The Late
Levi Gerrish
Hill, M. D.
For half a century Dr. Hill was identified with Dover,; his interest and activity never flagging from the time of his coming in 1848, to his death in 1898.
To the most remarkable degree he escaped the infirmities of age, continuing his professional duties to within one month of his decease. His tall figure and stately coutesy seemed a part of Dover.
Dr. Hill was a thorough New Englander, whose ancestors were conspicuous in the early history of the colony: Elder Hatevill Nutter, Thomas Leighton, John Hill of New Hampshire, Henry Sewall, Stephen Dummer and Captain William Gerrish of Massachusetts were his grandfathers in the 17th century. Chief Justice Samuel Sewall was his kinsman, and also Lt. Gov. William Dummer. He was the son of Andrew Neal and Sally (Leighton) Hill and was born in Strafford, N. H., July 7th, 1812.
His boyhood was spent on his father's farm-attending the district school till the age of fifteen, after which he attended Newmarket and Gilmanton Academies.
Deciding upon the medical profession he attended three full courses of lectures at Dartmouth Medical College and was graduated there-from in 1838.
The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1883.
Immediately after graduation Dr. Hill began practice at Salisbury, N. H. Two years later he established himself in Norfolk, Va., where resided his only brother, Capt. Andrew Leighton Hill. In Norfolk he acquired a good practice but his fondness for New England impelled him to return to New Hampshire.
The Medical Societies of the City, County and State, had in Dr. Hill an active and progressive member. He was president of the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1869, and president of its board of trustees from the establishment of that Board. He was president of the Dover Medical Society in 1854; president of the Strafford District Medical Society in 1862; permanent member of the American Medical Association; vice president in 1881; president of the Examining Board under the registration law of New Hampshire during the first ten years of its existence, 1878 to 1888; honorary member of the Portsmouth Medical Society, and of the Maine Medical Association.
On November 13th, 1893, he was elected president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of S. E. New Hampshire.
Dr. Hill was a Mason-member of Strafford Lodge since June, 1856. In November, 1849, he joined the Wecohamet Lodge of Odd Fellows. He joined the First Parrish church of Dover, May 6, 1877.
Dr. Hill was married July 30, 1838, to Abigail Burnham, daughter of the late Samuel Shackford, Esq., a woman of remarkable beauty and strength of character whose death on October 24th, was deeply mourned by a wide circle.
Their children are: Clara A., wife of the late George F. French, A. M. M.D., of Minneapolis, Minn., surgeon United State volunteers and personal staff surgeon of Gen. U. S. Grant; Abby A., wife of Maj. William N. Meserve, then in command of Forts Barnard and Albany, near Washington, D. C., having previously served on the field as captain of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts infantry; Adelaide Shackford, wife of Rev. James M. Buckley, LL.D., of Morristown, N. J.; and Margaret Leighton, deceased, wife of Seth M. Milliken of New York City.
SOURCE:
Nye A. E. G., Dover, New Hampshire, Its History and Industries Issued as an Illustrated Souvenir in Commoration of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Foster's Daily Democrat: Descriptive of the City and its Manufacturing and Business Interests (Geo J. Foster & Co, 1898), page 69-70; digital images, Google Book (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 November 2015