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Henry Gladstone Hill was born March
14, 1877, to William James and Annie Glover Hill in London where his father
and uncle owned and operated Hill Brothers Construction. In 1893, Henry,
his parents and his brother, William Glover Hill, came to Shasta County.
They purchased forty acres in Churn Creek Bottom where they planted an
orchard and built a house, hauling lumber from Shingletown. The 160 acres
they homesteaded on Battle Creek near Viola was their summer home. In the
early 1900's, they sold this property and bought a place at Sweetbriar,
south of Castella.
Henry "Harry" worked in the
saw mills around Shingletown and Viola. In 1901, on his day off, Harry
walked to Redding to buy life insurance for his mother. John William Hare
who owned the agency and sold him the insurance was astounded at Harry's
round trip on foot. He offered Harry a job and in July 1902, the firm became
Hare and Hill Insurance.
Edith Ida Ashcraft was born
in Galva. Kansas, January 1, 1881. to Aldis Isaac and Clara Ashcraft. In
1885, Edith, her parents and sister, Pearl went to the Spokane area of
Washington. In 1895, the family, with baby sister Faye, left Washington
by wagon. Edith rode horseback over the still snowy Siskiyou Mountains
to arrive in Redding on the Fourth of July.
Aldis opened a blacksmith shop
in Redding and later (1909) in French Gulch. He had the first electrified
shop north of Sacramento.
Edith was in the first four
year class at Shasta High School, then newly located at the corner of West
and Placer. She gave the valedictory speech at the first graduation ceremony
in 1903. Although offered a Regent Scholarship to the University of California
at Berkeley. Edith chose to teach stenography and typing at Shasta County
High School from 1903 to1906.
On August 1, 1906, Edith and
Harry were married. They had three sons:
| Eric | b. 1907 | A retired Electrical Engineer in Bass Harbor, ME |
| Clair | b. 1909 | Co-founder of CH2MHill |
| Rolf | b. 1912 | d. March 1920 in an accident. |
Harry was killed in a one-car
accident driving from Sweetbriar to Redding, August 11, 1920, just five
months after Rolf's death.
Edith took over the Hare and
Hill Insurance Agency and helped Eric and Clair through Stanford University.
In 1945. she sold the business to Clark R. Nye; the firm is now known as
Insurance Associates.
Source: Shasta Historical Society
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