Peder Hill’s journey began on the coast of Stavanger, Norway, while Engeborg Hoversten’s roots stretched back to an island marked by a great stone; a landmark so striking it gave her family its name. Both came to America as youths, traveling separately across the Atlantic, yet destiny brought them together in Rochelle, Illinois. Peder worked as a farmhand, Engeborg drew strength from her Quaker upbringing, and in 1880 they married, beginning a life of shared devotion and resilience.

Soon after, they set out for Iowa, where Peder had purchased farmland for ten dollars an acre. Their first shelter was little more than a dugout with a plank roof, but it was enough to start. Together they raised six children and built a home life grounded in faith, discipline, and kindness. Each day began with readings from the Norwegian Bible, spoken in both English and Norwegian, while oatmeal simmered on the woodstove for breakfast. Uncle Alfred remembered his parents as serious, industrious, wise, and kind.

They endured hardship. Engeborg battled lung illness all her life, and the family carved out a farm with grit, hand-tiling swamp lands to turn their property into a productive farm. But their faith and their love for one another and their children kept them strong. They were remembered by their children as a truly good couple, steady in work and generous in heart. Today, their story endures not only in the land they once broke and planted, but in the generations of Hills who followed.

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Peder K. Hill: 1856-1942

Engeborg "Belle" Torenna Hoversten: 1861 - 1939