The “peculiarly sad circumstances”, apparently a manic break in a bi-polar disorder, were reported for University of Chicago economics professor William Hill in 1894. I was able to trace much of the c.v. of this Harvard economics A.M. for today’s post. Apparently his last professional station was at Bethany College in West Virginia where his wife was able to get an appointment teaching history. I’ll keep my eyes open for more biographical information about William Hill (not an uncommon name). There were probably also episodes of depression in his life.
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HE GOES TO KANSAS.
PROF. HILL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO GIVEN A VACATION. [1894]
Peculiarly Sad Circumstances Said to Surround the Action of the Faculty in Giving Mr. Hill Chance to Rest and Recuperate – He Is Deeply Interested in Irrigation Affairs, and a Lecture Before the Political Economy Club is Stopped by Physicians.
Prof. William Hill of the University of Chicago has been granted vacation under peculiar and sad circumstances.
Mr. Hill, who is instructor in tariff history and railway transportation, lives in Graduate Hall, occupying Suite No. 16. In addition to his duties in the university, Prof. Hill has been greatly interested in a scheme for the irrigation of arid land in the western part of Kansas. He has always been noted for his studious habits, and, having perfected his plans for reclaiming the Kansas property, he has recently been trying to form a company to give them practical application. At 4 o’clock Thursday morning of last week Night Watchmen Wilson was making his last rounds through Graduate Hall. He had just put out the lights on the third floor and was just about to descend when he heard stealthy footsteps on the floor below.
“Who is there?” He called. “Hill,” was the answer.
Going down Wilson was met by Prof. Hill, who was partially undressed.
“Do you want to make some money?” He asked.
The watchmen expressed his willingness to get rich.
“I’ll show you how you can make thousands,” said the professor, leading the astonished man into his room. There he proceeded to outline his plan for irrigating the dry lands of Kansas and to talk glibly of the vast sums of money to be made in the work.
Wilson was impressed with the peculiar manner of the professor and reported it to his superior officer. The same evening in Cobb Hall Prof. Hill was scheduled to deliver an address before the Political Economy club. He kept his appointment and began his lecture, but before going far the rambling manner of his talk so alarmed his listeners that a physician was summoned, who forbade him to finish. Later the same night Pres. Harper of the university and Prof. Laughlin were driven to the rooms of Prof. Hill and had a conference over his condition. In view of the fact that Prof. Hill’s condition is not considered serious it was decided not to remove him from his rooms, his brother coming on to attend him. Wednesday Prof. Hill was granted a vacation by the faculty and started for his old home in Kansas where he will remain until he has entirely recovered his health.
One of the launchers in graduate Hall was awakened before daylight Tuesday by hearing the professor talking in a loud and disconnected way. He was laboring under the delusion, apparently, that the faculty did not properly understand his case. “The facts must be laid before the members in a proper way,” said Prof. Hill, “so that they will know all about it. I know I am ill. Of course I am ill, but if the thing is not done right who is to know it?”
“What the professor was saying,” said the one who overheard him last night, “and his manner of saying it was like that of a man in a delirium. He has been overworked and overexcited over something. Once I went into his room and found a stranger there with him. The stranger had some sort of a machine, which he was showing Prof. Hill. I understood it was something to be used for irrigating purposes. The interest the professor showed in it was intense.”
When a call was made on Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin last night the following conversation took place:
“It is said Prof. Hill, one of the instructors in your Department of Political Economy, is ill. Will you tell me how he is?”
“The report is utterly untrue, utterly untrue; Prof. Hill is away on his vacation.”
“Is there nothing the matter with him?”
“Nothing at all; the story is utterly untrue.”
[William Hill graduated from the University of Kansas in 1891 and spent the next year at Harvard where he took his masters degree under Dr. Taussig. At Harvard he also won the Lee Memorial Fellowship. He is the author of the American Economical Association monograph on “Colonial Tariffs.” He came to Chicago University in October, 1892 and has since then become popular with both students and faculty he is Acting President of the Political Economy club of the University and his known as a bicycle rider and tennis expert.]
Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 15 December 1894, p.1.
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Chicago Years
William Hill. Associate in Political Economy, 1893-94; Instructor, 1894-97; Assistant Professor, 1897-1908; Associate Professor, 1908-12.
Source: James Laurence Laughlin, Twenty-Five Years of the Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago. Chicago: Privately printed, 1916.
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Harvard Years
Resident Fellow
Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship, William Hill, A.B. (Univ. of Kansas) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, a student of Political Science.
Source:Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1890-91, p. 90. and Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 96.
Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship
For 1892-93: WILLIAM HILL, A.B. (Kansas State Univ.) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, A.M, (Ibid.) 1892. Res. Gr. Stud., 1891-93. II. year of incumbency and as a student in the School. Studied at this University. Withdrew at the close of the year, and is now Instructor in Political Economy at the University of Chicago.
Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1892-93, p. 125.
Harvard Publications
William Hill, Colonial Tariffs, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 7, Issue 1, October 1892, Pages 78–100.
William Hill, “The First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States,” Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 8 (1893), 452-614.
List of publications by William Hill at jstor.org.
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Bethany College, West Virginia
William Hill, A.B., A.M., Dean of Agriculture and Land Director.
Graduate of Friends’ Bloomingdale Academy,’ 87; Student in Earlham College [Richmond, Indiana], ’87-’88; Student in Kansas State University, ’88-’90; A.M., Harvard University, ’90-’93; Henry Lee Memorial Fellow in Harvard University, ’92-’93; Instructor in Economics in The University of Chicago, ’93-’95; Assistant Professor, ’95-’08; Associate Professor, ’08; Organizer and Director of the Agricultural Guild, ’08; Dean of Agriculture, Bethany, 1911 –
Wife: Caroline Miles Hill, A.M., PhD., Professor of History.
A.B., Earlham College, 1887; Teacher in Friends Bloomingdale Academy, 1887-1889; A.M., Michigan State University, 1890; Fellow in History, Bryn Mawr College, 1890-1891; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1892; Professor of History and Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, 1892-1893; Professor of History, Wellesley College, 1893-1895; Studied in Europe, 1895-1896; Engaged in Educational and Social Work in Chicago, 1896-1910; Principal of Friends Bloomingdale Academy, 1910-1912; Professor, Bethany, 1912 —
Source: Bethany College Bulletin, 1912 and 1913, p.8.
Source for marriage
Hill, William: s. 87-88; m. Caroline Miles, A 1887; l. add. Chicago, Ill.
Source: Who’s Who Among Earlhamites 1916, p. 82.
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Caroline Miles Hill, Instructor in History, ’93-’95, has recently published a valuable anthology, “The World’s Greatest Religious Poetry” [Macmillan, 1923].
Source: The Michigan Alumnus. Vol 33 (1926-27), p. 127.