The Hill Sisters - Allamakee, Iowa
1880 Belvidere, Illinois Census
1900 West Chicago, Illinois Census
1910 Chicago. Illinois Census
Mary Hill
Until recently we didn't know what happened to Mary Hill. The only clue we had was a reference in Margaret Hill's Estate which only said "Mrs. Quinn." (see Estate). It also noted that she lived in Chicago, and as Quinn is a fairly common name in Chicago, we initially thought we would never be able to find this family.
The clue to their whereabouts, surprisingly, was already resident on this web site. We currently have over 3,300 pages of information, and we continue going back to earlier content to see if something we thought was "unimportant" really is "important." In this case, it was a reference to Anna Murrin, a young servant girl, living with a James Quinn family in 1880 Belvidere.
One thing about researching families using census information - there was no check on the accuracy of the information provided to the early census taker. Dates of birth tend to fluctuate, which in some cases probably was a misunderstanding by the census taker. So too, children's names also change over time. In Mary's family, this certainly was true as well. Easy ones like "Ellen" bec0ming "Ella" is understandable. "Joseph" becoming "William" is a little more difficult to rationalize, although this seems to be very common among the Irish. In some cases, the person begins using either their real name or middle name...and in some cases, they decide to "just change their name."
The above census records the Quinn family from 1870 to 1910. Their story is as follows.
Mary Hill and James Quinn were wed in 1868 and a year later they had their first child, Edward. They were living in Lafayette township, which was next door to Taylor township where Mary was raised in Iowa. James's occupation was listed as "Commerce Laborer."
The next time we see this family, they were living in Belvidere, Illinois. James was now listed as a "traveling merchant", and increased their family in 1880 to four children: Edward, Anna, Jane and Ellen. Living with them was a 16 year-old girl by the name of Anna Murrin. She was listed as a servant, most likely nanny, to help with the growing Quinn family.
Interestingly, the Quinn family still owned a farm in Lafayette township even as late as 1886. (See record). But Mary E. Quinn is shown as the owner of this farm, and not her husband, James.
As most census records were destroyed by fire in 1890, the next time we see this family was in 1900. At this time, they are living in West Chicago. The census notes that they have 7 children, although only 6 were living with them. Here is where we begin to see slight changes in the children's names. William is now Joseph (although in the next census he is again seen as William), Anna become Annie, Jane becomes Jennie, and Ellen becomes Ella. James occupation is a little fuzzy - it seems that his new job was "gas filler". Their oldest son was a Barber, and several of the girls occupations was listed as "dress makers."
By 1910, James Quinn no longer appears in the census records, and we see the Mary Quinn and her son William were now living with the Kerr family in Chicago's Precinct 13 district. Ella had married Samuel Kerr and by the 1910 census, and may have been married in 1906 as the oldest of their two children was born in 1907. In 1910, Samuel's occupation was listed as a "laundry man", but in 1920 he now owned a candy store in Chicago.
By 1920, we don't see Mary or William living with the Kerr family. It will require a little more work to see if she had died between 1910 and 1920 or had moved elsewhere in the Chicago area.
Margaret and Edward Hill's Children.
Edward and Margaret had five children: Mary, Margaret, Ann, Elizabeth (Liza), and Bridget Josephine. Until recently, we could trace the descendents for all women with the exception of Mary. All we born in America, except Mary - she was born in Ireland - remember this last fact as we will revisit in just a few minutes.
We learned that Margaret Hill had married James Kennedy, and their daughter Catherine, is the ancestor for the King and Black families (see Bernard Francis King Family History). Catherine married Michael Smith, son of Irish John Smith.
Two Hill sisters married Ryan brothers, Batt and James. Batt took Eliza to Kimball, Dakota Territory (see Kimball); and James and Bridget lived in Dakota Territory and Saskatchewan before moving to Cushing, Oklahoma (see Cushing). Eliza's descendents recently gathered in Galena (2008), Illinois along with a descendent of Bridget, Don Ryan and wife, Millie.
Anne married James Murrin, and they eventually made their home in Belvidere, Illinois. The Malloys are descendents of Ann, and their history (and photos) is found on this site. (See Malloy)
Until recently, we had no idea what happened to Mary Hill. This article closes this gap in our knowledge.
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The GREAT MYTH
What great myth did the Hill girls perpetuate? The myth was around their lineage. They claimed that the Hill family was NOT of Irish heritage. This is certainly explainable given the bias Irish Catholics faced in the post "No-Nothing" era. Irish Catholics were barred from good paying jobs and feared retribution from the growing influence of the Ku Klux Klan.
When Eliza Hill was asked of her father's heritage, all she said was that "he was a Yankee." Mary Rita told us that the Hill women claimed that they were English and not Irish. In the case of Mary, she used the census to hide her Irish birth.
The only time Mary claimed being born in Ireland was in 1870. After that she only claimed being born on American soil. In 1880, she listed her birthplace as Maine. In 1900, she listed Iowa as her birth place, and in 1910 she claimed Vermont as her birth state.
