Charles Hill, born September 12, 1849, in Toronto, Canada, was a notable pioneer and respected businessman in Springfield, Bon Homme County, South Dakota. Hill moved west in 1873 to work for the U.S. government, serving at the Santee Indian agency for 17 years, including five as Indian agent. In 1890, he co-founded the Bank of Springfield with George W. Snow and Reuben Groot. A committed Republican and member of the Society of Friends, Hill was also active in Freemasonry and other fraternal organizations. He married Mary Webster in 1877, and they had five children: Emma, Howard, Clarence, Helen, and William.
Charles Hill merits consideration in this work for many reasons, being one of the honored pioneers of the state, a citizen of sterling character and a successful and prominent business man of Springfield, Bon Homme County, where he has been identified with the banking business since the year 1890, while he early came to the territory of Dakota as an employee of the government in the maintaining of the Indian agencies. He is familiarly known as Major Hill and is a man whose popularity in his section of the state is of the most unequivocal order. Mr. Hill was born in the city of Toronto, Canada, on the 12th of September, 1849, being a son of George L. and Mary (McKinzie) Hill, who were cousins. Both were consistent exponents of the faith of the Society of Friends, in which they had been reared, and their lives exemplified this faith in all ways.
Charles Hill was reared to manhood in his native city, having received his educational discipline in the excellent schools of Toronto, while he had learned the trade of millwright and had also secured excellent training in the office of a local architect. He continued to reside in Toronto until 1873, when he came to the west in the employ of the United States government. The peace policy promulgated by President Grant in 1871 brought up the question of placing the Indians of the west in charge of various religious bodies, and the Society of Friends, at their general yearly meeting, manifested some hesitancy in accepting the responsibility which would be placed upon them in this connection, and therefore asked that the government select a number of its employees from their members rather than ask them to assume more exacting responsibility, and it was in compliance with this request that Major Hill was chosen. Accordingly, in 1873, he came to the territory of Dakota as an official at the Santee Indian agency, where he remained about seventeen years, during five years of which time he served as Indian agent, rendering most capable service. In 1890 he came to Springfield, where he associated himself with Hon. George W. Snow and Hon. Reuben Groot in the establishing of a banking business, which has since been successfully conducted under the title of the Bank of Springfield, the institution being ably managed upon the highest business principles, having an ample capitalistic support and proving a valuable addition to the business interests of the town and surrounding country, while the interested principals command the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who know them. In politics Mr. Hill gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and he clings to the religious faith in which he was reared, both he and his wife being members of the local organization of the Society of Friends at Monroe, Nebraska. He is an appreciative member of the time-honored fraternity of Freemasonry, in which he has passed the various degrees of the York Rite, except those of the commandery, and has attained also the degrees of the Scottish Rite, being a member of Yankton Consistory, No. 1, being elected most worshipful grand master in 1901, while he also holds membership in the adjunct Order of the Eastern Star, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Daughters of Rebekah.
On the 11th of June, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Major Hill to Miss Mary Webster, a daughter of Joseph Webster, of Philadelphia, who was at that time an Indian agent in South Dakota, and of this union have been born five children, namely: Emma, Howard J., Clarence, Helen, and William Webster, all of whom remain at the parental home except Howard, who resides in Monroe, Nebraska.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.