The grave site of John Hill is at the Hill Family Cemetery at Reedy Patch. John Hill (Sr.) was born in 1788 in Rutherford County and died in 1875 in Henderson County. He is the ancestor of hundreds of people in Henderson County.
Hill had 15 children by his first wife, Sarah “Sally” Wheeler Hill, and six by his second wife, Nancy Ann Gilbert.
The descendants number in the thousands and are scattered throughout the United States and Canada, according to family research.
On the Henderson County GIS cemetery layer, the property contains .5 acre..
In all deeds dating from the late 1800s to the present transferring property surrounding the cemetery, the following words are always used: “excepting the Hill Cemetery.”
It appears that the hundreds and hundreds of descendants of John Hill Sr. retain ownership of the cemetery.
Hill, a farmer, and his first wife settled sometime after 1808 in an area of Rutherford County that became Henderson County when the county was formed from Rutherford and Buncombe counties. Many of their descendants continued farming in the county and over the years became some of the first apple growers in the county.
He served in the N.C. 8th Regiment, 9th Co., detached from 1st Rutherford Regiment (N.C. Militia) in the War of 1812. This unit never actually served in the war.
“John Hill was a remarkable man; he never chewed tobacco, never swore an oath, and never drank liquor,” states an article in a local newspaper about a Hill reunion in 1929. “The first Baptist association, called the Carolina Association, was organized in his own home, and John Hill cut the first pole to build the first church erected in these parts of the then wild woods.”
This “first” church refers to Mount Moriah Baptist Church.
The cemetery survey in the early 1990s located 43 gravestones.
In 2005 the cemetery was in poor condition. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, with about 10 family members, cleaned the cemetery on Hog Rock Road.
After the cemetery was cleaned, 69 grave sites were counted. Some of the additional grave stones discovered were marked with legible stones.
“More could be legible with cleaning,” Norman Miller, who helped clean the cemetery, said. “We found a perfectly legible child’s headstone in the bottom right corner and two more that could be read.”
Many of the stones were found buried beneath more than 100 years of built up leaves and growth.
Many of those at the clean up suggested a split-rail fence would add to the beauty of the old cemetery, located in a wooded setting.
Today, the cemetery is well maintained. The large trees in the cemetery protect its historical integrity.
John Hill and his first wife’s children are: Lewis H. “Louis” Hill (1810-1890) married Nancy Taylor; Patsy Hill (1811-1837) married Thomas Marshall; John Hill Jr., 1812-1869, married Dorcas Gilbert; Mary Hill (1813-1839) married Bradley Dalton; Alazira “Alzie” Hill (1815-1850) married John “Jack” Laughter; Nancy Hill (1815-1895) married James Hicks Laughter; Manson Carson Hill (1817-1890) married Mary Ann Arledge; Sarah M. Hill (1823-1890) married Ladson Mills; Robert Hill (1824-1862) married Nancy Brown; Johnson Hill (1825-1890) married first Elizabeth Lyda and second Collie Crawford; Hampton G. Hill (1829-1917) married first Rachel Love Parris and second Emily Pike; Louisa Hill (1830-1898) married Jonathan Hampton Hyder; Henry Hill (1832-1864) married Frances “Fannie” Brock; William Walter Hill (1835-1909) married Mary M. Brown; and Bertha Ruth Hill (1838-1865) married Uriah Mullins.
His six children by his second wife include: Reuben C. Hill (1855-before 1900) married Rosa Ann Watkins; Mary Jane Druesiler Hill (1856-1938) married Isaac Monroe Lyda Jr.; Harriett Frances Hill (1859-1926) married Andrew D. Elliott; infant (1862-1863); Elizabeth “Bettie” Hill (1866-1935) married first George W. Elliott and second Joe Hart; and Martha Ellen Hill (1968-1948) married William Fletcher Owensby.