Benjamin was the son of Stephen & Maryem (Martin) Hill. Father Stephen was reportedly the first settler to homestead what was to become Concord Township, Delaware County, OH, and Hill Cemetery is situated on a portion of that homestead. Young Benjamin was brought to Delaware County from Westmorelend County, PA, by his parents in about 1811 to live in a log cabin built by Stephen. Benjamin later recounted the following to the compilers of the 1880 "History of Delaware County and Ohio": "The woods were full of wolves which, in a long hard winter driven wild by cold and famine, would come often at night and jump against my father's cabin door in vain endeavors to break through. Many and many a night we children would huddle closer together in bed and cover our heads with the bedclothes when we heard the sound of the wolves around the cabin, shuddering, as they made the night hideous with their dismal howls - the lullaby most common to the children of the frontier." Benjamin reportedly became quite a recluse in later life. He, two of his siblings, and a nephew became collectively known as the "Hermits of Concord Township." They lived in and around a stone house near Hill Cemetery and some reports indicate that they did not leave the Hill property for some 40 years - having whatever few "necessities" they could neither grow nor kill brought to them by their neighbors!
Benjamin was the son of Stephen & Maryem (Martin) Hill. Father Stephen was reportedly the first settler to homestead what was to become Concord Township, Delaware County, OH, and Hill Cemetery is situated on a portion of that homestead. Young Benjamin was brought to Delaware County from Westmorelend County, PA, by his parents in about 1811 to live in a log cabin built by Stephen. Benjamin later recounted the following to the compilers of the 1880 "History of Delaware County and Ohio": "The woods were full of wolves which, in a long hard winter driven wild by cold and famine, would come often at night and jump against my father's cabin door in vain endeavors to break through. Many and many a night we children would huddle closer together in bed and cover our heads with the bedclothes when we heard the sound of the wolves around the cabin, shuddering, as they made the night hideous with their dismal howls - the lullaby most common to the children of the frontier." Benjamin reportedly became quite a recluse in later life. He, two of his siblings, and a nephew became collectively known as the "Hermits of Concord Township." They lived in and around a stone house near Hill Cemetery and some reports indicate that they did not leave the Hill property for some 40 years - having whatever few "necessities" they could neither grow nor kill brought to them by their neighbors!
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