Biography of John L. Hill's brother, Joshua Gesner Hill

John L. Hill
Company A
Unknown-1889

JOSHUA GESNER HILL, M. D., of Des Moines, has been engaged in the practice of medicine in this city since 1878, and ranks deservedly high amongst his professional brethren of Polk County. A native of Ohio, he was born in Shelby County, on the 4th of July, 1842, and is the son of Joshua Hill, a native of Virginia. When our subject was a boy, his father removed with his family to Illinois, but subsequently returned to Ohio, and a number of years later, accompanied by his children, came to Iowa, locating in Guthrie Center, where he died a number of years ago at the advanced age of eighty-four. His wife died in 1862, while a resident of Illinois. They were the parents of fifteen children, eight sons and seven daughters, six of that number still living, namely: James G., of Iowa City; Henry, of Peoria County, Ill.; Dr. J. G.; Caleb, Charlotte and Harriet. Two of the children died in infancy, but the other members of the family reached mature years. Four of the brothers served their country in the War of the Rebellion, and another son, Ephraim S., raised a company, but illness prevent him from entering the service. He was a lawyer by profession, and died in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1880. John L. was Captain of Company A, Sixtieth Ohio Regiment, in which he served until taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, when that place was surrendered to the Confederates by Gen. Miles. He was paroled and returned home, and recruited and organized the Twenty-fourth Ohio Battery, and as its commander re-entered the service, remaining until the close of the war. He died in Waverly, Ohio, in February, 1889, from disease contracted in the army. Henry served in an Illinois regiment during the latter part of the struggle, and our subject also enlisted in the defense of the Union on the 12th of June, 1862, as a member of Company K, Sixty-eighth Illinois Infantry.

The Doctor received his primary education in the public schools of Peoria County, Ill., and subsequently pursued an academic course of study in Chillicothe Academy. When quite young, it became his desire to make the practice of medicine his life work, and at an early age he began fitting himself for that end. He was graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, in 1878, and afterward was for some time prominently connected with the medical department of Drake University. The necessary labor attending that position, added to his large general practice, so impaired his health that a change of climate and less arduous duties were deemed necessary to his restoration, and in April, 1885, he went to Los Angeles, Cal., where he remained about a year, at the end of which time he returned to Des Moines and resumed his professional labors.

The Doctor was married, in Galesburg, Ill., to Miss Edith H. Owen, a daughter of John M. Owen, and unto them has been born a daughter, Fannie. Dr. Hill is a popular and successful physician, and as a citizen is highly respected and esteemed. A large general practice yields him a good income and indicates the confidence reposed in his skill and ability. He is a member of the United States Pension Board, of Des Moines.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Polk County, Iowa. Chicago: Lake City Publishing Co., 1890, pages 274-275.

This information was transcribed and posted on a USGENNET site by D. J. Coover.