Bio: Hill, Truman (Life Summary – 1963)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Hill, Myhrwold, Berger

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 11 Apr 1963

"Say, I heard a good one the other day – and this one you gotta hear." I met Truman Hill at a Rotary Club meeting, and this was his introduction. H have heard these words often since, because Truman is a teller of stories.

In his office is a wall plaque with the words, "I never did see a man who can fish and worry at the same time." He is a hard man to find, says his wife, but you might look for him along some trout stream, or by a hole in Black River, pursuing the finny ones. Or he might be tying flies or making weighted fish hooks in his shop at the rear of the store.

Yet there is a deeper side to Truman, which we often miss. A magazine, recently published a poem, "Fi I were the Devil." Truman read it again and again, because its ominous tone bothers him deeply. The devil speaks about his plans to corrupt and destroy our way of life, and notes the progress he has made toward that objective. The real issues of life have not escaped Truman; his bluff exterior only deceives us into thinking that they have.

His father, the Rev. David Hill, was a Methodist minister, and Truman was one of thirteen children. The policy of the Conference was to move the men regularly, and in forty years they lived at Glen Flora, Hurley, Phillips, North Freedom, Patch Grove, Platteville, Bloom City, Viola, DeSoto and Viroqua. After living in all these places he says that Greenwood is "the most friendly place of all.

Salaries were low. The family received barrels of used clothing and gifts of food to tide them over. But they were never in real want of necessities. Six of the children went to college, and eleven are still living.

After Platteville and La Crosse Teachers Colleges, Truman taught school for seven years. These were depression years. He received a salary of $130 per month, and a man with a family offered to teach the same school for $85. There didn't seem to be much future in the teaching business. So he was a church janitor (at $20 a month), and took odd jobs for a couple of years, until he received his greetings from Uncle Sam. Thirty-nine months of military service, most of it in Texas, were no drudgery, however, because he enjoys being with people. In fact, he HAS TO be among people; given people, his happiness does not depend upon place or circumstance.

He was a confirmed bachelor until in Madison he met a secretary named Florence Berger. She unconfirmed him; as Mrs. Hill, she is the mother of Trudy, 15, and Judy, 11. Coule you possibly imagine her life becoming dull?

Let a man be free to laugh at life's foibles; let him revel in the joy of being with his fellow men; let him drink in the beauty of God's created nature; let him think deeply about life; let him love his wife and children with his whole heart. I think that for T.B. Hill, this is life.