Notes:
After his wifes death Giles married her sister Olive - Family
Group Record - Film Nr. 5028938 Page 12-2
Moved to Allegan Co., MI in 1837 - "The Detroit Society
for Genealogical Research Magazine" vol. 23:39
CROSSED THE PLANES IN 1859
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Giles H. Hill Was One of the Early Pioneers of This Section -
His Death Occurred Thursday Night - Brief Sketch of His Eventful
Life - He was Farmer, Lumberman, Landlord, Miner, and Mail
Carrier. Giles H. Hill died at his home on section 19, this
township, Thursday night about eleven o'clock. He had been ill
many months, though not at all times confined to the house. He
had been a familiar figure in this township the past forty years
or more and was well known all over the county. He was born in
Richland township, Oswego county, N.Y., Nov 14, 1816 and was
therefore eighty-one years old on his last birthday anniversary.
Few men lived to such great age who pass through the hardships
of pioneer experiences similar to those which came to him. His
father came to Michigan in 1827, when he was about eleven years
old, and to Allegan county in 1852, settling on section 24
Pineplanes township. Two years later his father died, while on
his way to Grandville, and at which place his mother passed away
in 1884. At the age of eighteen years Mr. Hill began trading
with the Indians at Grand Rapids, then a small hamlet. He became
proficient in use of the Indian language, and spent a number of
winters in eastern Michigan buying furs and exchanging goods for
the same. Three and a half years he carried mail between Grand
Rapids and Kalamazoo, a distance of sixty-five miles, making the
trip on horseback the first three months and later in a buggy,
when he took passengers also. He afterward drove a stage coach
in company with Orlando Pierce. He was in a hotel at Yankee
Springs two years, in similar employment at Otsego nearly five
years, and then became clerk in the Allegan house at Allegan
which position he filled a number of years, and then purchased
the hotel. He remained proprietor a number of years, engaging in
the lumber business at the same time. After disposing of the
hotel Mr. Hill removed to section 24, Pineplains, where he had
400 acres of unimproved land. In order to reach it he was
obliged to cut a road through the woods and afterward cleared a
place for a shanty, lumber for which he brought down the
Kalamazoo river on a raft and then carried it up the hill on his
back. While on the new farm he carried mail two years between
Allegan and Saugatuck. He afterward left the farm and went to
Singapoor to conduct a hotel for the late Senator Stockbridge,
and while there superintended the erection of a large hotel on
his property in Pineplanes, of which he was Proprietor from
December, 1857, until 1877. In 1859, leaving the hotel in charge
of his wife, he crossed the plains to California with a span of
fine horses. A year was passed there, locating mines in the
summer and managing a restaurant in the winter. Returning to
Allegan, he remained three months and went again to the Golden
state, staying nine years. Three years he was superintendent of
a mine at a salary of $10 per day, and at one time could have
sold a mine in which he was interested for $100,000, but refused
the offer. Coming home from the west, he followed farming until
1879, when he removed to the farm where his death occurred.
Politically he was a Democrat, and had been justice of the
peace, supervisor, township clerk, and overseer of highways. He
was married Nov. 2, 1846 to Mitilda M. Muma, who died Sept. 4,
1871. His second wife was Olive C. Muma, a sister to his first.
The funeral will be held from the Episcopal church this
afternoon at one o'clock.
Data source was the Muma Family Tree website which is no longer active.