William Hood Hill
First counselor to Bishop Jas. C. Hamilton, of Mill Creek Ward, Salt Lake County, Utah, is the son of Alexander Hill and Agnes Hood, and was born February 21st 1840, in Toronto, Canada. In 1841 he emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, with his parents, and later they moved to Quincy, Illinois, where they lived till April, 1849, when they left for the west. The Hamilton family crossed the plains with ox-teams, and after arriving in the Valley October 3rd, 1849, they located at Mill Creek, Salt Lake County. Here William was raised under circumstances that make him familiar with the privations and hardships of pioneer life. In September, 1857, he was called to do service in the Buchanan war, in preventing the Johnston Army from entering Great Salt Lake Valley. While still doing duty as a “minute man” in 1858, he married Mary Caroline Sorensen. He moved to Mendon, Cache County, in 1860, where he took an active part in defending the settlers against the Indians, and passed through many exciting encounters with the “red men.” In 1862 he returned to Mill Creek, where he located on a farm, on which he has resided ever since. In 1866 he was again called to do military duty, in the Blackhawk War, in Sanpete County. February 14th, 1870, he took to wife Elizabeth Ann Hamilton, and in 1888 he was arrested on the charge of unlawful cohabitation, tried and found guilty and sentenced to seventy-five days imprisonment and to pay a fine of $150. Ever since his baptism by Bishop Joel H. Johnson and his confirmation as a member of the Church by Alexander Hill in April, 1850, Elder Hill has always filled positions in the Church. In 1889 he left home for a mission to Great Britain, where he labored faithfully until he received an honorable release. He had served as a president in the 61st quorum of Seventy, and as superintendent of the Mill Creek Sunday school for some time, when he, on January 28th, 1900 was ordained a High Priest by Apostle Francis M. Lyman and set apart to act as first counselor to Bishop Jas. C. Hamilton, of Mill Creek ward. He is still occupying that responsible position.1
