A revolutionary soldier

After fighting in the American Revolutionary War, Capt. William Hillhouse made his home in Oktibbeha County

Oktibbeha County’s only known Revolutionary Soldier was Captain William Hillhouse. He arrived in Starkville at the ripe, old age of 80 with two of his unmarried daughters. At the last National Sons of the American Revolution, members told his life’s story.

A May 1912 Starkville News described the original marking of Captain Hillhouse’s grave. Mrs. William F. Hand was the organizing National Daughters of the American Revolution regent. At that time Capt. Hillhouse had been dead more than 60 years and his grave had remained unmarked all that time. A Presbyterian minister, Dr. H.R. Raymond, positively identified the gravesite, for he had been present at the burial in 1848.The property that is now Odd Fellows Cemetery was not acquired for its present purpose until the 1870s.

The SAR is the largest male lineage organization in the U.S., consists of 50 societies with more than 500 local chapters, several international societies and over 34,000 members. SAR is dedicated to assisting our members, schools, teachers and the general public in their efforts to sustain and preserve our history and constitutional principles.

Dr. Frank McCann, a retired physician and president of the Starkville SAR Chapter said, “The Starkville SAR chapter bears the name: Captain William Hillhouse Chapter.”

McCann said William Hillhouse of Scotch descent, was born along the Catawba River in South Carolina in 1760. He fought in numerous battles including Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock and Camden in South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.

After the war, he lived with his son, James, a Presbyterian minister who organized the Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, Alabama. After James’ death in 1834, Hillhouse and his two unmarried daughters, Sally and Jane, moved to Oktibbeha County It is presumed they moved to this locality to be near another daughter, Margaret, who had married Elijah Bardwell, the son of a missionary.

Another speaker at the program, Mrs. Dale Arner, read from a paper written some years ago by the late Mrs. Lucille Roberts, a member of the DAR, she wrote that Capt. Hillhouse and his daughters lived in a home located at what is now University Drive and Muldrow Street. The sisters Hillhouse were school teachers. The elderly soldier and his daughters later became wards of the Presbyterian Church. American flags were placed on William Hillhouse’s grave by the DAR and SAR representatives and a brief memorial was conducted by Mrs. Nash and Mrs. Eugene Towles, chaplain of the DAR Chapter. Billy Hillhouse wrote a genealogy book that consists of 50 societies with more than 500 local chapters, several international societies and over 34,000 members. This book is written to help the individual identify and communicate with living members of the Hillhouse family, as well as to appreciate the tremendous effort and persistence their ancestors displayed in overcoming formidable circumstances in their lives to leave a legacy to their descendants. The information contained herein will only be a starting point. It is a general look at the Hillhouse name, the people who share it, and how you can go about expanding your knowledge of family history and individual linage or family genealogy. Below is William Hillhouse’s genealogy: 21. WILLIAM MINTER4 HILLHOUSE, JR (WILLIAM3, JOHN2, ABRAHAM HILLHOUSE1 SR.) was born March 18, 1760 in Land’s Ford, SC, and died April 22, 1848 in Starkville, MS. He married SARAH ELVIRA HALL. Notes for WILLIAM MINTER HILLHOUSE, JR: William was a Captain in the revolutionary Army from 1775 to 1781. He fought in many battles. When Lord Cornwallis campaigned thru South Carolina, he camped on Williams farm while William was off fighting. Cornwallis destroyed Williams farm. In his own words in a letter, after the war to the U.S. War Department, William stated, “Cornwallis, on his march to Virgina in 1781, made my plantation his place of rendezvous from Tuesday until Thursday, stripped me of all my possessions except the land which he could not destroy.” After William was wiped out by the British, William Hillhouse sold his almost 500 acres to a Peter Galloway on December

5, 1791 and left South Carolina. (See Chapter Six-Revolutionary War Soldiers, for more on William’s military record.)

Children of WILLIAM HILLHOUSE and SARAH HALL are:

i. MARTHA5 HILLHOUSE, m. ELIJAH BARDWELL, SR..

Notes for ELIJAH BARDWELL, SR.:

Elijah was a Presbyterian Minister who came to the area as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians. He is listed as one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church there.

ii. (UNKNOWN) HILLHOUSE, b. Abt. 1782.

46. iii. JAMES HILLHOUSE, b. March 1789, Pendelton District, SC; d. November 17, 1835, Greensboro, AL.

iv. WILLIAM M. HILLHOUSE, b. Abt. 1791, South Carolina; m. MARGARET.

v. JANE HILLHOUSE, b. Abt. 1796.

Notes for JANE HILLHOUSE:

Never married. She was living with her father William Minter Hillhouse, Jr in Green County, Mississippi at the time of the 1840 census. By 1850 she was age 54 and living in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi.

vi. SARAH ELVIRA HILLHOUSE, b. Abt. 1802.

Notes for SARAH ELVIRA HILLHOUSE:

Like her sister Jane, Sarah never married. She was living with her father in Green County, Alabama at the time of the 1840 census and in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi in 1850.