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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of Hugh F. HILLPOT 

Pages 214-215, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: AYERS, FRANKENFIELD, FRATZ, HILLPOT, LINCOLN, MOST, SUYDAM, VAN LIEW] 

    
HUGH F. HILLPOT. There is always a vast amount of interest felt in the private life of those brave men who gave up home, family and friends to fight for their country, and there undergo all the privations and hardships characteristic of a soldier's life. Such bravery is highly appreciated among all the civilized nations upon the earth and everybody feels an interest in hearing of the private life of a soldier, and especially of one who won such an enviable reputation as did the subject of our sketch, and who was numbered among "the boys" delegated to guard the corpse of Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated. 
    
Mr. Hillpot is the veteran dry-goods merchant of Fairview, having been engaged in business there ever since he came out of the army. His father, Jacob F. Hillpot, was a native of Bucks County, Pa., and followed the occupation of an agriculturist. He died at the age of fifty-five years. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Julia Frankenfield, was also native of Bucks County and was descended from an old Pennsylvania family. Her ancestors came in a very early day from Holland. She died at the age of thirty-three years, after having become the mother of six children, viz: Reed, who is a blacksmith and residing in Fairview; Hugh F., our subject; Jonas who was in the War of 1812, was a farmer and met his death accidentally by falling off a haymow; George is a painter and lives in Fairveiw; Lovina who died at the age of eighteen, and an infant. After the death of our subject's mother, Mr. Hillpot married Mary Most who bore him six children, four of whom lived to the age of manhood and womanhood; Mary Ellen, now Mrs. Fratz and residing in Philadelphia; Elizabeth who is married also resides in that city, as does also Jacob and Grier. 
    
Our subject was born in Bucks County, Pa., September 12, 1833, where he passed his youthful days on a farm until reaching his twenty-first birthday. He then commenced to learn the trade of a blacksmith and worked faithfully at it for three years in New Jersey. His brother, who was living in Fairview, wrote for our subject to join him and accepting the invitation, he reached Fairview November 22, 1857. He then engaged in the blacksmith business in partnership with his brother and a Mr. Ayers, and continued thus until 1861when the partnership was dissolved and the year following our subject enlisted in the army. He joined Company D, One Hundred and Third Infantry. They drilled at Fairview and Peoria and from the latter city in the fall of 1862, went through Bloomington and Cairo to Bolivar, Tenn., where they at once commenced skirmishing. They were next sent to La Grange, Tenn., and from that point to Holly Springs, thence to Waterford and reached Jackson, in the same State, where they wintered. 
    
Mr. Hillpot received a severe sunstroke while engaged in the siege of Vicksburg and was entirely unconscious for several weeks. His company was ordered to Corinth and Iuka, at which latter place Mr. Hillpot was again the victim of a sunstroke while building a fortification and was in the hospital at Memphis, Tenn., for some time but upon reaching St. Louis, Mo., was discharged from the regular service and assigned to the reserve corps--Company F. With his company he went to Washington, D. C., and upon the evening when President Lincoln was assassinated, they were called to assist the police in controlling the crowd. A few of the soldiers--our subject among the number--were selected to guard the body of our martyred President for three days and nights. At the close of the war he received his honorable discharge at Washington, July 18, 1865. 
    
February 28, 1866, Mr. Hillpot was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Van Liew, daughter of Cornelius and Mary (Suydam) Van Liew. Mrs. Hillpot came to Fairview with her two brothers who are prosperous farmers in this county. Of her union with our subject there have been born two children--John V. L., who is a graduate of the Galesburg Business College, has the entire charge of his father's store, and Elizabeth C., who is a charming young lady of eighteen years, makes her home with her parents. 
    
The Republican party numbers Mr. Hillpot as one of its stanch adherents, although previous to the war he was a Democrat. He is a charter member of Blair Post, G. A. R., at Fairview. Owing to ill-health brought about by the sunstroke received during the war, Mr. Hillpot is unable to take charge of his business, but finds a competent substitute in his son. He is an exceedingly popular man in the community and has accumulated a goodly amount of the "almighty dollar."