A WAR OF 1812 VETERAN
who served in the following battles:
• The Battle of Bladensburg
• The Battle of North Point
• The Battle of Baltimore

Biography: Old '76er who also fought in the War of 1812. Was present at the Battle of North Point, despite the fact that he was heavily under the weather! The muster roll for Samuel Sterrett's company explicitly notes that he was sick, though his zealous patriotism apparently outweighed his sickness as his ill health was not enough to deter him from reporting to the field for battle. He was elected to the Ancient and Honorable Mechanical Company of Baltimore in 1792 and the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Equitable Society in 1796. During the 1810s he served as one of the Baltimore City Commissioners in charge of laying out the city's modern street-grid system in conjunction with Thomas Poppleton's Plan. In 1813, Gov. Levin Winder & The Council of Maryland appointed him an Inspector of the Penitentiary, and a Justice of the Peace. In 1815, he was elected president of the Friendship Fire Company (Engine No. 3—founded in 1785). He also served on the Company's Standing Committee and Board of Directors. In 1820, he was elected to the Board of Directors for the City Bank of Baltimore. Hillen Street & Hillen Road were named in his honor.

His obituary from the 15 August 1840 edition of The Baltimore Sun:

Obituary.—Died in this city, on the 11th inst., Mr. John Hillen, in the 79th year of his age.
Thus has one of the most venerated and valued citizens passed off the stage of life, in the full maturity of his years and virtues.
Mr. Hillen was a native of Maryland, where his family is one of the oldest. For nearly half a century he has lived in Baltimore, and has seen it grow up from a comparatively small village into its present population and wealth. One of its patriarchs, (and but few of them now remain,) he has observed and watched the growth of its prosperity, and remembered and recited to his latest hour, all the events and changes which attended its early settlement.
On the very spot where he played in boyhood, amid green trees and running streams, there arose under his eye the most splendid edifices and thronging avenues of business and commerce. Often has the writer of this notice been delighted with the accurate and interesting details he gave of those by-gone days—of the men and measures which had contributed to the prosperity and glory of Baltimore. The witness and participant of two wars, Mr. Hillen had early imbibed those lofty and enduring Whig principles of the Revolution which lay at the foundation of our political liberty, and by an unfaltering and stern devotion to them, they became indeed a part of his character, influencing to the last his opinions, and giving weight to his counsels. Though his career was an unobtrusive one, and his duties were confined to private life, still it may be truly said of him, that his consistency and love of order and law, enforced by a remarkable degree of moral firmness and benevolence, made him a patriot of the Old School—
"As Aristides just—as Cato pure."
One whose simple and primitive public spirit remained unchanged, and whose character was unstained by the ever-changing times and the corrupting influences of the present day. The fashion of his mind and heart, like the habit of his dress, continued unaltered; and though occasionally his rebuke of private and public depravity might appear harsh and unsparing, yet after all, apart from his peculiar temper, and at the foundation of his character, there was a charity of the most expanded kind, which warmed and cheered in its own way, and by its many efforts, the path of the desolate and the miserable.
Connected with many of our most benevolent institutions, Mr. Hillen was always to be found at his post, ready to do his duty—and well and faithfully has he performed all his duties in this life, and is now gathered to his fathers, where the rewards of virtue and piety await him in the next; leaving to those who loved him upon earth the memory of a long interchange of domestic affections, enjoyed by his children and grandchildren, who cannot forget the example he has left them, and must ever cherish the grateful recollection of his virtues. Of him, in fine it may with truth be said, "if he had an enemy in the world that enemy knew him not." L. [Mortuary Notice, Page 2]

A WAR OF 1812 VETERAN
who served in the following battles:
• The Battle of Bladensburg
• The Battle of North Point
• The Battle of Baltimore

Biography: Old '76er who also fought in the War of 1812. Was present at the Battle of North Point, despite the fact that he was heavily under the weather! The muster roll for Samuel Sterrett's company explicitly notes that he was sick, though his zealous patriotism apparently outweighed his sickness as his ill health was not enough to deter him from reporting to the field for battle. He was elected to the Ancient and Honorable Mechanical Company of Baltimore in 1792 and the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Equitable Society in 1796. During the 1810s he served as one of the Baltimore City Commissioners in charge of laying out the city's modern street-grid system in conjunction with Thomas Poppleton's Plan. In 1813, Gov. Levin Winder & The Council of Maryland appointed him an Inspector of the Penitentiary, and a Justice of the Peace. In 1815, he was elected president of the Friendship Fire Company (Engine No. 3—founded in 1785). He also served on the Company's Standing Committee and Board of Directors. In 1820, he was elected to the Board of Directors for the City Bank of Baltimore. Hillen Street & Hillen Road were named in his honor.

His obituary from the 15 August 1840 edition of The Baltimore Sun:

Obituary.—Died in this city, on the 11th inst., Mr. John Hillen, in the 79th year of his age.
Thus has one of the most venerated and valued citizens passed off the stage of life, in the full maturity of his years and virtues.
Mr. Hillen was a native of Maryland, where his family is one of the oldest. For nearly half a century he has lived in Baltimore, and has seen it grow up from a comparatively small village into its present population and wealth. One of its patriarchs, (and but few of them now remain,) he has observed and watched the growth of its prosperity, and remembered and recited to his latest hour, all the events and changes which attended its early settlement.
On the very spot where he played in boyhood, amid green trees and running streams, there arose under his eye the most splendid edifices and thronging avenues of business and commerce. Often has the writer of this notice been delighted with the accurate and interesting details he gave of those by-gone days—of the men and measures which had contributed to the prosperity and glory of Baltimore. The witness and participant of two wars, Mr. Hillen had early imbibed those lofty and enduring Whig principles of the Revolution which lay at the foundation of our political liberty, and by an unfaltering and stern devotion to them, they became indeed a part of his character, influencing to the last his opinions, and giving weight to his counsels. Though his career was an unobtrusive one, and his duties were confined to private life, still it may be truly said of him, that his consistency and love of order and law, enforced by a remarkable degree of moral firmness and benevolence, made him a patriot of the Old School—
"As Aristides just—as Cato pure."
One whose simple and primitive public spirit remained unchanged, and whose character was unstained by the ever-changing times and the corrupting influences of the present day. The fashion of his mind and heart, like the habit of his dress, continued unaltered; and though occasionally his rebuke of private and public depravity might appear harsh and unsparing, yet after all, apart from his peculiar temper, and at the foundation of his character, there was a charity of the most expanded kind, which warmed and cheered in its own way, and by its many efforts, the path of the desolate and the miserable.
Connected with many of our most benevolent institutions, Mr. Hillen was always to be found at his post, ready to do his duty—and well and faithfully has he performed all his duties in this life, and is now gathered to his fathers, where the rewards of virtue and piety await him in the next; leaving to those who loved him upon earth the memory of a long interchange of domestic affections, enjoyed by his children and grandchildren, who cannot forget the example he has left them, and must ever cherish the grateful recollection of his virtues. Of him, in fine it may with truth be said, "if he had an enemy in the world that enemy knew him not." L. [Mortuary Notice, Page 2]