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1907 Past and Present Biographies

E. S. Hillman

E. S. Hillman, a retired agriculturist residing in Grand Junction, still owns four hundred acres of land in Junction township and is recognized as one of the representative and prosperous citizens of his community. He was born in Colerain, Massachusetts, on the 24th of June, 1849, of the marriage of Smead and Emaline (Coons) Hillman, who were also natives of Massachusetts. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, died at the age of thirty-seven years when our subject was a small boy. Mrs. Hillman, however, long survived her husband and attained the age of eighty-four years, her death occurring in the same house in which she was born.

E. S. Hillman is the only survivor in his father’s family of three children and acquired his education in the common and high schools of his native state. At the age of twenty-four years he came to Iowa, purchasing eighty acres of new land in Junction township, Greene county, which he improved until it became a very valuable tract of land and brought to him a good financial return annually. He made his home on this farm until 1899, when he re'tired from the active pursuits of agricultural interests and took up his abode in Grand Junction. He is now the owner of four hundred acres of rich and arable land in Junction township, which makes him one of the prosperous and enterprising citizens of the county. While residing in Junction township he made a specialty of dairy farming and met with marked success in this branch of his business. He is a director in the Dana Co-operative Creamery Company, at Dana, Iowa.

On the 23d of January, 1874, Mr. Hillman was united in marriage, in Massachusetts, to Miss Martha J. Purington, who was a native of that state and a daughter of Thomas and Eunice (Hawks) Purington. The father has departed this life, but the mother is still living in Massachusetts. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hillman have been born four children. Anna, who makes her home in Massachusetts, became the wife of Myron Peterson and has one child. Jesse married Ida Calvert, by whom he has two children, and lives on his father’s old home farm. Smead is an agriculturist of Unionville, Missouri, and married Nettie Calvert, by whom he has three children. Winnie became the wife of Donald Thomas, who is employed by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company as craneman on a steam shovel.

Mr. Hillman is a republican in his political views and at the present time is serving as one of the township trustees, while for many years he served as road supervisor. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder. He has also been connected with the Odd Fellows society for many years and in his fraternal, church and social relations is recognized as a man of kindly spirit and high ideals, whose honorable manhood has gained for him the respect and admiration of all with whom he has come in contact.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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