Mary Ann Hill

written by Jenniekz (posted on Ancestry.com 10 April 2012):

Mary Ann was born and grew up in Green River Cove. After her marriage, she kept a home and land in the cove. According to stories told in the family, she was a true, independent, self-reliant woman with a pioneer spirit. The family moved between both residences. Around 1880, when her parents were elderly and in poor health, she spent more time taking care of them. She was a midwife and "nurse," often called upon to tend the sick. The fact that she and some of the children are listed on the 1880 census twice, in Henderson and Polk, only signifies that the different census takers found her in both places. It does not mean that she and her husband were divorced. The children passed down stories of spending time at both places, with both parents moving between the residences. The will of Manson Carson Hill, her husband, leaves his property to his wife. This also dashes some "genealogists" speculation that they were divorced.

After the death of her husband, she lived in Polk County. The log home she lived in until her death was bought sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s and moved to the corner of U.S. 176 and Harmon Field Road in Tryon. A brochure and story on this cabin printed in a newspaper said it was an old slave cabin. This is not true. This was moved off her former property and is her cabin, as confirmed by her surviving granddaughters and grandsons who remembered it well and were inside it after it was moved to its present location.In addition to being a nurse and midwife, she was also paid money to write letters for people.In 1901, she and two of her sons bought 100 acres on Bright's Creek from Eliza Jackson, her daughter-in-law's mother.In 1902, she bought 100 acres in Coopers Gap Township from her son, daughter-in-law and Eliza Jackson.In 1904, she deeded land to her son, Waddell.Walker was the name of the post office for the area of Bright's Creek and Green River Cove. (see Lenoir Ray's book "Postmarks"). It was named for the postmaster, whose surname was Walker. It was only in existence for a short period of time, maybe 10 years.The letter she sent to her son in Idaho, noting Elishia Jones and Priscelley McCormick as the parents of her mother, was postmarked Walker, N.C., and the return letters to her from her son were addressed to the Walker post office. Walker was never a community. The post office served the residents of the Bright's Creek and Green River Cove communities in Polk County.

Some family trees have her married twice and have her listed as Mary Ann "Harriett." This is false. She never re-married and she never had or used the name of Harriett. She definitely did not marry Columbus Monroe Dalton. Columbus Monroe Dalton married her daughter, Happy Sylvany Hill. After the death of Happy Sylvany Hill, he married Matilda Pearl Jackson.