard her people spoken of as �Hill Billies�. However they were descendants from the middle class people of Britain who could afford to pay their own way and provide for themselves in a new country with the skills learned in the apprentice system of Britain and passed from generation to generation. There was little opportunity to learn or use the skills of reading and writing. Such skills were no more useful to them in Kentucky than to their ancestors in 17th century Britain and so they could not read or write. (note: This would be equally true if their ancestors were Native American. -- SB) Elizabeth Hill was born in Jackson County, Indiana on July 11, 1832. This may not be an absolute date for they did not write down dates or family records so the dates were taken from census records and court house records which often varied. Her grandparents WILLIAM and NANCY HILL lived in North Carolina until around 1830 and then moved to Jackson County, Indiana. (note: There is a JOHN HILL at the top of pay record documents found for Sandifer Kizzire that may or may not tie the Kizzire/Hill families more significantly to the Tuscarora. --SB) Indiana historians say, �The folks from North Carolina seemed to prefer to settle along the White River.� The White River in Jackson County, Indiana is where the Hill families settled. There is a large National Forest in Jackson County now and the Hill families, although listed as farmers, seemingly earned their living by trapping and cutting timber. The 1840 census of Jackson County, Indiana lists both the JOHN C. HILL family and the JOHN KIZZIRE family. Living with John C. Hill is his father WILLIAM and his step-mother, Mary. I had assumed that our Hill families came with the large contingent of settlers from Terre Haute, Indiana to settle Terre Haute, Decatur County, Iowa but the court records gives Elizabeth�s sister, Eliza�s, birth place as Jackson County, Indiana not Vigo County, Indiana where Terre Haute is located. In fact after Eliza Hill was born on January 30, 1849 and William Hill had died, John C. Hill and his wife Polly Kizzire Hill and John Kizzire and his wife Hannah Hill Kizzire left Jackson County, Indiana and moved by covered wagon to Osage County, Missouri. (note: Hannah Hill is listed as Hannah Elkins in some family records, however, census information supports the possibility that Hannah was the sister of John Hill as it supports Polly Kizzire being the sister of John Kizzire. The families are intrinsically tied together here, and as they connect to my Acton, Turpen, the Hamilton, the Burrell, the Henderson and other Decatur Iowa families. Polly and John Kizzire, the children of Jackson Kizzire are the niece and nephew of Polly (Acton) and William Kizzire. --SB) The 1850 census of Jackson Township, Osage County, Missouri records both families living on a farm owned by ALEXANDER and NANCY HILL. Alexander and Nancy Hill�s birth place was reported as North Carolina and their children�s birthplace reported as Missouri. These records seem to indicate that Alexander and Nancy Hill came directly from North Carolina. The census record follows� #256 U.S. Census 1850 Jackson Twp., Osage County, Missouri Alexander Hill Age 51 Born: North Carolina Occupation: Farmer (b. 1799) Nancy Hill Age 40 Born: North Carolina Occupation: Housewife (b. 1810) Margaret Hill Age 20 Born: Missouri (b. 1830) Alexander Hill Age 16 Born: Missouri (b. 1834) Frederick Hill Age 14 Born: Missouri (b. 1836) Matilda Hill Age 12 Born: Missouri (b. 1838) John Hill Age 11 Born: Missouri (b. 1839) Catherine Cone Age 40 Born: Missouri (b. 1810) Whether Alexander Hill was John Hill�s brother or uncle cannot be determined from the census record but they were surely related. The census record for the John Hill family and John Kizzire family lists No. 255 as the residence of both families. Kizzire was often spelled �Kesiah�. The census record follows: #255 U.S. Census 1850 Jackson Twp. Osage County, Missouri John Hill Age 41 Born: North Carolina (b. 1809) Polly Hill Age 37 Born: Kentucky (b. 1813) *maiden name �Kizzire� Jackson Hill Age 16 Born: Indiana (b. 1834) *married first to Mary(Hampton?/2nd Stacy West Nancy Hill Age 14 Born: Indiana (b. 1836) John A. Hill Age 12 Born: Indiana (b. 1838) *married Pauline (Polly Burrell William Hill Age 10 Born: Indiana (b. 1840) *died of measles after Civil War Mary Hill Age 7 Born: Indiana (b. 1843) *married James Hamilton Eliza Hill Age 2 Born: Indiana (b. 1849) Eliza was almost two. (note: ELIZABETH HILL, oldest child, married LEVI HAMPTON and was out of the home.--SB) #255 John Kizzire Age 36 Born: Kentucky (b. 1814) Hannah Kizzire Age 28 Born: North Carolina (b. 1822) *maiden name �Hill� Polly Kizzire Age 12 Born: Indiana (b. 1838) Sally Kizzire Age 9 Born: Indiana (b. 1841) William Kizzire Age 7 Born: Indiana (b. 1843) Betsy Kizzire Age 6 Born: Indiana (b. 1844) Ervin Kizzire Age 4 Born: Indiana (b. 1846) Robert Kizzire Age 1 Born: Indiana (b. 1850) *died Davis City, Iowa 1/25/1937 Two more children were born to John and Polly Hill in Missouri; Alexander Hill in 1852 and Levi Hill in 1855. (note: These names have been written as �Elic� and �Zemineah� as well as �Jemimah/Jemima -- SB) --continued in Part 3 Sherry Balow balowmsg@earthlink.net