Studies in Hill-Moore-Jones-Halbert and Related Families

Studies in Hill-Moore-Jones-Halbert and Related Families
By William Henderson Thomas Jr.

(Will Henderson Thomas, Jr. was a prominent educator in Union County. He was instrumental in getting the county to build the Horace Maynard High School. He left a wealth of information to his family. He was born in 1882 and passed away in 1969. This material is typed exactly from WHT's manuscripts leaving out the overstrikes, etc. I have also used the current abbreviation for the states.--typist)

The first Matthew Hill left a will at Danbury, Stokes County, North Carolina dated in 1804 in which he named his wife, Lucy, and sons named Samuel, Matthew and John Hill.

The U. S. Census for 1810 shows the second Matthew Hill living in Stokes Co, NC, with several male children, a wife and an elderly female between 45 and 50 who was doubtless his mother Lucy or the above named will. This Matthew Hill, Jr. moved to Campbell County, TN in 1812, apparently after the death of his mother and on January 27, 1813, purchased a farm near Cloud's Ford on Clinch River from Sugar Jones, and Captain Jason Cloud witnessed the making of that deed. Sugar Jones was a Methodist preacher and owned a large plantation below Cloud's Ford near the confluence of the Powell and Clinch Rivers.

Descendants of Matthew Hill, Jr. say that he died about 1838. The U.S. Census of 1830 shows him living in Campbell County, TN and gives his age as being between 50-60. fly calculated guess, we might say that he was born in Stokes County, NC, circa 1775. He had purchased several tracts of land along the Clinch and had finally settled near the mouth of Lost Creek some five miles from Cloud's Ford. That Dart of Campbell County was taken over in the creation of Union County in 1856 and is now deep under the waters of Norris Lake which was created by Tennessee Valley Authority in 1935.

Matthew Hill, Jr. married Mary (Polly) Moore. It is known that their son Elijah Hill was born in Stokes Co., NC in 1801, sons Terry Hill in 1802, and Green Hill in 1804. Sons David and Matthew 111 , dates or birth unknown, were probably born in Stokes Co. Twins, Oliver and Mahala were born to Matthew and Polly on January 8, 1815.

James Hill, said to have been an uncle of Matthew Hill, Jr. married Mary Clayton and had settled on Hind's Creek in Anderson County, Tennessee some six or seven miles from Cloud's Ford. If, as is locally maintained, this James Hill was the son of William Hill, Jr. and wife Elizabeth Halbert, then the first Matthew Hill of Stokes County was a brother to Rev. Joab HUI, and of a John Hill who settled in that part of Grainger County that was to be incorporated into Union County, Tennessee in 1856. This John Hill and a Baptist minister named Nave organized historic Nave- Hill Church some four miles north of Maynardville, TN.

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