Nathaniel P. Hill
| Nathaniel Peter Hill | |
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United States Senator from Colorado |
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In office March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1885 |
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| Preceded by | Jerome B. Chaffee |
| Succeeded by | Henry M. Teller |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 18, 1832 Montgomery, New York |
| Died | May 22, 1900 (aged 68) Denver, Colorado |
| Resting place | Fairmount Cemetery (Denver, Colorado) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
Nathaniel Peter Hill (February 18, 1832 – May 22, 1900) was a United States Senator from Colorado.
Born in Montgomery, Orange County, New York, at the Nathaniel Hill Brick House (now a museum). He married Alice Hale of Providence, Rhode Island, on July 26, 1860 (she was born January 19, 1840, and died July 19, 1908). Alice's father was Isaac Hale, born in the town of Newbury County of Essex, Mass, Sept. 17, 1807. He was a descendant of Thomas Hale, one of the first settlers in Newbury from England in 1635. Her mother, Harriet Johnson, daughter of David Johnson and Lucy Towne. She was born in the town of Newbury, VT, July 29, 1814. David was a son of Col. Thomas Johnson who distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War. N.P and Alice had three children, Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. N.P. took over the family farm in Montgomery, until he was 21, when his eldest brother, James King, attended Yale University. During this time he was a part-time student at Montgomery Academy. He graduated from Brown University in 1856.
He was an instructor and later professor of chemistry at Brown from 1856 to 1864. He was the first to bring the idea of laboratories to Brown, which he copied from other schools, mostly in Europe. His scientific eligibility led him to be invited by cotton manufacturer Colonel William Reynolds to search for mining areas in the West. The greater salary enticed him to journey West.
He traveled to Colorado in the spring of 1865 to investigate mineral resources. In his search, he travelled alone and with fellow scientists and entrepreneurs. He returned home to Providence after having accomplished little, where he officially resigned from his teaching position and vowed to devote the rest of his life to the search for gold.
Upon his return to the West, he bought several gold mines, but soon ran into financial difficulties because the smelting techniques at the time were resulting in low yields. The Sterling Gold Mining Company and the Hill Gold Mining Company were established around Central City in Colorado. The preferred method of extraction in those days was stamp milling. A stamp mill consisted of heavy iron blocks attached to wooden or steel rods that rose and fell in accordance with a horizontal beam. After the ore containing the gold was crushed sufficiently, the resulting dust was run over copper plates containing mercury, which formed an alloy from which the gold could be more easily extracted. Once miners got past the upper ore deposits, they found that the lower ores contained large amounts of complex sulfides. As a result, a precipitous drop in the recovery rate of gold occurred. Failed attemots at introducing alternative methods of extracting gold contributed to the tensions and financial turmoil of the West, until Hill popularized the method of smelting.
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