Biographical sketch of Wm. Hill.
The following facts in the life of the late Wm. Hill are taken from the biographical sketches in the History of the Huron Shore:
William Hill was born at Lockport, Niagara County, N. Y., 1823, and lived there to manhood. He was married at Lewiston, N. Y., to Lydia A. Horton, in 1857, who died at Alcona in 1877 and was buried in Alcona cemetery.
Mr. Hill came to Presque Isle May 1845, and to Alcona County the same year and worked for Goodwin Bros., at Thunder Bay Island, at $14 per month. He bought a gill net and commenced the business on his own hook. He afterward got more nets and the next year got a boat and increased his business. He came to the Cove in 1853 and had at one time five boats full rigged and did the largest fishing business on the shore. In the fall of 1855 Mr. Hill opened a store of supplies for fishermen, and Robert White acted as clerk. This store was also a hotel where men got food and lodging and did not pay anything. In 1857 Mr. Hill bought out Morrison McKinly which included his fishing rigs and shanties, and then secured lots 2, 3, and 4 at the Cove, being in section 1 and section 11 in Alcona Township. Mr. Hill afterward owned land in Harrisville Township, where the principal part of the village now stands, which he sold to Harris Bros. In 1857 and '58 Mr. Hill was appointed deputy state land commissioner by James W. Sanborn, state land commissioner, and was, during that time, engaged in preventing and prosecuting trespassers on the public lands. Mr. Hill was elected highway commissioner of his township and held several successive terms of that office. He laid out and superintended the building of the Harrisville and Black River Turnpike Road of thirteen miles, the longest road of the kind in the county.