There is a gray stone mausoleum atop Glassy Mountain in Flat Rock surrounded by a fence. The mausoleum borders the Kenmure property and the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.
There are 4.84 acres set aside for the grave site of Roger Richardson Hill. The site was under a private trust fund.
Roger Richardson Hill came to Henderson County in the spring of 1926 from Michigan. He was suffering from tuberculosis.
He bought 85 acres on Glassy Mountain and lived there in a tent for six months in the summer and fall of 1926. On his doctor’s advice, he then moved to the drier air of Texas, according to a story about Hill in the Frank FitzSimon’s book “From the Banks of the Oklawaha.”
In his will, he deeded to himself forever five acres of land on top of Glassy Mountain with directions for his burial in a mausoleum built of native granite. He left money in a perpetual care trust. The income from the trust was to be used for the care and upkeep of the site.
Before he left for Texas his valet piled rock in the exact spot where he wanted the mausoleum built, Fitzsimons writes. It cost about $15,000 to build the 16 feet by 14 feet by 10 feet high mausoleum. The vault in the center is covered with a granite slab and weighs about 8 tons. The site is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, held by 10 stone pillars. There was a bronze door, but the entrance was sealed with rock because of vandalism.
According to the plaque at the site, Roger Richardson Hill was born Dec. 13, 1882, in Saginaw, Mich., and died Jan. 1, 1927, in El Paso, Texas.
“Here he rests far from his native land – seeking health, he found peace and quietness,” the plaque reads.
Hill was the son of Clarence M. Hill, born in Michigan, and Susan Richardson, born in New York. His occupation was listed as real estate on his death certificate. In 1920 he was living in Palm Beach, Fla., and working in real estate. In 1910, he was an agent for timberland and living in the Duluth Ward in Saint Louis, Minnesota. He apparently traveled extensively, as passport and ship passenger logs show travel to England, France and Cuba in the early to mid-1920s.
Members of his family were wealthy, historical and well-known persons in Michigan. Newspaper and magazine articles were written in 2013 on the history of the historic Hill House in Saginaw Mich. His father is described as “one of the city’s most accomplished lumber barons.” The family, including his grandfather James H. Hill, are noted in several books and articles on lumber barons in Michigan and the history of Michigan and Saginaw County, Mich.