Lee County Biography

Hilla L. Hilleson

Hilla L. Hilleson, farmer, Lee County, eldest son of Lars and Augusta (Swanson) Hilleson, was born in Sublette township, this county. May 15, 1857. His father, a brother to Ommon Hilleson, the first Norwegian settler in Lee county, emigrated from Norway in the same party with Lars L. Risetter, in 1847. A brother and sister accompanied him all the way to Lee Center.

These were taken sick with cholera, and as everybody was afraid to go near, the care of them fell on him, and his whole time was divided between the work he had to do and his attentions to them. He had $100 when he arrived, but this was soon spent for the sick, and at last both died. By proper precautions he was prevented from taking the disease.

But the saddest office was the last, a painful one, when he had to give his own brother and sister sepulture without assistance. The next year, in partnership with his brother Ommon, he rented ground and sowed seventy acres of oats and planted twenty acres of corn. The oats these two cradled, and the whole crop they hauled to Chicago after it was harvested. From this crop he got a little start, and after working with his brother a few years got a piece of land in Sublette.

Finally he married, and lived in that township until about 1866, when he came to Willow Creek, where he now lives. Hilla, his son, was married March 15,1877, to Miss Bertha K. Winterton, who was born in Bergen stift (state), Norway, in 1857. She emigrated with her parents Allen O. and Bertha P. (Espy) Winterton, in 1872.

Mr. and Mrs. Hilleson belong to the Norwegian Lutheran church, and are the parents of two children: Augusta Louisa and Betsy Margaretta.

Transcribed by Christine Walters

http://genealogytrails.com/ill/lee/leebioshillesonh.html

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1860 U.S. census (wrongly listed as Henry)

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