Families are a funny thing.  Sometimes they do the strangest things in the name of love.  There are stories in every family that no amount of documentation can ever replace, and no documentation can ever prove, some hard to believe. This is a story, however, that I KNOW is true - but cannot be proven without an exhumation!

William Hill and Emily Dillon Hill were the grandparents of my grandfather, Cecil Hill.   He was a man of excellent memory (my grandfather that is), and was a great story teller.   Although he never knew his grandfather because he died before my grandfather was born, he knew a wonderfully funny story told him by his father, who didn't pass on until 1950.

When William Hill died, he was a man of basically little to no money (as was so of all the Hills of Salem, or should I say most).   He was buried near his son and his son after that are now buried (meaning my grandfather and his father before him).   Later when Emily died, she was, of course, buried beside him.   Having little money, a modest stone was erected for William, and none for Emily.  The stone now for William Hill has much deteriorated and I have no photo of it yet, until I do some work to make it more legible for a photo.

But alas, I do have a photo of a very nice headstone bearing the names of not only William Hill, but also Emily Dillon Hill.   So what happened?

Well, it was the practice of many Hills to never marry (which is a whole "nother" story), hence many brothers and sisters were buried right next to each other, and very near their parents.  This was the case in William's immediate family, and most of them are buried right together with their parents.   Charles K. (William's brother) did marry, but his plot is also right with his parents and siblings.  Most all of this household were together, for the exception of William and wife, who were far to the other side of the clan.  

So Charles K, being of more means than most of his Hill counterparts, purchased a very nice stone and had it engraved for brother William and his spouse Emily and placed it on a plot next to the plot reserved for himself, along with the other siblings!

There are no remains beneath this stone, and some of the distant Dillon family might argue this fact, since there are no "official" records of the cemetery that have ever been discovered.  Yet I know for a fact (as I am the church historian and "keeper of the cemetery") that William and Emily lie not beneath this stone, but some 10 or 15 yards to the North beneath a modest stone one can hardly read.

I told you families are a funny thing.