Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 214-215; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Hugh F. Hillpot. There is always a vast amount of interest
felt in the private life of those brave men who gave up home, family
and friends to fight for their country, and there undergo all the
privations and hardships characteristic of a solder’s life. Such
bravery is highly appreciated among all the civilized nations upon the
earth and everybody feels an interest in hearing of the private life of
a soldier, and especially of one who won such an enviable reputation as
did the subject of our sketch, and who was numbered among “the boys”
delegated to guard the corpse of Abraham Lincoln when he was
assassinated.
Mr. Hillpot is the veteran dry-goods merchant of Fairview,
having been engaged in business there ever since he came out of the
army. His father, Jacob F. Hillpot, was a native of Bucks County,
Pa., and followed the occupation of an agriculturist. He died at
the age of fifty-five years. The mother of our subject bore the
maiden name of Julia Frankenfield, was also a native of Bucks County
and was descended from an old Pennsylvania family. Her ancestors
came in a very early day from Holland. She died at the age of
thirty-three years, after having become the mother of six children,
viz: Reed, who is a blacksmith and residing in Fairview; Hugh F.,
our subject; Jonas who was in the War of 1812, was a farmer and met his
death accidentally by falling off a haymow; George is a painter and
lives in Fairview; Lovina who died at the age of eighteen, and an
infant. After the death of our subject’s mother, Mr. Hillpot
married Mary Most who bore him six children, four of whom lived to the
age of manhood and womanhood; Mary Ellen, now Mrs. Fratz and residing
in Philadelphia; Elizabeth who is married also resided in that city, as
does also Jacob an Grier.
Our subject was born in Bucks County, Pa., September 12. 1933.
where he passed his youthful days on a farm until reaching his
twenty-first birthday. He then commenced to learn the trade of a
blacksmith and worked faithfully at it for three years in New
Jersey. His brother, who was living in Fairview, wrote for our
subject to join him and accepting the invitation, he reached Fairview
November 22, 1857. He then engaged in the blacksmith business in
partnership with his brother and a Mr. Ayers, and continued thus until
1861 when the partnership was dissolved and the year following our
subject enlisted in the army. He joined Company D, One Hundred
and Third Infantry. They drilled at Fairview and Peoria and from
the latter city in the fall of 1862, went through Bloomington and Cairo
to Bolivar, Tenn., where they at once commenced skirmishing. They
were next sent to La Grange, Tenn., and from that point to Holly
Springs, thence to Waterford and reached Jackson, in the same State,
where they wintered.
. Mr. Hillpot received a severe sunstroke while engaged in the
siege of Vicksburg and was entirely unconscious for several
weeks. His company was ordered to Corinth and Iuka, at which
latter place Mr. Hillpot was again the victim of a sunstroke while
building a fortification and was in the hospital at Memphis, Tenn., for
some time but upon reaching St. Louis, Mo., was discharged from the
regular service and assigned to the reserve corps - Company F.
With his company he went to Washington, D. C., and upon the evening
when President Lincoln was assassinated, they were called to assist the
police in controlling the crowd. A few of the soldiers - our
subject among the number - were selected to guard the body of our
martyred President for three days and nights. At the close of the
war he received his honorable discharge at Washington, July 18, 1865.
February 28, 1866, Mr. Hillpot was united in marriage with Miss
Sarah Van Liew, daughter of Cornelius and Mary (Suydam) Van Liew.
Mrs.Hillpot came to Fairview with her two brothers who are prosperous
farmers in this county. Of her union with our subject there have been
born two children - John V. L. who is a graduate of the Galesburg
Business College, has the entire charge of his father’s store, and
Elizabeth C., who is a charming young lady of eighteen years, makes her
home with her parents.
The Republican party numbers Mr. Hillpot as one of its stanch
adherents, although previous to the war he was a Democrat. He is
a charter member of Blair Post, G. A. R., at Fairview. Owing to
ill-health brought about by the sunstroke received during the war, Mr.
Hillpot is unable to take charge of his business, but finds a competent
substitute in his son. He is an exceedingly popular man in the
community and has accumulated a goodly amount of the “almighty dollar.”
