Introduction

Biography

Philetus was the son of Reu­ben Hill and Mar­tha Mill­er, and hus­band of Sar­ah E. Weir (mar­ried 1872, West Sa­lem, Wis­con­sin).

His obit­u­ary, dat­ed Ju­ly 5, 1910 (prob­ab­ly from a South Ha­ven news­pa­per):

PROMINENT HYMN WRIT­ER AND MU­SI­CIAN

P. W Hill Suc­cum­bed Sa­tur­day Night to Heart Trou­ble; Bur­ied To­day at Old Home at Ea­gle

After an ill­ness of se­ver­al weeks with heart trou­ble, P. W. Hill died Sa­tur­day at his home on Lee street.

Mr. Hill had been a pro­mi­nent figure in the field of church mu­sic. He was one of the joint ed­it­ors of the hym­nal of the Unit­ed Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

Mr. Hill lacked less than a month of be­ing eighty years old, as he was born Ju­ly 25, 1830, in Mi­ner­va, Es­sex Co, New York.

Early in life he de­vot­ed him­self to mu­sic and Chris­tian hym­no­lo­gy for which he evinced ex­tra­or­di­na­ry tal­ent, stu­dy­ing in Bos­ton [Mas­sa­chu­setts] and else­where.

For years he con­duct­ed mu­sic­al con­ven­tions through­out the Unit­ed Sates, and he has taught vo­cal and in­stru­ment­al mu­sic—the lat­ter on both reed and string­ed ins­tru­ments— all his life.

He is the au­thor of ma­ny hymns and tunes, and books of an­thems which are sung through­out the Chris­tian church, and as such he has won en­dur­ing fame.

He was one of a fa­mi­ly of five bro­thers and two sis­ters, of whom two bro­thers, name­ly She­ri­dan F. of South Ha­ven, and Mat­thew, of Ea­gle, Mich., and one sis­ter, Mary Pal­mer of Chi­ca­go [Il­li­nois], sur­vive him.

He was mar­ried in 1872 in West Sa­lem, Wis, to Sar­ah E. Weir, who has shared with him the joys and tri­als of life, and who sur­vives him.

This un­ion was blessed with four child­ren, two of whom are liv­ing, viz: Ge­ne­va E. Sug­den of Man­che­ster, Eng­land, and Mar­tha Lou­ise Hill of Chi­ca­go. In his lat­ter years the fa­mi­ly re­si­dence has been in Ea­gle, Mich., and still more re­cent­ly in Chi­ca­go and South Ha­ven.

Mr. Hill led an ac­tive and use­ful life ev­er en­joy­ing the best of health un­til the brief ill­ness of the past few weeks which ter­mi­nat­ed fa­tal­ly.

He was a man of few words, kind­ly dis­po­si­tion, and strong Chris­tian faith, in the tri­umphs of the as­sur­ance of which he passed be­yond. The fa­mi­ly are shar­ing in the deep sym­pa­thy of a host of friends and the strong con­so­la­tions of the Gos­pel of Christ.

The fu­ner­al ser­vice was held Mon­day ev­en­ing at 7:30 o’clock at the fa­mi­ly re­si­dence on Lee St., Rev. A. F. Nag­ler officiating.

Messrs. Lets­on and Moy­er and the Miss­es Eth­el Ha­ger­man and Eta Nag­ler ren­dered ap­pro­pri­ate mu­sic, with Miss El­ma Black­man as ac­com­pan­ist. One of the se­lec­tions was an an­them of the de­part­ed one’s own com­po­si­tion.

Burial will take place to­day in the fa­mi­ly lot at Ea­gle, Mich.