Charles C. Hill
Charles C. Hill Family History
Charles Cummings Hill, oldest son of James Albert Hill and Emma Catherine (Miltia) Dailey, was born in 1886. He married Myrtle Gossett of Crockett in 1911. She was the daughter of Kelsey Larry and Betty (Stubblefield) Gossett and the granddaughter of A. E. Gossett. A. E. Gossett’s family came to Houston County, Texas in 1832. He was a soldier at San Jacinto and donor of the landsite for the town of Crockett. He and his father Elijah, neighbor of David Crockett of Tennessee, were given the privilege of naming the town site and also the county. Their choice was Crockett for the town site as the Tennessee scout had been found by Elizah camped some half mile from the present courthouse square on Gossett property in January, 1836 as Crockett was enroute to theAlamo and his death. They chose Houston as the county name for their battle leader at San Jacinto. Charles Cummings Hill studied medicine at the University Of Texas School Of Medicine in Galveston and graduated in 1909. He later went to Tulane University for special work in surgery. He returned to Daly and practiced medicine there until 1917 at which time he moved to Grapeland. He practiced medicine in Grapeland until his death in 1944. In 1917-1918, he volunteered for service in the Army Medical Corps for a short time during a severe influenza epidemic. He had to help supervise the transportation of over one thousand men with the flu across the Mississippi River on barges. The epidemics of 1917-1918 took many lives in the East Texas area also, Older citizens relate that those who were well would go from house to house each day to feed and to care for the sick and to help remove the dead, Miss Bulah Poole (Mrs. Balls Dailey) was a young girl in Groveton at this time and she moved into the home of friends and took care of them until they were well. Charles Hill rode horse back during the early days of practice, carrying the few medicines available at that time in his saddle bags. He later travelled by buggy and then by Model T Ford. The Ford took both hands and both legs to keep in operation and crossed the creeks almost as well as the buggy. Operations of that day were done on the kitchen tables in the home and patients too sick to leave were brought into his home. Payments for services were in sweet potatoes, cane syrup, watermelons, and other farm products. One rather amusing payment which Dr. Hill received which delighted his children but astonished his wife was a monkey. He delivered a baby for a family in Elkhart and received a baby monkey in exchange for his services. He often said ‘I practice medicine and make my living on the farm’. The Hill family attended the Methodist Church and the offering to the church was most often given in a lump sum in the fall when crops were gathered. It was the custom for the minister to make the rounds of the members and ask for their tithe. Dr. Hill was rather a close friend of Bro. Anderson and when he gaveAnderson a check for the church, Bro. Anderson decided that it was not enough so he went to Mrs. Hill and got another check for the same amount. When Dr. Hill discovered this, he laughed and simply said that he would settle with the preacher later. Shortly after that a Negro woman brought her child to him stating that the boy had swallowed a quarter (a quarter in that day and time represented a half-days work). Dr. Hill examined him and determined that the quarter was not lodged in his throat and told the mother he would be all right. She asked him to please try to get her quarter back. Dr. Hill sent her to Bro. Anderson’s home and told her to tell Bro. Anderson that the boy had swallowed a quarter and that Dr. Hill had sent her to him because he knew that if anyone could get money out of someone that he could. His family remembers him for his marvelous sense of humor and his compassion for the sick and suffering. Charles C. and Myrtle Hill had eight children: Myrtle Maybelle (Potsy), Wilson Boerner, Milton Henry, Charles Addie, Bettye, Jim Dan, Charles Sam and Martha Ann. Myrtle Maybelle married Travis Moore of Crockett. They had one daughter, Carolyn Ann (Susie) Moore who married Johnson King. Susie is an English and art teacher in the Tomball schools. Wilson Boerner Hill never married. He served in the U. S. Navy Construction Battalion during WWII as an electrician. After the war, he returned to Grapeland and did electrical work and also worked in Darsey’s Store until his death in 1969. Milton Henry Hill had a crippled leg from a childhood accident and could not join the armed services. He volunteered and served as a guard on the Texascoast during WWII. He was killed in a car accident in 1944. He never married. Charles Addie Hill began her teaching career at the age of nineteen in Grapeland. She taught both in the elementary school and also in the high school. She was Grapeland’s first home economics teacher. She also taught in the P. K. Young Demonstration School in Florida, Georgia State College for Women, Deer Park in Houston, and Dickerson, Texas. She first married Todd R. Adams, a lawyer in Crockett, and is now married to William Neal who was an electrician at NASA. They are now both retired and are living in San Leon, Texas. Bettye Hill is married to Ralph Hart and lives in Grapeland. Bettye was city secretary in Grapeland for a number of years before her marriage. Jim Dan Hill married Dorothy Knox of Crockett and had one daughter, Peggy Pamela Hill. Pamela married Ernest Kuchne. They have three children, Ernest III, Henry, and Kelli Kaye. Jim Dan served in the U. S. Navy as a Chief Petty officer during WWII. After the war, he taught science in Grapeland and is now managing an apartment complex in San Marcos, Tx. He is now married to Genevieve Makovy. Charles Sam Hill married Anita Oliver and had five children, Henry Forrest, Charles Sam Jr., Richard, Linda Lee, and Tara Jo. Henry Forrest was in the U. S. Army and was killed in an accident in Frankfort, Germany. Charles Sam Jr. married Marsha Davenport and had two children, Charity and Erica. Sam Jr. was in the U. S. Air Force for five years and now lives near San Antonio. Tara Jo married Mike Williams and has three children, Brandy, Michael Clinton, and Tanya Jay. Sam Hill Sr. joined the U. S. Air Force when he graduated from high school. The air force sent him to college at Sam Houston State Teachers University and then for further training as a toxicologist. Sam Hill worked as a toxicologist during his years in the air force. Sam is now married to Billy (Huffman) Pittman. Martha Ann Hill married Charley C. Darsey. Their history is included in the Geo, E. Darsey Jr, family.