John Sprunt Hill

John Sprunt Hill (March 17, 1869 – July 29, 1961) was a North Carolina lawyer, banker and philanthropist who played a fundamental role in the civic and social development of Durham, North Carolina, the expansion of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the development of rural credit unions in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century.

Biography Early life and education Born in Faison, in Duplin County, North Carolina to William Edward Hill and Frances Diana Hill, John Sprunt Hill left school at age twelve, to work as a clerk in a country store for four years. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and one of the co-founders of the Order of Gimghoul, and graduated maxima cum laude in 1889 with a Ph.B.

For two years, Hill taught at Faison High School, until he began attending law school at UNC in 1891. In 1892, he moved to New York City to complete his degree at Columbia University. Hill graduated from Columbia Law in 1894 and was admitted to the New York bar association and began practicing estate law, becoming a well-regarded and successful lawyer with his own firm, Hill, Sturcke & Andrews, by January 1895. In September 1903, shortly after the birth of their first child, George Watts Hill, John and Annie decided to relocate their family to Durham, to go into business with his father-in-law. He later inherited his father-in-law's house, Harwood Hall.

Boom and bust in the Bull City G.W. Watts and J.S. Hill became powerful partners in the burgeoning Bull City. Together, they founded the Home Savings Bank, where Hill served as president, and Durham Loan & Trust Company, where he served as chairman of the board, almost immediately upon Hill's arrival in Durham. From 1908 to 1910, J.S. Hill served as vice-president of Erwin Cotton Mills. In 1916, Watts and Hill founded the Home Security Life Insurance Company. Soon after passage of the North Carolina Credit Union Act on March 6, 1915, North Carolina's first credit union opened in 1916, in the southern Durham County community of Lowe's Grove. Twenty farmers in the Durham County community pooled $101.75, and the credit union movement was born. E. C. Branson, in a sketch published in 1918, called Hill the "Father of Rural Credit in North Carolina."

In 1932, he successfully ran for a seat in the North Carolina Senate, serving Durham County as the representative of the 16th State Senate District from 1933 to 1938.

He gave the city land for Hillside Park. He acquired the golf course at Forest Hills and donated it to the city for a park in 1930.

Durham In 1917, John Sprunt Hill, George W. Watts, James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke donated a sum of $8,500 to purchase the old Stokes homesite on Fayetteville Street, in order to relocate and expand Lincoln Hospital, Durham's primary hospital for African-Americans in the days of segregation.

In 1930, John Sprunt Hill offered the John O'Daniel Hosiery Mills building for a Farmer's Exchange—a farmers' cooperative which grew to 900 members by 1935. The decline in tobacco sales during the late-1920s, due to blight, spurred the need for farmers to market other farm products. The JOD Hosiery Mill became Durham's first Farmers' Market—what was referred to as a "curb market" at the time—where the farmers would sell some of their produce directly.

Upon his death, in 1961, John Sprunt Hill donated his Morehead Hill Spanish Colonial Revival mansion, designed by Kendall and Taylor of Boston and built in 1912, to a foundation created in memory of his wife, who died on March 26, 1940. The Annie Watts Hill Foundation was created to support non-sectarian, non-political female organizations. As of 2008, the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties makes its home here, although it is open to any group meeting the aforementioned criteria. His Wakefield Dairy Complex near Wake Forest was listed in 2003.

A lifelong student of history and literature, on May 9, 1948, Hill established an endowment fund for the North Carolina Collection of the UNC Library.