Hill

activities during the World War, when as a
member of General Pershing's staff he served
with conspicuous distinction, being promoted to
the rank of lieutenant-colonel and appointed, as
a special recognition of his merit, Chevalier in
the Legion of Honor. During the later years of
his life he was preeminently identified with the
Boy-Scout movement.

Hill's legal training and ability are evidenced
in such technical and professional studies as The
Care of Estates (1901) and Decisive Battles of
the Law (1907). To a wider circle of readers
he is known as the author of various stories and
novels with a legal background: The Case and
Exceptions (1900); The Minority (1902); The
Web (1903); The Accomplice (1905); The
Thirteenth Juror (1913) ; and Tales out of Court
(1920). But it is in an extended study of Abra-
ham Lincoln that Hill has made his outstanding
contribution as an author. Struck by the fact
that in the vast amount of material dealing with
Lincoln there was such a small proportion de-
voted to his legal career, Hill undertook an ap-
praisal of Lincoln as a lawyer, with a view to
showing that this alone, apart from all other
considerations, would guarantee his permanent
fame. Lincoln, the Lawyer (1906) interprets
with sympathy and insight the significant fea-
tures of Lincoln's twenty-three years of law
practice. This work was followed by a collection
of essays called Lincoln's Legacy of Inspiration
(1909), and a biography, Lincoln, the Emanci-
pator of the Nation (1928). The latter is a good,
short biography, but it is marred by the some-
what gratuitous expense of energy on the part
of the author to demonstrate that Lincoln was
not a consistent Abolitionist. Hill wrote a num-
ber of less significant historical works: On the
Trail of Washington (1910), Washington, the
Man of Action (1914), and On the Trail of
Grant and Lee (1911)—all distinguished for
clear and easy interpretation rather than for
original research. The Story of a Street (1908)
recounts the historical development of Wall
Street and contains items of interest to the stu-
dent of the history of New York City. On Oct.
22, 1895. Hill was married to Mabd Wood.
They were divorced in 1924.

[For details of Hill's life, see Who's Who in Amer-
ica, 1928-29; Who's Who in Jurisprudence (1925);
Obit. Record of Grads. of Yale Univ. (1930) ; Chas, G.
Dawes, Jour, of the Great War (1921) ; N. Y. Times,

.ivex/o.j J.-MUV. iyvw , jL/tu*, jou. ij Ayw * ^» wr »n> *j

Dec. 21, 1906; Bookman, Mar., Aug. 1902.]

E.M.Jr.

HILL, GEORGE HANDEL (Oct. 8, 1809-
Sept 27, 1849), actor, was the son of Ureli K.

Hill
Hill, a Boston musician, and his wife, Nancy
Hull, and a brother of Ureli Corelli Hill [q.v.].
His schooling was obtained principally at Bris-
tol Academy, Taunton, Mass. At the age of fif-
teen he ran off to New York and found employ-
ment in a jeweler's shop. Soon he was serving
as a super in a nearby theatre, and when in 1825
he saw Alexander Simpson in a Yankee role,
his future specialty was determined. He made
his initial appearance as a "Down-East" in-
terpreter in an entertainment of songs and stories
at Brooklyn in 1826. Following this he ob-
tained his first regular position, that of low
comedian with a strolling company, which gave
him little opportunity to develop his chosen line.
In 1828, at the cost of a promise to forsake the
stage, he married Cordelia Thompson of Leroy,
N. Y., but when he proved a failure as a country
store-keeper, he was released from his promise
and returned to his profession at Albany. After
giving entertainments at Buffalo and New York,
and playing at Charleston and Savannah, he was
engaged as a minor actor by the Arch Street
Theatre, Philadelphia, in 1832. Here he was
given his first real chance to delineate a Yankee
character, and he leaped to stardom almost over
night. Brief runs at Baltimore and Boston pre-
ceded his appearance on Nov. 14, 1832, at the
Park Theatre, New York, the leading playhouse
of America. He was now in demand for starring
engagements all over the United States, and
"Yankee" Hill soon became one of the most
popular comedians in the country. Naturally he
had a host of imitators and was the inspiration
of numerous Yankee plays. He spent the season
of 1836-37 in Great Britain, scoring a distinct
hit at Drury Lane, London, and the other prin-
cipal theatres of the United Kingdom. A year
later he was again abroad, acting in Great Brit-
ain and giving two Yankee entertainments in
Paris.
In 1840 Hill leased the Franklin Theatre,
New York, and, naming it Hill's Theatre, ex-
ploited himself in his favorite parts for one short
and unprofitable season. Two years later, when
he opened Peak's Museum as Hill's New York
Museum and gave programs of Yankee readings
and lectures, he met with another failure. About
1846 he took up the practice of dentistry in New
York, thus putting to use a course in surgery
which he had pursued some years before. Hav-
ing purchased a country residence at Batavia,
N. Y., he lived there from 1847 on, filling such
engagements as his health, ruined, it is said, by
dissipation, would permit. On Aug. 20,1849, al-
though seriously ill, he gave an entertainment
at Saratoga Springs, and there he died a few