John E. Hill Obituary
CWA Worker Is Crushed To Death By Truck
January 8, 1934
(Special to The Sentinel)
NEW IPSWICH, N. H., Jan. 8- John E. Hill, 33, married and the father of two minor children, a CWA worker in this town on a state road project between New Ipswich and Ashby, was killed shortly after 10 o'clock this morning when crushed by a truck in a gravel pit on the Ashby road near the home of Willis Mansfield.
According to witnesses, Hill was caught between the bank overhang and the rear of the truck. His chest was badly crushed and he died before reaching the office of Dr. Claire Cayward, where he was rushed by fellow-workmen.
John Hill not a relative of the dead man, was driver of the truck. He believed the way clear to back into the pit and started his truck backward when his namesake slipped between the rear of the truck and the frozen overhang of the bank.
Pond
Possibly a view from Taylor Road of the pond in Smithville?
James Roger diary entry
9th June 1913
Very cool weather. Mother had quiet night until 3. David went for doctor who came about 5 and gave another injection to soothe the pain and again at 2:30 and gave another. May came by forenoon train. David and Walter Hardy working in the garden and planting potatoes in field.
The driver of the truck John Hill might have been John Hill of New Ipswich, born 1885, died 1957. He was the father of Mae Hill Karnis, wife of Ted Karnis.
On this rainy day reading the Hill obit and James' journal entry was a little depressing but a sample of reality. Life is not always fair. In 1981 a friend of mine (Terry Bayly) who at the time was also 33 years old was not paying attention to construction vehicles around him and a bulldozer backed over him. Every time I drive by his house, I think of him.