When studying family history, one always hopes to find someone with an
interesting life story. Someone who
crossed the United States on the Oregon Trail or was part of the gold
rush. Or even related to Abraham
Lincoln! In our ancestor,
Rev. R.C. Hill, you can find all three—and more!
Reuben was one of seven children born to Reuben and Sarah Joyce
“Joiasy” Hanks. His father, also named Reuben,
was a Baptist minister; a man described as “a leading man in society” who read
a great deal more than his neighbors, and “whose judgement was respected as
sound and reliable.” His mother was
described as “a well-read, well-informed lady, firm in her beliefs and always
ready to give a reason for the doctrine she advocated.” (Joiasy was a first
cousin of President Abraham Lincoln!)
When Reuben was 24 he met Margaret Graham Lair, the daughter of a
prominent family in the area whose father was the local Justice of the Peace.
They were married in the fall of 1821 at her father’s home in Kentucky.
After about a dozen hard but enjoyable years as a farmer he felt led to
religion and soon became deacon of their Baptist church. He was baptized by his
mother’s brother, Rev. Elijah Hanks.
Reuben and Margaret and their family settled near Purdy, Tennessee,
where they then joined the Clear CreekBaptist Church. Reuben served as
deacon of that church for 10 years and was ordained there as a gospel minister.
In 1848 the California Gold Rush became front-page news and the excitement
about gold was on everyone’s minds including Reuben’s. By this time, he and Margaret had seven
children: Six sons and three daughters,
the youngest of whom was your 2x great grandmother, Addie Hill. Reuben and his friend, Dr. Clemmons, decided
to send some men to the gold mines to work for two years. Reuben was to oversee their work.
Leaving his family in Purdy, Reuben and the men set out in wagons on
the Oregon Trail. They began their journey in 1851 in Independence, Missouri,
and headed to Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, where they left their wagons and packed mules
for the remainder of the trip west.
“The cries of those stricken with cholera in the tents and around
the camps almost every night, and the fresh graves caused us to want to leave
the regular trains, making the trip with pack mules. But because of the fact that the trains were
broken up into so many small parties, we were with some train or other most of
the way across the plains.
“On the way we had great discouragements. People had made a great mistake. We with the rest left a large portions of our
provisions behind us. It was said to be
the heaviest emigration that had ever gone to California, consequently feed
became scarce, many head of stock dying, and that which remained got very poor.
“On the way we crossed a desert place. About midway from the starting in of this
desert to the water, there was a high point of rocks. This point was not more than twenty feet high but was several hundred feet long. The shade
of this eminence was the means of saving the lives of several of us. Many were exhausted.
“Several miles from this place there was a
stream of water which we could see clearly, and we had it in our guide laid
down. The stream was considerably shaded
with willows and a grassy plain on the other side. We started a short time before day and we
made the trip to the water before night. There we had
plenty of water and grass for the mules, and there was shrubbery under which we
might rest. We remained there two days
to recruit.”
Reuben and his men arrived in Weaver, California, nearly out of
provisions and in poor health after having endured the punishing trip. Reuben himself had been very sick and couldn’t
eat any of the strong meat they had had for the trip.
“I saw a pancake in the dust.
I got down from my mule, picked it up, rubbed it on my pants to get a
little of the dirt off, and then ate it with great relish.”
Many of their mules were close to death after their journey, but they
were able to sell one to buy fresh provisions so they could continue their
journey. Arriving in Mud Springs (now
called El Dorado), California, they prepared quarters for the winter and began
prospecting for the gold that had led them west. Reuben preached under a large tree on the
Sabbath to the many men who had come from the East in search of their fortunes.
During his time in Mud Springs Reuben worked side-by-side with the
physicians there and began the practice of medicine with them. Although he had
no formal medical training, he was soon introduced as a preacher and
physician. Mud Springs had grown to nearly 3000 people by this time, and Reuben
was asked to be their minister. He was
provided a house in which to preach, and a church of about 30 members was soon
organized.
Early sketch of Corvallis, 1858
In 1851, Reuben moved to Oregon, stopping for a short time in Shasta to
prospect for gold. He then moved on to
the Willamette Valley, stopping in Marysville (which is now called Corvallis)
and finally to Albany. There he worked
as a physician, visiting Linn, Benton, and Polk counties, a teacher, and
Baptist minister.
In the spring of 1852 Reuben returned to Missouri to bring his family
to Oregon.
“In the spring of 1853, with my family and company in the train
strong enough to feel secure from the attacks of Indians, we started out, and
crossed the plains without serious loss or without experiencing more than
usually befalls emigrants on a trip of that magnitude.”
Reuben and his family settled in Albany in 1854, where he organized the
first Baptist church there. As a
minister he was a fluent speaker and was held in high esteem by those who knew
him, both as a good counselor and a successful physician, and it was said he
was “a doctor to the body and soul.”
Between 1857 and 1858 he served on the Oregon Territorial Legislature
as a representative for Benton County. He
had strong educational convictions, feeling that education and religion were
the cornerstones of life, and drew the charter for the McMinnville Baptist
College, later known as McMinnville College.
He served on the Board of Trustees until his death and in 1870 he was
named Financial Agent for the college. He
believed so strongly in the importance of education that he made a third,
arduous trip back East to promote and raise funds for the college. Then, rather than receiving pay for his
efforts, Reuben accepted four perpetual scholarships to the college, some ofwhich are still in use today. (The college was renamed Linfield College in 1922.)
Just short of 150 years later three of the scholarships were found in a
trunk by a relative, unused. Linfield
claimed them void and tried to buy them back.
After a heated legal battle, the college agreed to honor them for 50
years, available to family members and administered by the R.C. Hill
Trust.
Reuben’s limitless energy allowed him to be a
life member of the American Bible Union, the American Baptist Home Mission
Society, and the Oregon Baptist State Convention, as well as other various
societies. In later years his physical
energy declined, but his mental stamina remained until his death on the last
day of the year of 1890. His wife,
Margaret and three of their children had preceded him in death, but he left
behind four sons and one daughter, each of whom were very successful and well-respected in the
Albany, Oregon, community.
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Reuben Coleman Hill—a man of deep Christian conviction and compassionate doctor, and a dedicated teacher—is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Albany where a prominent monument is erected in his memory.
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