Owen Duffy Hill

     Owen Duffy Hill was born on 18 June 1865 at Kendalia, Kanawha County, West Virginia.¹ He was the son of George Washington Hill and Rebecca Jane Kendall. Owen Duffy Hill married, at age 32, Edna Laura Black, age 20 on Monday, 7 March 1898.
     The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pgs. 594 - 596 Kanawha


OWEN DUFFY HILL. Owing to the breadth of interest and wide range of accomplishments that has claimed his attention, and the fine quality of talent he has displayed in his business and expressed along literary and political lines, the subject of this sketch has long since earned a place among the most gifted, as well as among the most influential, farseeing and successful business, political and literary men of West Virginia.

Owen Duffy Hill was born at Kendalia, Kanawha County, West Virginia, on June 18, 1865, a son of George W. and Rebecca Jane Kendall Hill. Descending as he did from early pioneer ancestry, he was fortunate in inheriting some of the strong individual characteristics that were the common property of those hardy pioneers who conquered the wilderness, built themselves homes, developed the natural resources and made an advanced civilization in a new country possible. His grandfather, Dr. Moses Mann Hill with his brother John, came from Culpeper County, Virginia, to what is now Nicholas County, West Virginia, purchasing some forty thousand acres of land and settling at what is now Belva at the juncture of Bell Creek and Twenty Mile Creek in said county. His immediate grandfather on his mother's side, Joseph C. Kendall, who was a millwright and pioneer Methodist minister of remarkable oratorical ability and power, came from King George County, Virginia, to what is now Kanawha County, West Virginia, and while building a mill for Jacob Snyder near the mouth of Queen Shoal Creek on Elk River, purchased thirty-nine thousand acres of land in what is known as the Jacob Skyles survey, on Blue Creek and Falling Rock Creek near the 40,000 acres of land which had been purchased by the Hills.

Having been born and reared in the environment of these vast estates it was natural for him to imbibe those principles of freedom, patriotism and love of home, forest and country that go to make a strong and intensive individual citizenship, and naturally develops one's character along free and independent individual lines.

Naturally blessed by inheritance with those able mental and physical characteristics which are common to the pioneer citizens of Virginia and West Virginia, and to which many of the most prominent figures in the nation's history can trace their ancestry, and a parentage which had had all these advantages and the additional advantages of superior education and environment, the subject of this sketch could not have helped but attained at least some prominence in the world under these naturally advantageous inherent environments.

Dr. Moses Mann Hill, the father of George W. Hill, who through the Van Bibber family was a kinsman of Senator John Edward Kinna of Wisconsin and the grandfather of O. D. Hill, married a daughter of Mathias Van Bibber, of Holland Dutch ancestry, and a great-granddaughter of Captain John Van Bibber (this is in error Moses Mann Hill married Felicity Brown Van Bibber, the great-granddaughter of Peter and Anna Van Bibber, not John Van Bibber), who was an officer in the American Army, also fought at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1874, and a co-pioneer with Daniel Boone, and one of whose daughters married Daniel Boone's brother Nathan and a few years later located as a pioneer settler in what is now Nicholas County, West Virginia, emigrating from Pennsylvania where he had been granted 50,000 acres of land near Philadelphia in recognition of his services in the Revolutionary war, and upon which he established a manor.

In the public exhibit in the Capitol Annex in the City of Charleston can be found the spinning wheel which Captain Mathias Van Bibber's mother brought from Holland, the metal buttons off of his military coat, and also the old flint lock rifle of immense caliber that was owned by Mathias Van Bibber, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and used by him to fight Indians and kill buffalo.

Rebecca Jane Kendall, wife of George W. Hill and mother of Owen D. Hill, was a daughter of Joseph C. Kendall, who came from King George County, Virginia, to Kanawha County, about 1840, and who purchased and settled thirty-nine thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Kendalia, West Virginia, which was named for him. Miss Kendall for a number of years taught school at or near Maiden, West Virginia, gained quite a reputation in her day as a portrait painter and artist, and was a woman of strong, forceful character and exceptional business ability, and foresight. The Kendall family are descendants of the Fitzgeralds, the Rowes and Randolphs of Virginia, and direct descendants of Edward Kendall, who was postmaster general in Washington's Cabinet. Joseph C. Kendall married a daughter of Captain Edward Burgess, who came here at an early date, bringing 100 colored slaves with him, and who established a plant for the manufacture of salt on Elk River, eight miles north of Charleston, built what is now known as 'Big Chimney' on Elk River, but upon drilling a salt well petroleum oil flowed into the well to such an extent that he had to abandon the enterprise. But the big chimney, then erected in connection with his operations, stands upon the north bank of Elk River, near the post office of that name to this day.

Owen Duffy Hill acquired his early political and literary inspiration, patriotic principles, his broad ideas of business and citizenship from his early training within his father's household, and his main business through life, outside of his political, literary and educational labors, has been to maintain, operate, manage and develop large tracts of timber and coal land. At his home at Kendalia he owns large tracts of land, and in New Mexico and South America, and operates lumber mills and farms, and also maintains a home in Charleston for the educational advantages of his children. In 1907 he was appointed postmaster at Kendalia.

In 1906 he prepared an article which was published in the 'Manufacturers' Record' of Baltimore, Maryland, describing the natural resources of the Kanawha, Elk, Blue Creek and Gauley River Valley and drew an outline and planned the building of the Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad, which attracted the attention of some capitalists at Scranton, Pennsylvania, who later organized the Blue Creek Coal and Land Company and purchased 46,000 acres of coal and timber land in that vicinity, making the first purchase of 11,413 acres from Mr. Hill for which they paid $178,000, and built the Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad from Charleston through this region, which opened up and developed numerous coal, timber, oil and other enterprises along this new road, and has been a constant source of improvement and development to these vicinities.

Mr. Hill has not only been a farmer, but has worked in a coal mine, sold fruit trees, taught school, leased oil and gas lands, sold Evangelist Sam Jones' sermons, kept general store, organized Hill Brothers Lumber Company, organized the Northwestern Manufacturing Company, and Clendenin State Bank, and in 1897, through the recommendation of Hon. Henry S. Graves, superintendent of the Division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Hill was appointed by Messrs. Carter & Ledyard, lawyers of 44 Wall Street, New York City, to estimate thirty-four thousand acres of timber land in Webster County, West Virginia, owned by C. F. Pratt, vice-president of the Standard Oil Company.

In 1887, long before oil was discovered in Kanawha County, under the recommendation of Col. A. E. Humphreys, now of Mexia, Texas, Mr. Hill was appointed a notary public by Governor E. W. Wilson, of West Virginia, and thereupon leased for Colonel Humphreys all the territory for oil and gas that later developed into the Blue Creek oil fields.

From early manhood he took the same keen interest in political movements, patriotic organizations and organizations for the betterment of farm life and farm and educational work which characterized his father, and he probably has a wider range of acquaintance and association with the older leaders of these movements than any other man now living. He is probably the only man in the United States that was personally acquainted with every man whom he ever voted for for president but one.

When the Union Labor party met at Cincinnati for its national convention in 1887, he attended as a Greenback delegate from West Virginia, taking the place of his father, who had received an appointment and could not go. He was the youngest member of that convention, and later was sent as a Union Labor delegate to the convention which formed the people's party. Later he was nominated for state superintendent of free schools by the Union Labor party in West Virginia, and in 1892 for the same office by the People's party, receiving each time a larger number of votes than any other individual on the ticket. He also received the votes of the Union Labor party in the West Virginia Legislature, and later of the People's party for United States senator, being the youngest man ever honored with votes for United States senator in West Virginia.

From the first he espoused the cause of the Greenback and the People's party, and during its life acted in its counsels both in the state and in the nation, and since there is now no political organization that represents his ideas of a citizen's patriotic duty to his country he maintains a personal political independence that does not allow him to vote and does not permit him to affiliate with any of them, and did not allow him to take any part in the World War. He says 'No patriot was ever a partisan and no partisan was ever a patriot.'

Mr. Hill is a man of strong individuality, high ideals and sterling character. He is a hard student, a tireless worker and a man of pleasing personality. He became widely known as secretary of the Farmers' National Congress through the influence he wielded toward shaping its policies while connected with this National Farm organization. His connection with that Congress dates from 1905 when the governor of West Virginia appointed him a delegate to the Richmond, Virginia, meeting of said Congress, where he introduced and had passed a resolution against the introduction of foreign immigrants in this country, carrying the convention off its feet with an oratorical effort in support of said resolution, which the Richmond press said 'Set the Convention Wild,' and won the passage of the resolution over all opposition. At the session in Oklahoma City in 1906 he was elected third assistant secretary of the Congress, and as said assistant secretary introduced in the following reports the biographical sketches of the various officers, and in 1908, at Raleigh, North Carolina, was elected second assistant secretary, in 1909, first assistant secretary, and in 1913, at Plano, Illinois was elected secretary, and was reelected at Fort Worth, Texas, the next year, and served in that capacity for four years.

The committee appointed by the Farmers' National Congress to report on the work of the secretary, at the meeting at Fort Worth, Texas, in 1914, submitted to the Congress the following report:

'Your Committee desires to compliment Secretary Hill on the able manner in which he has met and handled the problems which confronted him in his official capacity. He is a live wire, and has presented the Congress with an intelligent, clear-cut annual report, supplemented by some wholesome suggestions which should claim the attention of this body. We believe that Mr. Hill, by his ability, integrity and efficiency, has met all the obligations of his office and has thereby won the confidence and respect of every member of this organization.'

His services, support and influence have been extended to a number of other organizations. He was elected a member of the executive committee of the National Irrigation Congress in 1911; a delegate to the Southern Commercial Congress in 1912; and at a meeting of the Farmers' National Congress held at Nashville, Tennessee, was appointed to serve on the International Monetary Commission, which was sent to Europe to investigate the Raiffaissen and other credit systems of Germany and other countries, but on account of other pressing business engagements declined to serve, Hon. Harvie Jordan, of Georgia, having been sent in his place. In 1913 he was a delegate to the National Good Roads Congress at Detroit, Michigan. He is a member of the American Breeders' Association, West Virginia Live Stock Association, vice-president of the National Monetary League, member of the Anti-trust League, member of the Advisory Committee of the National Civic Federation, member of the Association for the Advancement of Science, a director of the Clendenin State Bank and a member of the Ralston Health Club of Washington, D. C.

During the life of the People's party, Mr. Hill was chairman of the Third Congressional District Executive Committee, edited and published a paper called 'Liberty,' and was also the publisher of a 400-page book which is entitled 'The Church of the Bible and Its Apostasy.'

On March 7, 1898, Mr. Hill married Miss Edna L. Black, of Gallatin, Missouri. They have four children, Irene, Helen, Owen Delmas and Francis B.

Although engaged in many other enterprises, Mr. Hill has always lived on the farm and been an admirer and breeder of thoroughbred stock, in the development of which he has taken much personal interest.

Mr. Hill says: Never having had any scholastic advantages, whatever I know of the Sciences, Medicine, Philosophy, History, Astronomy and Statesmanship, I owe to the long association with my father, the late G. W. Hill who was a most learned man and thorough scholar, and whatever I happen to know of law and equity and the preparation of legal papers, I learned from Hon. James F. Brown, an able lawyer and a most brilliant man with whom I was associated seventeen years, and whatever knowledge I may possess of theology and religion and whatever I may amount to in the world as a man, I owe largely to Rev.
Lyman H. Johnson, late of Boston, Massachusetts, and Rev. Francis G. Merrill, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, both men of exceptional wisdom, piety, religion and scholarship, both of whom had much to do with my earlier training.'

Mr. Hill frequently writes for the press along moral, civic, religious, political and patriotic lines. His articles are always carefully prepared, full of original ideas, forceful in character, clear in expression, exhibit a wide range of knowledge and well merit the consideration of an intelligent citizenship.