Orlie Hill

Zoah and Orlie Hill

He is a bit of a side story in our family tree, but Orlie Hill had a time in the headlines that represents one of the more dramatic in our family history.  Mr. Hill was the husband of Zoah Hill (nee Hunter), Leon Hunter’s aunt.  Zoah was twelve years older than Leon’s father John Hunter, but her move with her husband to California likely influenced the path that John took as he made decisions on how best to provide for his young family in the economic crisis of the 1930s.  Thus, the joining of the Hunters and the Stidhams could hinge on this story.

Orlie Hill’s origins are not well known.  He comes to us from the archives in a dramatic 1909 headline of a murder in Moweaqua, Illinois.

            

The ‘facts’ changed over time.  The shooting occurred on Wednesday night March 10, with Scarlett dying at 8 a.m. of the day of publishing.  Leon Scarlett, a local miner and a noted member of the local baseball team, had been at the theater run by Hill.  Scarlett and two friends were sitting on the back of their chairs.  Hill told them to get down into their seats, and later, after they became noisy, Hill gave them their admission money and told them to leave.  Scarlett was on the steps leaving the theater and asked Hill to give him more money.  Hill ‘in a rage’ kicked him in the back.  Scarlett came back at Hill who had gone back into the theater.  Witnesses outside and inside the theater heard a shot.  Scarlett came out of the theater wounded in the stomach.  He was rushed to St. Mary’s Hospital in nearby Decatur.   An attorney was sent to St. Mary’s to take the deposition of Scarlett concerning the shooting.  Strangely, the attorney stated that the testimony he heard from Scarlett would not likely stand in court because it was ‘incomplete and given in such painful circumstances.’

Within the March 15 report are some details about Orlie Hill.  He is said to have come originally from Staunton, a small town seventy miles southwest of Moweaqua and 120 miles northwest of West Frankfort.  Hill had operated the theater since the fall of 1908.  The two paragraphs from the The Daily Review, Decatur, Illinois, Friday Evening, March 12, 1909 are transcribed below. Updates from the paper are in Images 2-4.

ABOUT ORLIE HILL

Orlie Hill originally came from Staunton.  Not much is known of him in Moweaqua.  He has been there since last fall, running his Nickelodeon.  He has been popular and made the theater pay.  He is said to be a man of some wealth.

Hill was formerly a dry goods merchant at Staunton.  He has two saloons at Carlinville and a drug store at West Frankfort.  He conducted a moving picture show in Pana and others in Taylorville, Stonington and Morrisonville, at different times.

Image 2-4.  From the March 16, March 24, and April 22 The Daily Review.

The dramatic end to the story came at the trial held later in May.  A witness for the defense, W. H. Hayes, testified that Scarlett came after Hill with a knife. Hayes said he picked up the knife that Scarlett dropped after he was shot.    

Image 5 & 6.  From May 17 and May 18, 1909, The Daily Review, Decatur, Illinois.

Image 7.  “NOT GUILTY” headline from the May 19, 1909 front page of The Daily Review, Decatur, Illinois.

Additional references to Orlie Hill – Orlie’s name can be found after 1909.  In the Annual Report of the State Board of Pharmacy of Illinois, Volume 31, on page 62 is listed Orlie Hill as representing West Frankfort at the October 21-25, 1912 meeting of the State Board of Pharmacy of Illinois (Image 8).  In the same volume he is listed as receiving an ‘Apprentice’ certificate in 1912.

Image 8.  From 31^st Annual Report of the State Board of Pharmacy of Illinois, 1912

In 1916, Orlie Hill is listed as an ‘Appellee’ against Terre Haute Brewing Company in the Fourth District Illinois Appellate Court abstracts of Cases

Image 9.  From Fourth District Illinois Appellate Court Abstracts of Cases, published 1917.

Marriage and move to California – Searches of Illinois and California databases did not return any record of the marriage of Orlie Hill and Zoah Hunter.  There is reference from the 1930 U.S. census about the two in South Pasadena (Image 10).  The value of the property is listed at $20,000, (about $275,000 adjusted for inflation); the website Zillow.com gave an estimated value for the property in 2016 at $2,500,000.

Image 10. From 1930 Census for 412 Oaklawn Avenue, South Pasadena, California

Leon Hunter has memories of visiting his Aunt Zoah in the Pasadena house when he was a young boy.  We have listed Orlie’s death as 1932, though there is no record to cite. 

The next reference available on a web search is Zoah’s residence, as a widow living at 102 W. Oak Avenue in West Frankfort, Illinois.  In the census it is stated that her residence in 1935 was ‘the same place.’  An obituary in the Friday, August 27, 1976 Southern Illinoisan lists her death as occurring on August 26 at Franklin Hospital in Benton.

Who was Orlie Hill?  How did he marry Zolah?  What motivated them to move to South Pasadena?  Did their move influence John Whiteford?  These questions may never be answerable.  Somehow I suspect the events in Orlie Hill’s life affected his decisions, and thus, may have been important in his move to South Pasadena.  Insofar as this is true, that encounter with Leon Scarlett and the subsequent trial had consequences beyond what anyone could imagine.