Warren G. Hill

Warren G. Hill was born September 19, 1845, in Palmyre, Portage County, Ohio, the son of Orpheus Benjamin (b. 1822) and Olive (Tuttle, b. 1827).

Warren’s parents were both born in Ohio (Orpheus was born in Palmyre) and were married on November 24, 1844 in Portage, Ohio. By 1850 Orpheus and Olive were living in Norwalk, Hurton County, Ohio where Orpheus worked as a shoemaker. The family eventually left Ohio and moved westward, settling in Michigan sometime before the war broke out.

He was 15 years old and possibly living in Kent County when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company K on May 13, 1861. (He was possibly related to Alpheus Hill who also enlisted in Company K.) Warren was wounded in the left forearm on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, subsequently admitted to Armory Square general hospital in Washington, DC, where he was treated for his wounds, recovered, and returned to the Regiment.

He was wounded again, this time in the left hip on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia, was absent sick or wounded in the field hospital at Belle Plains, Virginia, and in June he was transferred to a general hospital in Washington, DC. Warren was reported under arrest from September 19 through November at Washington, DC, for offense(s) unknown, but he eventually returned to duty and was reported missing in action on January 4, 1864. In fact he was taken prisoner while on picket duty, paroled on March 21 at City Point, Virginia, reported to Camp Parole, Maryland on March 22, and by May 15 he was at Camp Distribution, Virginia. He may have been a prisoner at Andersonville for a short time. In any case, he was mustered out of service on September 26, 1864, at Detroit.

After his discharge Warren returned to western Michigan where he worked for some years as a lumberman and shingle-maker.

He was probably living in Nelson, Kent County when he married Indiana native Emma or Emaline Hardy (1849-1924) on April 28, 1867, in Nelson, and they had at least four children: Oliver (b. 1873), Hattie Alice (b. 1868), Olive (b. 1872) and Edwin. (Emma and her family had also lived in Nelson in 1860.)

By 1868 they were living in Big Rapids, Mecosta County where they lived for many years (they were still there in 1878). (His father had apparently remarried an Ohio native named Elizabeth, b. 1829, and they were living in Nelson, Kent County in 1870.) In 1880 Warren was working as a carpenter and living in Deerfield, Mecosta County with his wife and children. He was living in Big Rapids in 1888, 1890 and in the First Ward in 1894, but sometime around 1906 he was residing in Woodville, Newaygo County. By 1920 Warren was living in Big Rapids with his wife and their son Oliver.

He was living in Big Rapids when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in December of 1881, and he was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Andrews Post No. 294 in Big Rapids.

Warren applied for and received a pension (no. 156654).

Warren died of organic heart disease on March 24, 1924, in Big Rapids or in Monroe or Norwich, Newaygo County, and was buried in Big Rapids cemetery: block H, lot C, grave no. 2.

In 1924 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 950714). She died that same year in Pontiac, Oakland County.