History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Gershom H. Hill
GERSHOM H. HILL
GERSHOM H. HILL was born at Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa, May 8, 1846. He went to Grinnell in 1800 and was employed on the farm of Hon. J. B. Grinnell, the founder of the town and college. One night in June, 1861, young Hill drove a wagon load of escaping slaves from Grinnell's house, which was a station on the “underground railroad,” to Marengo, on their way to Canada and freedom. He obtained his education in the public schools and in 1863 began school teaching in Marshall County. Soon after he enlisted in the Forty-sixth Iowa Regiment and served under Colonel David B. Henderson. In 1865 Mr. Hill entered Grinnell College, graduating in 1871. He then began the study of medicine at the State University, and later at Rush Medical College, where he graduated. In 1875 he was chosen a physician in the Hospital for Insane at Independence, and in 1881 he was promoted to superintendent and has continued in that position up to the present time. His management of that institution has been marked for peculiar ability in the administration of its affairs. He writes for several medical journals and is a member of the leading medical associations of the country. He is a lecturer on insanity at the Medical Department of the State University, and is often called upon as an expert in that malady.