William James Hill was born in Lumberton, Robeson County, North Carolina in 1811.  He married Sarah Elizabeth Coleman.  She was born in Atlanta, Georgia on 7 September 1819.  They came to the Republic of Texas in 1837, settled first at the creek called New Years, at the Yeaga.  Land was granted to him on 4 January 1841, in what was then Milam County.  William was an attorney and served as District Clerk of Milam County and later in Burleson County after it was formed.  Caldwell was the county seat of both counties.  He also served as a Land Commissioner.

During Mirabeau B. Lamar’s term as President of the Republic of Texas, Congress granted four leagues of land (17,712 acres) to each county for the support of schools.  The Commissioners Court authorized William J. Hill to employ a surveyor to locate and survey the same.

My Grandmother, Sarah Hill Broaddus, died when my father was only five years of age, and he was reared by his grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth Coleman Hill, who lived a long and gracious life.  She died in 1901 and William J. Hill died in 1874.  They are both buried in the Old City cemetery in Caldwell, Texas.

I inherited a sampler that Sarah Elizabeth Coleman Hill made at the age of 9 years in 1828, also an oil painting of her, painted in the 1830’s.

Ann Broaddus & Stephanie Sale, Descendants