Hill

less worker, carrying his grandiose compositions
to a high finish. Especially remarkable for sus-
tained effort was "The Last Spike," a picture
commemorating the ceremonies attending the
completion of the overland railroad. It con-
tained many figures, each an accurate portrait
of the participants in the event. At the Philadel-
phia Centennial of 1876, Hill was awarded the
first landscape prize for his "Donner Lake" and
"Yosemite Valley." The former work was
bought by Leland Stanford. His "Grand Can-
yon of the Sierras/' which won the medal of the
New York Palette Club, was acquired by Mrs.
E. B. Crocker of Sacramento, and his "Heart of
the Sierras," by E. J. Baldwin of San Francisco.
At his death, which occurred at Raymond, Cal.,
he possessed thirty-one medals of various art so-
cieties. Although he was unrepresented at the
Chicago and St. Louis expositions, in the esti-
mation of Californians of his own generation he
took rank among the century's leading artists.
It is possible that the revived popularity, in this
century, of the paintings of William Keith, also
a painter of romantic phases of California scen-
ery, may eventually lead to a reconsideration
among collectors and museum directors of the
artistic merits of Hill's very conscientious work.

[There is a biographical sketch of Hill by Robert R.
Hill and an account of the painting, "The Last Spike,"
in Eben Putnam, Lieut. Joshua Hewes (1913). An-
other sketch, not altogether accurate, is contained in
S. G. W. Benjamin, Our Am. Artists (copyright 1879).
A letter relating to his family connections and early
life as an artist, written by Hill's nephew, was printed
in the Boston Herald, Sept. 29, 1929. Other sources
include: Who's Who in America, 1906-07; Am. Art
Annual, 1909-10; San Francisco Chronicle, July 2,
1908.] F.W.C

HILL, URELI CORELLI (c. i8o2-Sept. 2,
1875), violinist, conductor, was probably born
in Connecticut. He was the son of Ureli (some-
times given as Uri) K. Hill, a Boston musician
and organist of the Brattle Street Church, and
Nancy Hull, the daughter of Stephen Hull, of
Hartford, Conn. George Handel Hill [#,z>.],
known as "Yankee" Hill, was his brother. As a
boy Ureli Hill took an interest in music and—
probably with little instruction—learned to play
the violin. He found his way ultimately into
various orchestras and by 1828 was playing first
violin in the New York Sacred Music Society,
which in 1831, under his baton, gave the first
complete performance of The Messiah in New
York City. In 1836 he went to Cassel to study
with Ludwig Spohr and on his return to New
York became one of the city's most popular vio-
lin teachers, despite the fact that he was not a
distinguished performer. He best deserves re-
membrance for his part in the founding of the
Philharmonic Society of New York, which he

Hill

served for the first six years as president, later
as vice-president, and finally as a member of the
board of directors. At the initial concert of the
society, given Dec. 7, 1842, he played with the
first violins, and during the first five seasons he
conducted eight of the orchestra's concerts. In
the year following the establishment of the Phil-
harmonic Society he organized a string quartet
which is said to have been the first of its kind in
the city to give public performances. Samuel
Johnson, one of its critics, remarked of it that
it was "a miserable failure, artistically and finan-
cially," and added that it would be a "gross flat-
tery" to call Hill a third-rate violinist (Ritter,
post, p. 202), but the quartet's soirees were popu-
lar, and Hill's enthusiasm for good music never
waned.

In other ventures Hill met disheartening fail-
ures. He invented a piano which he claimed
could not get out of tune because of its small bell
tuning-forks, which took the place of wire
strings. At considerable expense he exhibited
the instrument in London and New York, but it
was an entire failure in both cities. About 1847
Hill went to Cincinnati, but after three or four
years he returned to the East. He was induced to
invest heavily in real estate in Paterson, N. J.,
but the profit which he expected to reap from his
investments did not materialize. He continued
his musical career, taught for several years at
the Conservatory of Music in Newark, and car-
ried on his orchestra work, but his role became
more difficult. As old age came upon him he
found himself unqualified to meet the higher de-
mands made upon its performers by the Phil-
harmonic Society and in 1873 he resigned. Still
later he tried to hold a position at Wallack's but
failed. Unable then to bear the double disap-
pointment of his artistic, and business failure, he
committed suicide at his home in Paterson.

[G. H. Hill, Scenes from the Life of an Actor
(1853) J F« L. Ritter, Music in America (1883) ; J. G.
Huneker, The Philharmonic Soc. of N. Y.: A Retro-
spect (n.d.); H. E. Krehbiel, The Philharmonic Soc.
of N. Y.: A Memorial (1895); Newark Daily Adver-
tiser, Sept. 4, 1875-] F.H.M.
HILL, WALTERBARNARD (Sept. 9,1851-
Dec. 28, 1905), lawyer, educator, was born in
Talbot County, Ga. His father was Judge Bar-
nard Hill, a native of Massachusetts, who went
to Georgia in 1822, first settling in Talbotton,
but later at Macon. His mother was Mary Clay
Birch, a native Georgian, said to be a relative of
Henry Clay. In the spring of 1868 Hill entered
the University of Georgia as a sophomore half-
advanced. He was graduated with honors in
1870 and in the following year completed both
the one-year law course and the requirements
for the MA degree, thus receiving three degrees

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