Levi D. Hill is an old timer in Saline County and is now living retired at Salina. His had been a long and creditable career, and as a young man he served as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
He was born January 8, 1844, in a one-room log house on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, a son of Squire S. and Mary Ann (Cunningham) Hill. His father was born in Kentucky and his mother in Indiana. Squire Hill was born February 17, 1810, and died August 5, 1886, at Tipton, Indiana. Throughout his active career he was a successful farmer. He was also a thorough Bible student, though largely self educated and self made, and was a local preacher of some note. He was the son of Abram Hill, who was an early settler in Indiana and enlisted from that state for service in the Black Hawk war. Levi Hill’s mother was born January 17, 1808, and died July 10, 1872, at Tipton. Indiana. She was a devout religious woman and an active member of the United Brethren Church. These parents were married in 1830 and had eleven children, six daughters and five sons: Persis, Mary, Martha, Littleton, Malinda and David E., all now deceased; Squire A., also deceased; Levi D.; Mary Jane, who lives in Topeka, the widow of M. L. Galyean; Jonathan and Julia Ann, both deceased.
On his father’s farm in Johnson County, Indiana, Levi D. Hill grew to manhood. He received an education in such schools as existed in the rural districts of Indiana fifty years ago. In youth he sustained an injury, breaking a leg, and though he offered his services early in the rebellion he was rejected on that account. In 1864 he was accepted on a second enlistment and became a member of Company G of the One Hundred and Thirty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was in active service in the South for four months and as a private saw much of war’s hardships.
Following the war Mr. Hill returned to Indiana, and continued steadily as a farmer in that state until 1879. In that year he came out to Kansas, buying 160 acres of raw land seven miles north of Salina. Years of industry and good management enabled him to convert that land into a splendid farm, and he lived on it and prospered accordingly for many years. In 1904 he retired and had since lived in his comfortable home in Salina.
Mr. Hill had always kept up his associations with old army comrades. He is past post commander of John A. Logan Post No. 127, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas, and had served as aide on the staff of the department commander of Kansas, and was a delegate to the National Encampment at San Francisco in 1908. His name also had some distinction in public affairs. As a republican he had always been interested in the success of that party both in Indiana and Kansas. For ten years he was trustee of Elm Creek Township in Saline County, had served as a member of the school board and for 3½ years was state oil inspector for Saline County.
On June 8, 1865, at Greenwood, Indiana, he married Miss Fannie E. McAlpin, daughter of George and Mary (Carson) McAlpin, both of whom are natives of Tennessee. Mrs. Hill, who was born in Johnson County, Indiana, September 10, 1847, died at her home in Salina September 3, 1913, after a protracted illness of 2½ years. She was a capable home maker, a devoted mother of her children, and was also a church woman all her life and an active member of the Woman’s Relief Corps. Mr. and Mrs. Hill had born to them ten children, six sons and four daughters, namely: Edward R., born March 18, 1866; Calvin L., born September 15, 1867, and died July 14, 1868; Mary E., born March 23, 1869; James S., born December 21, 1870; Dora May, born May 2, 1873, and died October 25, 1874; Laura E., born March 1, 1875; Clarence C., born August 4, 1877; Effie B., born June 11, 1883; and Archie and Artie, twins, born January 1, 1887, and died February 11, 1887. At the present time Mr. Hill had twenty-one grandchildren, all of whom are living in Saline County except one, and he also had a great-grandchild in Idaho.