Lydia Hill
Lydia Hill's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)
Lydia Hill Shipman, 1880-1889 (Ancestry.com)
Lydia Jane Hill was born about 1853 to Jasper H. and Mahala Hill in Maine, where her mother was born and her father had farmed after immigrating from New Brunswick, Canada. She was the second of their seven children. The family had moved to a farm in Bellevue, Minnesota, by 1860. Lydia entered the Third State Normal School with its first students in September 1869. After graduating with its first class on June 30, 1871, she taught in local schools.
Later in the 1870s, Lydia married Charles Wesley Shipman, a Civil War veteran from Pennsylvania. The two made their home near Belle Prairie, Minnesota, where Charles had purchased a farm. Their only child, Jasper, was born in 1878. The family later moved to Washington state, where Lydia passed away in 1907. Jasper raised six children with his wife, Clara, and followed Charles into farming before becoming a construction contractor in Washington, where he spent the rest of his life.
Sources
1860 U.S. census, Morrison County, Minnesota, population schedule, Bellevue, p. 447, dwelling 122, family 122; NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 567, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1870 U.S. census, Morrison County, Minnesota, population schedule, Bellevue, p. 21, dwelling 6, family 6; NARA microfilm publication T132, roll 7, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1880 U.S. census, Morrison County, Minnesota, population schedule, Belle Prairie, enumeration district 080, p. 392D, dwelling 22, family 26; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 626, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1910 U.S. census, Bonner County, Washington, population schedule, Gamblin Lake, enumeration district 0074, p. 5A, dwelling 13, family 14; NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 233, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1920 U.S. census, Bonner County, Washington, population schedule, Hope, enumeration district 27, p. 6B, dwelling 13, family 13; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 289, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1930 U.S. census, Spokane County, Washington, population schedule, Spokane, enumeration district 0081, p. 8B, dwelling 229, family 233; NARA microfilm publication T626, n.r., accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Charles Wesley Shipman pension file, 1890, General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, National Archives and Records Administration, T288, n.r., accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Jasper Hill Shipman death certificate, 1937, Washington, Death Certificates, 1907-1960, FamilySearch, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Jasper Hill death record, 1937, Pend Oreille County death registers, microfilm., Washington State Archives, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Lydia Hill death certificate, 1907, Washington, Death Certificates, 1907-1960, FamilySearch, accessed July 20, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Lydia Jane Hill Shipman portrait, ca. 1880, photograph, uploaded July 26, 2016 to Ancestry.com by jferrell51, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/9631765/person/172098493133/media/575547be-78da-4878-afa3-c47e819f0ff9.
“Normal School Examination: Exercises of the Graduating Class,” The St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).
“Opening of the Normal School,” The St. Cloud Journal, September 23, 1869, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Catalogue and Circular of the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minnesota,” 1884-1885, p. 5, series 1, box 1, folder 1, St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Catalogs, 1869-2012+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Alumni Directory of the State Normal School,” 1908, p. 1, series 6, box 10, folder 1, Records of the St. Cloud State Alumni Association, 1874-2006, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Record Book” 1869-1885, box 1, folder 1, Admission and Records Records, 1869-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections, transcript index, https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/transcript-index.aspx (accessed July 16, 2019).
Third State Normal School, undergraduate commencement program, 1871, series 1, box 1, folder 1, Records of St. Cloud State University Commencement, 1871-2018+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.