Warren Smith Hill, a successful contractor and farmer of Northfield, was born in this town, February 9, 1842. His father, Captain Warren Lapham Hill, was a native of the same town; and his mother, Betsey Tucker Hill, was born in Hopkinton, December 26, 1806, and died February 6, 1886. The progenitors of Mr. Hill were the original settlers of Northfield, and came from Salisbury, Mass., about the close of the Revolutionary War. They were two of the four sons of Daniel Hill, and were, together with their father, shoemakers by trade. They supplied the Continental soldiers with shoes, and were paid in the scrip then issued, which later became so depreciated that they were forced into other lines of labor and became coopers. Seeking new fields of activity, they went to Concord, this State, and, meeting with a certain Captain Blanchard, were directed to the locality now known as Bay Hill, where, they were told, was to be found good land for farming and very cheap (as there was no meeting-house in town to give Salisbury, Mass., to Northfield, stopping in Concord, made their selection and returned, all within twenty-four hours. Timothy and John were their names; and the former married Miss Betsey Lapham, of Salisbury, and settled with the rest of his family in the Bay Hill house, which still stands, almost in its original style. Timothy, it seems, did not use all of the one hundred silver dollars brought by him to buy land, and four of them were distributed to the living children of Captain Warren Hill at a marriage anniversary where the entire families were present. One of the dollars is kept as an heirloom by the subject of this sketch.
Warren Hill, father of Warren Smith Hill (or, as he was familiarly known to his friends and acquaintances, Captain Warren ), succeeded to the ownership of the farm purchased and cultivated by Timothy, and during his lifetime continued its cultivation, besides running a brickyard near the present site of the Granite Mills, and also an extensive lumbering business. He served in the State legislature as Representative one session, and was long a prominent factor in town politics. He represented a class of political believers that are fast dying out, a class who, having once fixed their opinions, never waver, and was an uncompromising Democrat to the time of his death. In the early training days, long before the State militia was thought of, Captain Hill was prominent and active, and was given the Captaincy of a company. Hence his title by which he was always thereafter known. He was very prosperous in his business ventures, and was one of the best farmers in the town. He died March 22, 1887. He was the father of seven children; namely, Alvah Tucker, Mary Tucker, Henry Tucker, Martha, Warren S., Marietta, and Charles Frederick, only two of whom are now living. Marietta is the wife of Cliff Forest Giles, of Newport, N.H.
Warren S. Hill attended school in his native town till he was twenty-one years old. He then began farming for himself, and began also a general contractor’s business, besides doing a limited amount of lumbering. September 7, 1865, he married Miss Helen Eliza Cofran, of Northfield, daughter of James Hersey and Eliza Brackett (Hall) Cofran, both natives of Northfield. James H. Cofran was born January 3, 1818, and his wife July 12, 1817. They were the parents of four children, namely: Charles Chase, born March 11, 1841; Helen Eliza, who is now Mrs. Hill; Mary Frances, born April 9, 1851, and now a resident of Boston; and Frank Adino, born February 11, 1853, who died August 15, 1896. The last named was at the time of his death a hotel proprietor in Whitefield, N.H., and had during his lifetime successively run and managed the Twin Mountain House and hotels in Florida and Alabama, and in Chicago during the World’s Fair.
Mr. Hill is the father of seven children: Kate Florence, born June 16, 1867; Arthur Herman, who was born November 12, 1868, married Florence Goss, of Andover, N.H., October 15, 1896, and is in the grain business in Manchester, N.H.; Helen Josephine, born March 2, 1872, wife of Ned Deaborn, of Northfield; Evelyn Belle, born November 4, 1876; William Henry Clough Hill, born July 25, 1878; Walter Burnham, born December 5, 1879; and Loring Cleveland, born March 3, 1885. The four last named live at home.
Mr. Hill follows the paternal example in politics, and is a stanch Democrat. He retains the ownership of the old homestead, and