Person Page 531

Researcher Harold Rayburn Hill states:

The Hills and allied families were among those who settled the West. They were pioneers. They and their forebears migrated from the Eastern part of the United States to Alabama, Texas and beyond.
Green Berry Hill and the Iveys are know to have migrated from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

in 1871, Ivy Hill led a group of family members from Eastern Alabama to Cass County, TX. The trip to Texas was about 600 miles. Two of his sons, Seaborn and Willam Green Berry, had migrated to Texas in the 1860's. Seaborn was in Cass County and William Green Berry was in Lamar County.

They traveled by wagon, horses and mules. They were hardy and self-sufficient.

One can only speculate about the reasons to migrate. It is likely they thought to escape the aftermath of the Civil War. They likely sought cheap, fertile land. A sense of adventure may have motivated them.

On arrival in Texas, they had to build homes, craft furniture and clear and prepare land for farming.

Ivy Hill purchased five square miles (1/2 league or 2214 acres) of land from L.E. Watson, according to a deed dated December 21, 1874 for "ten hundred dollars". Having grown up farming (with mules) a part of the tract of land, and haveing travled of Cleburne and Randolph Counties in Alabama, Ivy must have been thrilled to view the low rollings hills of Cass County, TX. That tract of land in TX also included large amount of "bottom land" that could produce in excess of a bale of cotton per acre. There was also an abundance of virgin pine and hardwood timber that could be milled for building purposes.
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Ivy Hill, son of Green Berry Hill and Martha Ivie Hill, was born the 6th of November 1810, in Randolph (now Jasper) County, Georgia. Ivy grew up in Jasper County, where he fell for Miss Lucy Jones.
It seems the feeling was mutual, but legend tells us there was difficulty. The Jones were of Methodist religion and had large slave holdings, while the Hills were of Baptist faith and didn't believe in slavery.
Lucy, daughter of William Jones and Emelia Hurd (Patterson) Jones, slipped away from her home and joined the Baptist Church, because she wanted to marry Ivy. She was almost disinherited for this act against her family. However, a forgiving father and mother accepted it, when Justice of the Peace, Elisha G. Crawford, read the marriage rites for Ivy Hill and Lucy Jones on the 27th day of October, 1830.
Lucy's father gave her some slaves as a wedding gift, but her new husband was adamant in his belief and refused the gift of slaves for his household.
Ivy and Lucy moved from Jasper County, Georgia in January of 1835, going across to Fayette County, Georgia, to a place about 30 miles southeast from Atlanta. They remained in Fayette County until 1848, when they then continued the trip westward moving to Randolph County, Alabama. They lived in the part of Randolph County that later became Cleburne County, Alabama.
In the fall of 1870, a caravan of families, led by an able leader and overseer, Ivy Hill, left Cleburne County, Alabama. Among those families were several of Ivy and Lucy's children. The caravan of wagons, drawn by horses and mules, moved westward across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and into Cass County, Texas arriving December the 1st, 1870.
They bought land thick with pine trees that had to be cleared before crops could be planted. Several sawmills in the area were beneficial to them during this time.
Lucy Hill seems to be remembered as the community doctor. She always had her little medicine bag and went about on an old mule when called to aid those in need.
Ivy hill died in Cass County, Texas the 22nd day of August, 1886, just 76 days shy of his 76th birthday.
Lucy did very well without the aid of the slaves offered when she married Ivy Hill, for she had 18 children, in addition to all other hardships during those pioneering years. She was born the 3rd of June, 1813, in Jasper County, Georgia and died the 16th day of June, 1900, in Cass county, Texas at age 87.
Both Ivy and Lucy are buried in the Watson Cemetery, located near the place where they settled in Cass County Texas, now the Huffines Community.

Tombstone Inscriptions:

Ivy….. "What to me is life without thee -
Darkness and despair - alone -
When with sighs we seek to find thee
This tomb proclaims that thou art gone"

Lucy "She was a good
Christian Woman."

She and Ivy apparently had a difficult romance because the Jones family were Methodists and had large slave holdings and the Hills were Baptist and did not believe in slavery.
The story goes, Lucy slipped away from home to marry Ivy and she joined the Baptist Church.
Her parents threatened to disinherit her, but eventually accepted the marriage.

War of 1812 - drummer, Wootton's Detachment, Georgia Militia
Florida Indian Wars - Enlisted 12/28/1837, private, 13th Regiment, 1st Battalion, Florida Mounted Militia.

It is suspected that she died young.