George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
QREEN HILL 
 
Digitized 
 
 Iby 
 
 the Internel 
 
 : Arcliive 
 
 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 
 littps://arcliive.org/details/greenliillOOivey 
 
Green Hill 
 
 by 
 
 Thomas Neai> Ivey 
 
 Edited with Genealogical Notes by 
 J. Edward Allen 
 
 WARRENTON, N. C. 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 BY THE EDITOR 
 
•RKSS OF OXFORD ORPHANAGE 
 OXFORD, X. C. 
 
THE FLOWc^ COLLECTlttM 
 
 Green Hill 3 
 
 Prefatory Note 
 
 The undersigned has pleasure in presenting to 
 the reader the contents of this booklet, for reasons 
 which will be self-evident. It is no exaggeration to 
 say that there are thousands of people who are inter- 
 ested in the matters of family history which are 
 included, and which have not hitherto been found 
 in print except in fragments. With the passage of 
 years, the facts pertaining thereto will inevitably 
 become more obscure, and this progressive age of 
 North Carolina is no suitable time in which to per- 
 mit to remain concealed, the priceless heritage of 
 the past. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Neal Ivey was one of the South's 
 foremost men of letters, and the paper by him which 
 is included in the contents of this booklet is an im- 
 portant contribution to the literature of this state 
 and of the entire South. As editor of the Raleigh 
 Christian Advocate, and later of the organ of the 
 General Conference, the Nashville Christian Advo- 
 cate. Doctor Ivey had deserved opportunity to 
 demonstrate well and widely his literary powers, 
 and his General Conference is the gainer thereby. 
 
 At its 1926 sessions, the North Carolina Confer- 
 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 resolved that a committee be appointed to take steps 
 looking toward the acquisition by the Conference 
 of Green Hill, once the residence of the pioneer 
 minister-patriot from whom it takes its name, to 
 the end that it may be used for all purposes to which 
 it may lend itself, and that it may be retained as a 
 monument to the man and to his ideals. The execu- 
 tion of the provisions of this resolution, which was 
 introduced by President William Preston Few, of 
 Duke University, anticipates perhaps more general 
 information concerning Green Hill than exists at the 
 
4 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 present time. It is not believed that the people of 
 our great commonwealth will suffer from being bet- 
 ter informed concerning this member of that group 
 of outstanding men who may well be called the 
 founders of Southern Methodism and of North Caro- 
 lina statehood. 
 
 Bute County, and Franklin and Warren, which 
 were formed from it, have made an enviable contri- 
 bution to the statesmanship of North Carolina. It 
 is hoped that other names may be selected for study 
 by other historians. 
 
 The writer's happy recollections of childhood 
 days as a guest of his grandparents at Green Hill, 
 and later at Louisburg College; and his fondness 
 for his grandmother, Mrs. Louisa Hill Davis (Mrs. 
 Matthew S. Davis), who will, it is hoped, read it 
 with pleasure, have in large measure inspired the 
 publication of this booklet. 
 
 J. Edward Allen. 
 
MRS. LOUISE HILL DAVIS, (1836- ) 
 
 (Mrs. Matthew S. Davis): The Oldest Living Graduate of 
 Louisburg College, (Class of 1853); Widow of One 
 of Its Presidents and Mother of Another. 
 
Green Hill 
 
 5 
 
 Introductory and Genealogical Notes 
 
 Green Hill, the second, the subject of Doctor Ivey's sketch, 
 was the son of the elder Green Hill, the earliest member of the 
 Hill family of whom there is available to the writer of this intro- 
 duction, any authentic information. It is with much supporting 
 evidence believed that his father was Robert Hill of Halifax 
 county. The first Green Hill was a prominent citizen of the state, 
 public-spirited and influential. Grace Bennett, wife of the elder 
 Green Hill, was the daughter of ''William Bennett, Gentleman," 
 of Northampton county, North Carolina. A deed to land given 
 him by the Earl of Granville, one of the Lords Proprietors, so 
 describes him. He was Captain of the Roanoke Company of 101 
 men, Northampton Regiment, Colonial Militia, in 1748. (Colonial 
 Records, XXII, 273.) 
 
 The records of Blandford Bute Lodge of Masons, which were 
 rediscovered in 1914, show that this lodge was in existence as 
 early as 1766, having its meetings in old Bute county, from which 
 Warren and Franklin were formed in 1779. The first lodge hall 
 was a few miles from old Jones' Springs, a famous watering place, 
 near which Anne Carter Lee, daughter of Gen. Robert E. Lee, was 
 buried, and from which neighborhood her remains were never 
 removed. The lodge afterward was moved to Warrenton, and 
 became Johnston-Caswell, No. 10, of which this present writer 
 is a member. These records show that Green Hill, Henry Hill 
 and William Hill, were members of the lodge. These lodges were, 
 during the Revolutionary period, really Committees of Delibera- 
 tion on the State of the Country, and, therefore, the minutes cease 
 for the period of the war. The members for the most part came 
 from the vicinity of Petersburg, Va., whence the name of "Bland- 
 ford-Bute." Many names on its rolls are identical with those of 
 the charter list of the parent organization in Petersburg, Bland- 
 ford, No. 3, chartered in 1757. The section north of Raleigh and 
 east of Roxboro, North Carolina, was very largely settled by 
 people who came south from eastern Virginia. Abigail Sugan, 
 hereinafter mentioned, is said to have been the first woman in 
 the armies going southward, to cross the Roanoke River. 
 
 When the first Colonial Assembly of North Carolina, described 
 as the first popular Convention of any Colony in America, was 
 held in New Bern on August 25, 1774, Green Hill was among the 
 delegates present. It is declared that no such Convention had ever 
 preceded this in America, except by royal authority or approval. 
 It met in defiance of the Crown and its royal Governor and his 
 proclamations, there being seventy members present, representing 
 almost all of the thirty-five counties. 
 
6 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 Chief Justice Clark, editor of the North Carolina Colonial 
 Records, said of this Convention that it "never had a superior 
 from that day to this, and doubtless never will in all time to come. 
 Scarcely a name prominent in the annals of the day is wanting.'* 
 
 The second Provincial Congress was held at Hillsboro, on 
 August 25, 1775, and Green Hill was again present. 
 
 Green Hill, the elder, had four sons and four daughters. Facts 
 are available from a number of sources, among these being two 
 Hill Bibles. One of these was formerly owned by Mrs. Mary Foy, 
 or Ivy, of St. Louis; the other is now owned by Mr. Hill Fergu- 
 son, of Birmingham, Alabama. The four sons were Henry, born 
 in 1740; Green, born in 1741, Bennett, born in 1745, William, born 
 in 1750. The daughters were Mary, born in 1754, Sarah, born in 
 1756, Temperance, born in 1761, and Elizabeth, born in 1763. All 
 of these married and had large families, their descendants being 
 found in practically every Southern state today. 
 
 The writer's own family is descended from the fourth son, 
 William Hill, who married Mary (or Polly) Jones, daughter of 
 Sugan Jones, and granddaughter of Edward Jones and wife, Abi- 
 gail Sugan Jones — this latter the famous progenitor of a large 
 number of substantial citizens of the North Carolina of the present 
 day. William and Mary Jones Hill were married in 1776, and to 
 them were born four sons: William Bennett, born in 1779, Samuel 
 Sugan, born in 1781, James Jones, born in 1782, and Charles 
 Applewhite, born in 1784. 
 
 Charles Applewhite Hill, the next in the present writer's line, 
 was a distinguished and successful educator, the author of a Latin 
 Grconniar, a copy of which is now in the possession of Mrs. Louisa 
 Hill Davis, the writer's grandmother. There are other prominent 
 descendants of William Hill: the late Senator Augustus Hill Gar- 
 land of Arkansas, Attorney General in Cleveland's Cabinet, and 
 often described as the strongest member thereof, was one. The 
 name of Charles Applewhite Hill is attached to the bill providing 
 funds for the first public schools in North Carolina. 
 
 He married in 1806, Rebecca Wesley Long, daughter of Gabriel 
 Long and grandaughter of Col. Nicholas Long, who was one of 
 the most prominent men of his time; a member of the same Pro- 
 vincial Congress in 1774 and again in 1775; Quartermaster Gen- 
 eral in the Continental Army; member of the Committee of Safety 
 of Halifax county; Commissioner of Confiscated Property; made 
 Colonel by the Congress in 1775; member of the North Carolina 
 State Senate in 1784. To Charles A. and Rebecca Wesley Long 
 were born William George, Mary Ann, Daniel Shine, Kemp Plum- 
 mer, Nicholas Long, Richard Henry, Martha Caroline, Sarah R., 
 and Charles J. Hill, whose names are given in order of age. 
 
 The third of these, Daniel Shine Hill, born in 1812, was mar- 
 ried in 1835 to Susan Irwin Toole, who was granddaughter of the 
 Rev. John King, M.D., who was educated in England for the min- 
 istry of the Established Church, and afterward became a Methodist 
 
Green Hill 
 
 7 
 
 and came to Baltimore, Maryland, where a monument was recently 
 erected to his memory. Doctor King studied at Oxford University. 
 He was disowned by his family when he came under Wesley's 
 inflluence. He preached "through the heroic days of Methodism;" 
 to use the words of a writer describing him in the William and 
 Mary Quarterly; and is elsewhere described as "the father of 
 Methodism in North Carolina." 
 
 Susan Toole Hill was also the granddaughter of Geraldus 
 Toole, who "owned fourteen thousand acres of land in Edgecombe 
 county," (the "Conetoe Plantation"), according to Joseph Lacy 
 Seawell, and whose ancestry is traced directly to old Ireland's 
 nobility. 
 
 Her grandmother on her father's side was a sister of Col. 
 Henry Irwin, who was killed at the battle of Germantown. Susan 
 Toole Hill inherited considerable property from her father. 
 
 The eldest daughter of Daniel Shine Hill was Sarah Louisa 
 Hill, who was born in 1836, was married in 1857 to Matthew S. 
 Davis, of Louisburg, and who is now living in Warrenton, N. C, 
 as this is written. Another of the children of Daniel S. Hill was 
 Dr. Charles Geraldus Hill, who became a resident of Baltimore, 
 Maryland, and there was until his death in 1925 one of its most 
 prominent physicians. Others were Mrs. Walter Starke, now 
 living; Mrs. Madeline Best, Mrs. Pauline Brooks, who was the 
 wife of Dr. John R. Brooks, of the Methodist ministry, Mrs. Flor- 
 ence Jones; Susan Irwin, who died young; Daniel Sehon; William; 
 and Mrs. Carrie Painter, now living. 
 
 Many of the present generation still remember Matthew S. 
 Davis, who was for years a teacher of boys in the Louisburg 
 Academy, and later in 1896, became president of Louisburg Col- 
 lege, which position he held until his death in 1906. The writer 
 remembers the time when he, as a boy, visited his grandfather, 
 Matthew S. Davis, at old "Green Hill," near Louisburg. There 
 were, and are, high mantels in the house. There are still scars 
 on his knuckles, occasioned by falling in the fire while 
 hunting on one of these mantels for something eagerly sought by 
 a boy. When Matthew S. Davis moved his household goods to 
 Louisburg College to become its president, the writer rode on one 
 of the wagons filled with furniture. The horses on a return journey 
 became frightened, ran away, and threw this writer out into a 
 thicket of blackberry briars. The title to "Green Hill" has never 
 been held by any other than a member of the same family. 
 
 Matthew S. Davis and his brothers were grandsons of Burwell 
 Davis, the elder, who was a soldier in Sharp's Company, Tenth 
 North Carolina Continental Regiment, in the War of the Revolu- 
 tion. Robert Edward Davis, Sheriff of W^arren county, and -William 
 Edward Davis, of Creek, N. C, also now living, are grandsons of 
 this soldier of the Revolution. 
 
 The children of Matthew S. Davis and Louisa Hill Davis are: 
 Florence Davis, now Mrs. Eugene S. Allen; Mary, now Mrs. Ivey 
 
8 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 and after some years joined her husband, Secretary-Treasurer of 
 the Masonic Orphanage at Oxford, N. C, as senior teacher in its 
 high school; Lula, who married Robert Zollicoffer Egerton and 
 resides in Louisburg, N. C; Mabel Irwin, Librarian of the Memo- 
 rial Library at Warrenton; Marion Stuart Davis, architect, resid- 
 ing at Louisburg; and the Rev. Edward Hill Davis, of the North 
 Carolina Conference. Charles died in young manhood. 
 
 Mrs. Louisa Hill Davis takes no little pride in the fact that 
 she is an unregenerate daughter of the Southern Confederacy. Its 
 traditions, and the scenes of the War between the States, are still 
 fresh and live vividly in her mind. The "Yankee" army camped 
 in the grove for a season, in front of her door: and may not easily 
 be forgotten. She is the oldest living graduate of Louisburg 
 College. 
 
 Eugene S. Allen is the son of the late Nat Allen, at one time 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction of Warren county. The 
 family is descended from Capt. Charles Allen, who saw distin- 
 guished service in the War of the American Revolution, and who 
 was the son of Richard Allen, of Brunswick county, Virginia, whose 
 father came to that state about 1720 from England. A copy of 
 the coat of arms of the family is in the possession of the writer. 
 The Rev. J. T. Gibbs, D. D., of the North Carolina Conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church, is a descendant of Capt. Charles 
 Allen. Nat Allen himself was on Gen. Robert W. Ransom's staff 
 in the War between the States, four of his brothers also having 
 been in the armies of the Southern Confederacy. His nephew, 
 George Garland Allen, son of the late Peter H. Allen, is at the 
 head of the Duke Endowment, the most notable philanthropy that 
 North Carolina has ever seen. 
 
 The children of Eugene S. Allen and Florence D. Allen are: 
 John Edward, the present writer; Mary Louise, and Charles Pryor. 
 The eldest of these, the writer, introduces himself as a school man, 
 superintendent of schools in his native city and county; and his 
 brother and sister as engaged in mercantile business with their 
 father. 
 
 In conclusion the writer makes mention of the fact that in 
 1921 there became his wife Sue Council Broom, daughter of the 
 Rev. Robert Houston Broom, of the North Carolina Conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, native of Union county, 
 and his wife. Sue Council, native of Bladen county, a lineal des- 
 cendant of Col. Alexander McAllister, of Revolutionary fame, from 
 whom hundreds of successful people in this and other states trace 
 their descent. Children of J. Edward and Sue Broom Allen are 
 Isabel McAllister and Frances Jean Allen. 
 
Green Hill 
 
 9 
 
 GREEN HILL 
 
 Preacher, Patriot, Pioneer 
 By Thomas Neal Ivey 
 
 Read before the Historical Society of the Western North 
 Carolina Conference, October 19, 1920 
 
 It can be safely stated that there are comparatively 
 few who can locate chronologically the subject of this 
 paper or mention any fact that would naturally project 
 him as a distinct historical character. He figures only 
 modestly in the annals of his State and Church. No 
 standard history gives him more than passing mention. 
 Then why introduce him to a Historical Society as the 
 legitimate subject of an historical paper? Simply 
 because he was a maker of history. Every history- 
 maker is a ward, if not a child, of history, possessing a 
 valid claim to that publicity which represents more a 
 method of ethical torch-bearing than a method of sen- 
 sational advertising. 
 
 There should be a clear conception of what is meant 
 by history. Mr. Emerson in his elaborate essay on 
 ''History" is entitled to attention when he says : 
 ''Broader and deeper we must write our annals — from 
 an ethical reformation, from an influence of the ever 
 new, ever sanative conscience — if we would trulier 
 express our central, wide relative nature instead of this 
 old chronology of selfishness and pride to which we have 
 too long lent our ears." The essence of the meaning of 
 these words is that apart from the history of the old 
 chronology and the pride of spectacular events and of 
 haloed personalities, is a truer, juster, higher history of 
 ethical reformations springing from impulses born amid 
 individual strivings and of mighty, if not advertised, 
 exploits inspired by that "sanative conscience" whicn 
 ignores mere chronologies and despises the chaplet-leaf 
 of fame. 
 
10 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 To this latter kind of history belongs the subject of 
 this paper. We cannot study his life with its high ideal- 
 ism, its keen pioneering energies, and its sound construc- 
 tive service to Church and country without realizing 
 that he justifies his claim to the attention of the higher 
 history and answers signally to that definition of a 
 ''great man" given by Mr. Emerson in another essay: 
 '1 count him great who inhabits a higher sphere of 
 thought into which other men rise with difficulty and 
 labor." Because of the chronic and seemingly incurable 
 misconception of the meaning of real history and of real 
 greatness we find in Green Hill one of history's almost 
 ''forgotten men." The mission of this paper is to bring 
 him out, if possible, into the light of a broader recog- 
 nition and a more appreciative memory; for to remem- 
 ber truly such a man is to keep flowing a fountain which 
 for more than a century has been pouring its waters into 
 the mighty current of our national life. 
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING 
 
 Green Hill, the son of Green and Grace Bennett Hill, 
 was born in Bute County, North Carolina, November 3, 
 1741. There are no records which throw any light on 
 his immediate forbears. It is highly presumable that 
 they moved to North Carolina in the latter part of the 
 seventeenth century with that band of English settlers 
 who located around Albemarle Sound and later on the 
 banks of the Roanoke. That the Hills of that early day 
 were members of the Established Church may be taken 
 for granted. There is an old entry to the effect that 
 Green Hill, undoubtedly the father of our subject, was 
 appointed vestryman of the Parish of St. George in 1758. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we know so little of the boy- 
 hood and youth of Green Hill. It must be apparent to 
 all that there is a decided disadvantage for one who 
 essays to draw the picture and appraise the life of a man 
 who is not seen in the morning light of boyhood and 
 youth. That morning light is needed to harmonize per- 
 spectives, equalize values, and explain many things that 
 appear so plain at noonday or in the mellow light of 
 
Green Hill 
 
 11 
 
 evening. Imagination, however, using the knowledge of 
 conditions that obtained in the Carolina Province in 
 1741, can make the best of it. In those days every 
 inviting avenue, it seems now, was closed to the boy. 
 The country was a tangled wilderness. The settlers 
 were widely scattered. There was not a regular school 
 house in the whole colony. There was no post office. 
 There was no newspaper. There were only a few 
 churches scattered over a vast territory. The Sunday 
 School had not been established. Steam and electricity 
 were unknown. There was not a public road. Yet it 
 would be a mistake to assume that boyhood in that day 
 was only a stretch of strenuous, cheerless existence, and 
 that Green Hill as a boy did not find all that was neces- 
 sary to fill to the brim the cup of eager, bounding, 
 inquisitive life. 
 
 IN THE PATHWAY OF TWO EPOCHAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 During these early days two epochal movements, 
 whose respective culminations were destined to change 
 the history not only of America but of the whole world, 
 were rapidly gathering force. They had been born long 
 years before Green Hill was born. They were to envelop 
 him and either make him or leave him a mere human 
 fragment in their wake. One of these movements was 
 toward civil freedom. The other was toward that broad 
 ecclesiastical freedom which promotes the highest spiri- 
 tual liberty for the individual and the State. The 
 one culminated in the American Republic ; the other in 
 American Episcopal Methodism. 
 
 Both movements, as has been stated, enveloped Green 
 Hill at a critical time in the life of the movements and 
 in the life of the man himself. We see the credentials 
 of his eminent forcefulness in his active relationship to 
 these movements. He rose to the full heights of the situ- 
 ation. He showed a loyalty so true, a devotion so 
 exalted, and a service so self-sacrificing and constructive 
 as to make it impossible for us now to dig beneath our 
 Republic and our Methodism without finding him among 
 the foundation stones of the imposing superstructures. 
 
12 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 In studying his claim to remembrance on the part of the 
 nation and of Methodism we must view him in his rela- 
 tions to these movements, and to another movement to 
 be considered later on in this paper. 
 
 EPISCOPAL METHODISM IN AMERICA 
 
 The resistless urge toward the goal representing the 
 establishment of Episcopal Methodism in America really 
 began that evening in Aldergate Street in 1739, when 
 John Wesley felt his heart ''strengely warmed," and at 
 last rejoiced in the long-sought consciousness of spiri- 
 tual freedom. That ''strange warmth" and the thrill of 
 a new-found liberty in Christ Jesus established the 
 Methodist Societies in England in 1740. It had much to 
 do with the repeated visits to America of George White- 
 field who went as a flame of evangelical fire up and down 
 the Atlantic Seaboard. It sent Philip Embury to New 
 York in 1760. In the heart of Robert Strawbridge it 
 operated to build the first Methodist Church in America 
 in 1768. It built St. John's Church in New York in 1768. 
 It brought Francis Asbury across the sea in 1771. It 
 sent Robert Williams to Virginia in 1772. 
 
 The religious condition in North Carolina when it 
 was first touched by the breath of Methodism was not 
 encouraging. There were few churches. There were not 
 more than several dozen Established churches and 
 chapels in the whole province. Only clergymen of the 
 Established Church were allowed to perform the rites 
 of matrimony. The Baptists were preaching at several 
 points. There were fewer than twenty congregations of 
 Presbyterians. Several Lutheran and German Reformed 
 churches were being established in the western part of 
 the State. The Moravians had settled what is now 
 known as Forsyth County in 1753. The Moravians had 
 been preaching in the Province for nearly a hundred 
 years. To obtain a clear idea of the spiritual destitution 
 of the province in the latter decade of the eighteenth 
 century we have only to read the diaries of Francis 
 Asbury and others. Some of the entries appear amusing 
 to us, but at that time the facts were far from amusing. 
 
Green Hill 
 
 13 
 
 The condition was so alarming during the administration 
 of Governor Gabriel Johnson that he deemed it necessary 
 to read to the House a special message on the subject. 
 
 Green Hill was more than thirty years old when he 
 found himself caught in the swirl of the invincible 
 Methodist movement. We do not know exactly when it 
 was. It may have been when Joseph Pilmoor, the first 
 Methodist preacher to set foot on North Carolina soil, 
 came down from Virginia and set the whole section 
 blazing with revival fire. Or it may have been a little 
 later under the preaching of Robert Williams, who 
 organized the first Methodist Society in North Carolina, 
 or during that wonderful revival which started under 
 the preaching of Robert Williams in Virginia in 1772 
 and swept across the border into Bute County, in which 
 Green Hill lived. It was probably under John King's 
 influence. But one day he felt the Methodist tide wash- 
 ing around his feet as he listened to preaching which 
 caused him to make the great renunciation and the great 
 surrender. He was not content to bask in the new 
 liberty into which the Holy Spirit had brought him. He 
 entered the new life as a leader. Shortly after his con- 
 version he began as a local preacher to establish the new 
 faith in his community. It was through the preaching 
 of Pilmoor and Williams and of such local preachers as 
 Green Hill and others that the North Carolina Circuit to 
 which Poythress, Dromgoole, and Tatum were appointed 
 in 1775, had 683 members. He had helped to lay the 
 mudsills of Episcopal Methodism and was striving with 
 all his soul to build his very life into the structure. He 
 was the first native son of North Carolina, so far as is 
 known, to become a Methodist preacher. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC 
 
 Let us now leave Green Hill as a leader in that 
 movement which was later to culminate in the establish- 
 ment of American Episcopal Methodism, and see him as 
 a leader in that other movement which culminated in the 
 establishment of the American Republic. 
 
14 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 The history of the American colonies is the history 
 of conflict — not so much with Indians, the wilderness, 
 and the rigors of soil and climate, as that waged by the 
 spirit of freedom which forced Magna Charta from King 
 John on June 15, 1215, and then set out to show every- 
 where and at all times a mailed hand against tyranny. 
 The story of North Carolina, therefore, is a story of the 
 victories and defeats of this spirit of liberty. It was 
 very active during the Proprietary Period, 1663 to 1729. 
 It was manifest in active opposition to the payment of 
 export duties, the exactions of the Established Church, 
 and other forms of royal tyrannies exercised through 
 mercenary proprietors. There was a bloody clash dur- 
 ing the administration of Governor Tryon in 1768 on 
 the field of Alamance. The iniquity of the Stamp Act 
 was firing the animosities of the people. The conflict 
 assumed a very serious form in 1774 during the adminis- 
 tration of Governor Martin when, on August 25, in spite 
 of the opposition of the governor, the first Provincial 
 Assembly met at New Bern to elect delegates to a Conti- 
 nental Congress at Philadelphia, which congress assumed 
 to exercise powers vested in the people, and to acknowl- 
 edge no duty whatever to the Crown. 
 
 YIELDING TO THE CALL OF PATRIOTISM 
 
 The first Provincial Assembly in North Carolina was 
 made up of delegates elected by the people. According 
 to Wheeler in his History of North Carolina, "it was 
 not a conflict of arms or force, but it was the first act 
 of that great drama in which battles and blood formed 
 only subordinate parts. It was the first assembly of 
 the people of North Carolina in a representative charac- 
 ter in opposition to the Royal Queen." It is not strange 
 to find as a delegate to this great meeting our local 
 Methodist preacher. Green Hill. He and William Person 
 were delegates from Bute County, which will ever be 
 known in North Carolina as the county in which there 
 were ''no tories." It would have been as difficult for 
 Green Hill to refrain from participating in this conflict 
 as from becoming a local preacher of Methodism after 
 
Green Hill 
 
 15 
 
 the great light had broken into his soul. That construc- 
 tive element in his nature with the strong ethical impulse 
 made him a forceful leader in the ranks of those who 
 established the American Republic and in the ranks of 
 the white bannered host that established American 
 Methodism. 
 
 The second Provincial Congress met at New Bern on 
 April 3, 1775. It was called by the moderator of the 
 First Provincial Congress. The House of Assembly 
 which had been elected by order of Governor Martin met 
 at the same time and place. The members of one body 
 were the members of the other. There is record ot 
 Green Hill's having been a member of this Second Pro- 
 vincial Congress. The Third Provincial Congress met at 
 Hillsboro on the 20th of August, the same year. At this 
 Congress momentous action was taken, severing relation- 
 ship with the Crown. A kind of provincial government 
 was established, an army was placed in the field, and pro- 
 vision was made for the issue of necessary currency. 
 Green Hill was a member of this Third Provincial Con- 
 gress. He was appointed to serve on one of the most 
 im^portant committees — that of Privileges and Elections. 
 It is an interesting fact to be remembered that at least 
 three members were ministers of the Gospel, Green Hili 
 of the Methodist Societies, from Bute, Rev. William Hill 
 of the Baptist Church, from Surry, and Rev. Henry 
 Patillo, of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Green Hill was a member of the Fourth Provincial 
 Congress which met in April, 1776, at Halifax, as w^as 
 also his brother-in-law, Benjamin Seawell. The crown- 
 ing work of this Congress was to affirm the province's 
 absolute independence of the mother country. Thus 
 North Carolina led all the colonies in affirming this inde- 
 pendence. At this Congress Green Hill received a mili- 
 tary title — that of Major of the Militia. He was known 
 later in life as ''Colonel Hill," but if he received any other 
 title than that of Major I have not been able to find the 
 record. He was placed on a committee to regulate the 
 militia. Cornelius Harnett, Samuel Ashe and William 
 Hooper were his follow-committeemen. He was also 
 
16 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 designated as one of the signers of the bills of credit 
 issued by Congress. The highest testimony to his influ- 
 ence and ability was his appointment on a committee 
 to prepare a civil constitution. The committee failed to 
 agree on a constitution, but appointed a sub-committee 
 to propose a temporary form of government pending the 
 next session of the Assembly. The Council of Safety 
 was appointed, and the Council recommended that on the 
 15th of the following October delegates should be elected 
 to meet on November 12, to form a constitution. This 
 latter assembly had Richard Caswell for its President. 
 On December 17, a day ever to be remembered in North 
 Carolina, a bill of rights was adopted. On December 
 18 a constitution was adopted, with Caswell as Governor, 
 and North Carolina became entirely independent of the 
 British Government. 
 
 Green Hill was not a delegate to the famous Assem- 
 bly, though no man in the State had done more to mak^ 
 it possible. We find him, however, an active member of 
 the Assembly of 1777. He represented Franklin County 
 in the Assembly of 1779. Bute County was no more. 
 From it had been formed Franklin and Warren Coun- 
 ties. In this Assembly of 1779 he presented a bill for 
 making better provision for the poor, and so far as 
 records show he was the pioneer in the movement to 
 establish public institutions for the indigent in the Old 
 North State. 
 
 In 1781 Green Hill enlisted as Chaplain of the 10th 
 regiment. Sharp's Company, and saw service the same 
 year as far west as Salisbury, when our armies were on 
 a retreat. 
 
 On November 30, 1782, the treaty of Paris was 
 signed and American independence was a fact forever- 
 more. It would seem that the time had come for Green 
 Hill to retire to his large landed estate on the Tar near 
 Louisburg, the county seat of Franklin, and leave others 
 to assume the burden of public duties. He had taken 
 a strenuous and prominent part in establishing the inde- 
 pendence of his State and the country. But the idea of 
 retirement had not entered his mind. It was unsuited 
 
Green Hill 
 
 17 
 
 to his temperament. He was only a little over forty 
 years old. He was too useful a man to cease his func- 
 tions as a burden bearer. In 1783 he was elected Treas- 
 urer for the District of Halifax. There were several 
 districts and as many treasurers. All State officials were 
 under the governor. He was also elected one of the 
 Councillors of State, which position he continued to hold 
 until some sime in 1786, as is shown in a letter written 
 him by Governor Caswell. There is no doubt that as 
 treasurer of Halifax County he had some trouble with 
 the Assembly. A shortage was charged. We are not sur- 
 prised, though, to find that in the Assembly of 1789 the 
 Committee appointed to report on the shortage of Green 
 Hill as Treasurer of Halifax District reported favorablv 
 and that he was entitled to 233 pounds, thirteen shill- 
 ings, and sixpence, which amount was directed to be 
 paid to Mr. Hill. This was a double vindication. In 
 his case there had been no shortage, but a reimburse- 
 ment was declared necessary. 
 
 THE FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF ORGANIZED EPISCOPAL 
 
 METHODISM 
 
 At the beginning of 1785 there were fewer than 
 eighteen thousand Methodists in America. There were 
 hardly one hundred preachers. Coke had been sent by 
 John Wesley across the Atlantic. The famous Christ- 
 mas Conference of 1784 had been held and Episcopal 
 Methodism, altogether independent of the Establisheei 
 Church, had become an organized force. The time had 
 come for the holding of the first Annual Conference of 
 organized Episcopal Methodism. The place had been 
 selected. There was no directory showing the homes of 
 the preachers. There was no need of any directory. 
 There was only one home for all the preachers, and that 
 was the home of Green Hill. It w^as one of those plain, 
 story-and-a-half houses so comxmon at that day. Yet 
 then it was considered a mansion. It was built of mas- 
 sive timbers, having five rooms in the basement, four 
 on the second floor and two in the attic. It still stands 
 in a remarkable state of preservation. Through one 
 
18 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 door you look southward. Through the opposite door 
 you see, across the Tar about one mile distant, the beau- 
 tiful town of Louisburg. Close at hand is an old fash- 
 ioned garden. On the right is a clump of cedars guard- 
 ing the resting place of the dead, among whom is Edwin 
 Fuller, North Carolina's gifted poet, and a descendant 
 of the owner of the house. 
 
 The upper story of the house now contains two 
 rooms. Originally there was but one room. In this one 
 upper room the First Annual Conference of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church in America was held on April 20, 
 1785. Bishops Asbury and Coke presided. This Annual 
 Conference embraced a territory covering Virginia, 
 North Carolina and South Carolina. Twenty preachers 
 were present. There was John King, the Oxford scholar 
 and skilled physician, who was disinherited by his 
 parents when he became a local preacher, and who 
 crossed the occean and preached the first Methodist 
 sermon in Baltimore. There was Jesse Lee, one of the 
 doughtiest knights that ever went forth in the crusade 
 of Methodism. There was Philip Bruce, the boldest of 
 the ''Thundering Legion." There was Reuben Ellis, one 
 of the choicest spirits among the first Carolina preachers. 
 It is very probable that the following also were present : 
 Edward Dromgoole, Francis Poythress, John Easter, 
 John Dickins, John Tunnell, Hope Hull, and James 
 O'Kelley. 
 
 It was a fraternal meeting. There were no vexing 
 questions. Only the normal work of the new Church 
 was considered. Bishop Coke most unwisely injected 
 the slavery question. The injection was unwise not 
 primarily because he was the guest of a man who had 
 many slaves, but because the question was in extreme 
 form for that day and those circumstances. Fortunately 
 he did not push his radical views. The gain during the 
 year was gratifying. There had been 991 members 
 received. The work was extended into Georgia. Philip 
 Bruce was made Presiding Elder. For the first time the 
 term and the office came into use. 
 
Green Hill 
 
 19 
 
 While in the house of Green Hill were held three other 
 Annual Conferences — in January, 1790, December, 1791, 
 and December, 1794 — it is probable that in each case 
 the members of the respective Conferences were enter- 
 tained in the neighborhood. By this time the population 
 of the community had grown. Bishop Asbury in his 
 Journal says under date of January 19, 1792: "I rode 
 with no small difficulty to Green Hill's, about two hun- 
 dred miles, the roads being covered with snow and ice. 
 Our Conference began and ended in great peace and 
 harmony. We had thirty-one preachers stationed at the 
 different houses in the neighborhood." 
 
 It can thus be seen what a gracious host this great 
 Methodist was. His hospitality, as will be seen, was 
 extended to a Methodist Conference in another State. 
 We must be careful to make the chief fact in Green Hill's 
 life not that he entertained so graciously the first Annual 
 Conference of Episcopal Methodism in America, but that 
 he acted so self-sacrificingly and heroically in making 
 the Methodism whose first Conference he entertained. 
 
 THE PIONEER 
 
 Green Hill was destined to take an active part in 
 another great movement which played a most important 
 part in the development of this country. This was the 
 pioneer movement, which, toward the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century, crossed the Alleghanies and helped 
 to build up the great State of Tennessee and other States 
 of the Mississippi Valley. The frontier has ever been 
 the goal of civilization's advancing columns. Emerson 
 Hough has said : 'Always it has been the frontier which 
 has allured many of our boldest souls. And always just 
 back of the frontier, advancing, receding, crossing it 
 this way and that, succeeding and failing, hoping and 
 despairing — but steadily advancing in the net result — has 
 come that portion of the population which is not content 
 with a blanket for a bed and the sky for a roof above. 
 The frontier has been the lasting and ineradicable 
 influence for the good of the United States. It was 
 there we showed our fighting edge, our unconquerable 
 
20 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 resolution, our undying faith. There, for a time at 
 least, we were Americans. We had our frontier. We 
 shall do ill indeed if we forget and abandon its strong 
 lessons, its great hopes, its splendid human dreams.' 
 Green Hill had been resting for a life-time under the 
 lure of these frontiers, which represented the establish- 
 ment of a great Church and a mighty Republic. It is 
 not strange that he yielded to the lure of that other 
 frontier which lay toward the setting sun and hid the 
 valley in which the battle of human progress is to be 
 fought and in which our Republic shall see the fairest 
 fruitage of its wonderful energies. 
 
 In 1796 he crossed the Alleghanies and made a trip 
 to that fairest picture of our Continent — the section 
 which is now called Mid-Tennessee, and into which at 
 that time the waves of a pioneering population were 
 washing. As he went he preached. It is both refresh- 
 ing and inspiring to read in his diary his eventful 
 itinerary, and especially to see that as he went he 
 preached — not in the church houses, for there were few 
 of them, but in the majestic groves and the extemporized 
 shanties of the settlers. 
 
 In 1799 Green Hill moved his family to Tennessee 
 and settled about twelve miles south of Nashville. There 
 among those beautiful rolling hills he built a residence 
 which he called Liberty Hill. It was hardly so pretenti- 
 ous as his other residence. Liberty Hall, in North Caro- 
 lina, but it was considered one of the best homes in the 
 section of the Alleghanies. It was a home for the Metho- 
 dist preachers from Bishop to Circuit rider. Here in 
 this peaceful home Green Hill lived as the affluent 
 planter and the active local preacher. He had been 
 ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury on January 21, 1792. 
 He was ordained elder by Bishop McKendree on October 
 4, 1813. 
 
 mckendree's first conference 
 
 It was at Liberty Hill that Bishop McKendree held 
 his first Conference in 1808. This was the Western 
 Conference, which included the States of Tennessee, 
 
Green Hill 
 
 21 
 
 Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio, Indi- 
 ana, Illinois, and all territory west of the Mississippi 
 River. 
 
 Bishop Paine, in ''Life and Times of McKendree," 
 says : 'The conference at Liberty Hill was held at a 
 camp meeting [the grounds were at the foot of the hill 
 on whose crest stands the residence], the preachers 
 lodging on the encampment while the Bishops, in view 
 of Bishop Asbury's feeble health, stayed at the residence 
 of Col. [Maj.] Green Hill. As there was but one con- 
 ference at that time in the West, the traveling preachers 
 collected here from Holston, Natchez, Opelousas, 
 Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, cover- 
 ing a vast field of labor — an immense theater for mis- 
 sionary enterprise. To supply this extensive and extend- 
 ing field of itinerant occupations, some fifty-five 
 preachers had been employed the preceeding year. Many 
 of these had been toiling in the frontier settlements and 
 had come hundreds of miles to Conference, fatigued v/ith 
 travel, enfeebled by affliction, exposure and labor; bare 
 of clothing; in money matters almost penniless — really 
 itinerant, houseless wanderers — but they brought cheer- 
 ing intelligence of religious revivals, and growing spiri- 
 tual prosperity. Bishop Asbury says in his Journal : 
 'We have had 2500 increase; there are seven districts, 
 and a call for eighty preachers.' " 
 
 A CLOSER LOOK 
 
 Only the salient facts in the life of Green Hill have 
 been given. Let us now view him at somewhat closer 
 range. At the beginning of the nineteenth century he is 
 comfortably settled in Tennessee. He is far past life's 
 meridian. We see him growing old gracefully and use- 
 fully, having behind him a constructive record which 
 has lifted him far above the average in the roll of public 
 characters. He had given distinguished service to his 
 State as patriot and legislator, and had the satisfaction 
 of seeing that State free and independent. He had 
 thrown his whole soul into the spread of scriptural holi- 
 ness according to the Methodist faith. He had not only 
 
22 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 seen Methodism established as a strong and growing 
 Church, but had the pleasure and honor of entertaining 
 its first Annual Conference. He had become pioneer and 
 had established himself in a new territory in which his 
 pioneering spirit found its accustomed exercise. 
 
 Green Hill was married twice. Both wives were 
 wealthy and represented the best blood in the State. So 
 he enjoyed not only acquired wealth but inherited wealth. 
 He was a large slave holder. He was married in early 
 life to Nancy Thomas, on October 13, 1763. The chil- 
 dren of this marriage were : Jordan Hill, who resided 
 in North Carolina until his death and left a large family 
 of children ; Hannah Hill, who was married to Thomas 
 Stokes of Chatham County, N. C. ; Nancy Hill, who mar- 
 ried Thomas Knibb Wynn of N. C, and died in 1791, 
 leaving a number of descendants, among whom were 
 those worthy Methodist laymen, the Southgates of Dur- 
 ham, N. C. ; Martha Hill, who was married to Jesse 
 Brown of N. C, and moved to Tennessee and was long 
 a resident of Lebanon ; Richard Hill, who died in 
 infancy. Nancy Thomas Hill died on January 16, 1772, 
 On June 3, 1773, Green Hill was married to Mary Sea- 
 well, daughter of Hon. Benjamin Seawell of old Bute 
 County, N. C. The children of this marriage were 
 Green Hill, HI, who died in Alabama, leaving a large 
 family of children; Lucy Hill, who married Rev. Joshua 
 Cannon. (They moved to Tennessee and settled in 
 Williamson County, leaving a number of descendants) , 
 John Hill, who after having gone to Tennessee and mar- 
 ried, settled in Rutherford County, in that State, leaving 
 a number of descendants; Thomas Hill, who, having 
 married, also settled in Rutherford County, and died at 
 an extremely old age, leaving a number of descendants ; 
 Sally Hicks Hill, who was never married and died in 
 Williamson County, Tenn. ; Mary Seawell Hill, who was 
 married in Tennessee to Adam de Graffenreid, and died, 
 leaving only one child, who was never married; William 
 Hill, who married and settled in Rutherford County, 
 Tenn., and died in Haywood County, leaving one son, 
 Richard Hill, who afterwards became a Methodist 
 
Green Hill 
 
 23 
 
 preacher; Joshua Hill, who moved with his father to 
 Tennesee and afterward married Lemiza Lanier of Beau- 
 fort County, N. C. He was a local preacher in the 
 Tennessee Conference, but died young in 1827, leaving 
 a son, John L. Hill, who was for years a member of the 
 Tennessee Conference. The daughter of Joshua C. Hill 
 married Rev. William Burr of Tennessee Conference. A 
 descendant is Mrs. Laura Burr Ferguson, widow of the 
 late Gen. F. D. Ferguson of Birmingham, Ala. In Mrs. 
 Ferguson's possession is the original Bible of Green Hill, 
 and to her and her son, Mr. Hill Ferguson, I am indebted 
 for much interesting data. 
 
 Green Hill and Dr. John King, the English scholar, 
 preacher and physician, who took a prominent part in 
 the establishment of Episcopal Methodism, married 
 sisters — members of the Seawell family. Mrs. Louisa 
 Hill Davis, widow of the late M. S. Davis, president of 
 Louisburg Female College, and whose son. Rev. E. H. 
 Davis, is a most useful preacher of the North Carolina 
 Conference, is a collateral descendant of Green Hill on 
 the father's side, and a lineal descendant of John King 
 on the mother's side. Much space could be given to the 
 names of those who are worthy descendants of Green 
 Hill. They are many and are found in almost every 
 Southern State. These men and women have enriched 
 almost every walk of life. Some became preachers. 
 One was a gifted poet, Edwin Fuller, author of ''Angel 
 in the Cloud." Quite a number became jurists and states- 
 men. Jordan Stokes, Sr., one of the ablest lawyers of 
 Nashville, Tenn., is a lineal descendant of Green Hill. 
 Senator Garland of Arkansas, who was a member of 
 President Cleveland's cabinet, was a great-grand-son. 
 Hon. Robert M. Furman, one of North Carolina's great- 
 est editors, was a lineal descendant of our Green Hill. 
 The list might be greatly extended and it would take m 
 men and women who, while not so prominent as some 
 who have been mentioned, are just as worthy represen- 
 tatives of the great and good man whose life is being 
 sketched. 
 
24 
 
 Green Hill 
 
 HIS PERSONALITY 
 
 Green Hill has been described as a man of dignified 
 bearing and polished manners. With his large wealth 
 and impressive character he did not fail to exert a strong 
 influence among his fellow men. His home was almost 
 ideal in that early day. He never failed to be the earnest 
 local preacher, intensely interested in the welfare and 
 growth of the beloved Methodism in whose establish^ 
 ment he had taken such a practical and earnest part. He 
 was a ready and fluent speaker and was fond of preach- 
 ing the fundamentals of the Christian faith — free grace, 
 free will, and individual responsibility. Rev. G. W. 
 Sneed, writing of him in the Lady's Companion of 
 August, 1849, said: ''His talents as a minister of the 
 Gospel, as I remember, were of a solid and useful char- 
 acter — not so much of a philosophical or metaphysical 
 cast, but of a plain, experimental and practical kind 
 addressing themselves to the understanding and feelings 
 of all classes, enforcing moral obligation and duty with 
 power upon the conscience. He understood and highly 
 prized our doctrines and usages, and was sufficiently 
 versed in polemical divinity to successfully combat the 
 errors of infidelity and deism, and completely to refute 
 false doctrine." 
 
 Bishop Paine had this to say of Green Hill: 'The 
 writer knew him well and spent the first night of his 
 itinerant life at his house in 1817, and can never forget 
 the Godly counsel and fatherly treatment he received 
 from this venerable man during the first years of his 
 ministry. And as his early life had been distinguished 
 by integrity, patriotism and piety, so his old age was 
 venerable and useful. There is a moral beauty and sub- 
 limity in the gradual decline of a truly good and noble 
 old man, who, passing away full of years, ripe in wisdom 
 and rich in grace, descends serenely and triumphantly 
 into the grave amidst the regrets and veneration of 
 society." 
 
 Green Hill died September 11, 1826, at his home at 
 Liberty Hill. Far away from Old Bute County among 
 
Green Hill 
 
 25 
 
 whose gently rolling hills he first saw the light, he sleeps 
 only a few hundred yards away from the house which 
 he built among the beautiful hills of Mid-Tennessee. 
 Near his dust in the rock-walled enclosure is the dust of 
 wife, sons, daughters, and grand children. As I stood 
 by his grave in the light of a golden October afternoon 
 not long ago, forgotten were the weather stains of a 
 century on the headstone, forgotten was the old house 
 swiftly passing into decay, forgotten were the first signs 
 of decay in the hectic flush of autumn on the forest that 
 billowed to the east. I thought only of life — the life of 
 the Republic which Green Hill had helped to establish; 
 the life of the great Church into which he had poured 
 his very life-blood ; the life of thousands who are feeling 
 his influence to-day, and of thousands who will feel it 
 in the years which are to come ; the life of that simple 
 Christian faith which had kept true and strong in peace 
 and in war, in youth and in old age. I seemed to see a 
 beautiful picture of Life — glorious Life — shining above 
 that old headstone with its moss obscured lettering, and 
 as I reverently gazed upon it, I repeated to myself a part 
 of the inscription found on the headstone of one com- 
 memorated in the monument-filled cathedral — the 11th 
 chapter of the Book of Hebrews : ''And he being dead 
 yet speaketh." His memory is a great Church's golden 
 heritage. He needs no monument of marble or bronze. 
 He still walks his rounds of service wherever Methodism 
 lights her altar fires, whether it be at home or in the 
 far-olT lands into which she is throwing her picket lines. 
 Her appreciation of such a man should find expression 
 in a memory which preserves and perpetuates the high 
 ideals of righteous civil government and of the kingdom 
 of our Conquering Christ. Happy would it be if the two 
 dwellings, one in North Carolina and the other in 
 Tennessee, whose doors were ever open to the homeless 
 Methodist preachers, could be kept through the years as 
 a concrete symbol of Methodism's undying interest in the 
 Methodist itinerant. 
 
Date Due 
 
 Form 335. 25M— 7-38— S 
 
975. 6 Z99F 192C-39~^~6 
 nos.1-12