Dr. J. Lawrence Hill was a nineteenth-century man. Almost every man of the era had to diversify economically—farmers kept woodlots to sell wood, pigs to sell meat, cows to sell milk, and crops of all sorts to sell. Professionals had to diversify similarly. Dr. Hill spent most of his life in Adams County, where he was born. He started in the trades, working first as a tanner—a grueling trade full of chemicals, dead animals, and foul smells. He moved on to clock repair and watch making.

After years in this work, he went to school at the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia. When he returned to Gettysburg, he opened a dental practice in his home on Chambersburg Street.

He married Sarah Margaretta Witherow, also a lifelong Adams County resident, and together they had four boys and one girl. Dr. Hill sold dental products from his office and was one of the most prominent advertisers in all the local newspapers.

When the battle erupted, Dr. Hill no doubt pitched in to assist the wounded and dying, as did the rest of his family. We don’t have records of what their service entailed, but every home in town became a hospital, and those trained in medicine were in high demand.

Dr. Hill worked as an officer in a local temperance organization; he also was vice president over the county teachers’ convention.

The Hills raised their children to be professionals. Dr. Hill was friends with Professor Michael Jacobs of Gettysburg College; the Hill boys studied at Gettysburg College. William became a civil engineer, and for his first assignment, he helped with a survey of the Gettysburg battlefield in 1869. He later worked for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad for ten years before ill health sent him back home. He died of heart problems in his father’s office when he was just 46.

John Jr. became an attorney and practiced in the Gettysburg area for his whole professional life. He died at 77 and was hailed in the newspaper for his work in the community.

Mary Louisa Hill never married and died in the house on Chambersburg Street where she was born. The youngest, James Hill, followed in his father’s footsteps and became a prominent doctor. Like his sister, James died in the house he was born in.