The University of Iowa Libraries

Catherine Snedeker Hill was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Samuel and Harriet (Sunderland) Snedeker and moved as an infant to Jersey County, Illinois, where her family farmed. She was educated at Monticello Female Seminary in Monticello, Illinois and moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, after marrying William Hill (1834-1896), a local merchant, on May 10, 1870. Their three children were: John (b. April 5, 1871); Irma (b. December 11,1875); and Harriet (b. March 19, 1878 and married to Allen Ott). Catherine Hill died in 1890.

The Catherine Snedeker Hill papers cover the years 1854 to 1871 and measure 6 linear inches.

The core of the collection is a series of letters, most of which were written to Catherine by her mother and close friends while she was attending Monticello Female Seminary in Monticello, Illinois. According to the school catalogue, Catherine was a senior in 1862. Primarily, these letters detail family matters and local news and provide a rich view of daily concerns. A few references to Abraham Lincoln, Illinois politics and the Civil War are revealed in some of these letters. (See folder listing).

Other items included in the collection are an 1862 catalogue from Monticello Female Seminary which describes the course of studies, textbooks, general requirements, educational goals, rules and regulations, and expenses for that institution; copies of family biographical information from local histories; and an 1876 business ledger from William Hill's store in Mount Pleasant. A newspaper article about the Hill home, from the Mount Pleasant News, March 26,1961, written at the time the house was being razed, includes transcriptions of letters William Hill wrote to Catherine in 1871 while she was in Illinois visiting her family with their newborn son. These letters concern the construction of their home in Mount Pleasant.

A partial calendar finding aid prepared by a member of the Special Collections staff gives brief descriptions of many of these individual letters. It is filed at the beginning of the collection.

Access: The papers are open for research.

Use: Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to The University of Iowa.

Acquisition: The papers (donor no. 10) were donated by Oneita Fisher in 1974.

Preferred Citation: Catherine Snedeker Hill papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

Repository:	Iowa Women's Archives
Address:	100 Main Library University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5068
Curator:	Kären Mason
Email:	lib-women@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Personal Names:
Hill, Catherine Snedeker
Hill, William, 1834-1896

Corporate Names:
Monticello Female Seminary

Dates:
1850-1859
1860-1869
1870-1879

Topics:
Family life
Local history
American Civil War, 1861-1865
Rural women
Rural families

Occupations:
Homemakers
College students

Geographic Names:
Mount Pleasant (Iowa)
Monticello (Ill.)

Genre/Form of Materials:
Archives
Correspondence
Personal papers

Browse:
Nineteenth Century Women
Rural and Farm Women
Women in Wartime