Charles D. Hill, formerly of the firm Hill, Pike & Co., wholesale grocers of Calais, Washington County, was born in this city, August 7, 1851, son of Daniel and Elmira (Quincy) Hill. His grandfather, Abner Hill, was one of the early settlers and pioneer lumbermen of St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Through his maternal grandfather, Edmund Quincy, of Portland, he was a descendant of the famous Massachusetts family of that name.
Daniel Hill was born in Milltown, New Brunswick, in 1804. When a young man he started in the lumber manufacturing business in Milltown, where he was located for a number of years. Then he transferred his mills to Baring, having his office and wharves in this city. A short time before his death he established the Hill Planing Mill Company. His business ability and progressive tendencies were of much benefit to this locality. Elmira Hill, his wife, became the mother of six children, five of whom lived to maturity; namely, Frank H., Albert Q., Fred M., Charles D., and Edmund Q. Hill. The father was a member of the Universalist church, and the mother was a Congregationalist.
Charles D. Hill was a pupil of the public schools, Calais Academy, Westbrook Seminary, General Russell’s Military School in New Haven, Conn., and Yale College. After leaving Yale he entered the Calais National Bank as a clerk, in which capacity he served for four years. Then he took a similar position with Willard B. King, an importer in St. Stephen. In 1887 he and others bought the business of Mr. King, and under the style of C. D. Mill & Co. carried it oil for about seven years, during which time a branch store was opened in Calais. When the firm dissolved in 1894, Mr. Hill formed a partnership with W. H. Pike, and purchased the Calais store, which was afterward conducted until recently by Hill, Pike & Co. This firm, perhaps, transacted the largest wholesale grocery business in the city, and was a direct importer of West India goods, teas, etc. The senior partner was one of the original projectors of the Calais Street Railway and a member of its Board of Directors.
Mr. Hill married Helen Greenwood King, a daughter of the late Willard B. King, of this city. In politics he was a Republican; and for the two years preceding his death he was a member of the Board of Aldermen, serving as the chairman of the Committee on Sewers. A Mason of high standing, he belonged to St. Croix Lodge and Chapter, Delta Lodge of Perfection at Machias, and Kora Temple of the Mystic Shrine in Lewiston; and he was Eminent Commander of Hugh de Payens Cornmandery, Knights Templar, of this city. As a business man of unusual energy and enterprise he had the esteem and confidence of many people. Of this fact his appointment as a trustee of the Granville Chase estate was one of many proofs. He attended the Congregational church. When he died, April 30, 1898, the event was deplored as a public loss.
Source: Biographical review: containing life sketches of leading citizens of Somerset, Piscataquis, Hancock, Washington, and Aroostook counties, Maine. Boston: Biographical Review Publishing Company, 1898.