Hill, Mary Theresa Mehegan , 1846-1921.

Mary Theresa Mehegan was born in New York City July 1, 1846, the daughter of recent Irish immigrants. Mary’s father, Timothy Mehegan, moved the family to St. Anthony in the newly organized Minnesota Territory in 1850. They quickly moved to St. Paul where Mr. Mehegan worked tailoring clothes and selling real estate until his death on Christmas Eve, 1854. Mary and her sister Eliza attended St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Paul and Mary worked as a waitress at the Merchant’s Hotel where she met James J. Hill in the early 1860s.

The couple became engaged in June 1864, but before the marriage Mary attended finishing school at St. Mary’s Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, paid for by James. There she learned French, history, music, calisthenics, and needlework.

James and Mary were married August 19, 1867 in the home of Bishop John Ireland in St. Paul. They honeymooned in Milwaukee and moved into a home on Pearl (later Grove) Street in the Lowertown area of St. Paul.

Mary gave birth to ten children between 1868 and 1885: Mary Francis, known as "Mamie" (Mrs. Samuel Hill, 1868-1947); James Norman Hill (1870-1932); Louis Warren Hill (1872-1948); Clara Anne (Mrs. Erasmus C. Lindley, 1873-1947); Charlotte Elizabeth (Mrs. George T. Slade, 1877-1923); Ruth (Mrs. Anson Beard, 1879-1959); Rachel (Mrs. Egil Boeckmann, 1881-1967); Gertrude (Mrs. Michael Gavin, 1883-1961); and Walter Jerome Hill (1885-1944). A daughter, Katherine Theresa (Katie), died in infancy (1875-1876).

Mrs. Hill managed her family’s numerous large households, which included more than 10 servants at their Summit Avenue home completed in 1892 and at their North Oaks Farm home in northern Ramsey County, Minnesota. She was also active in charity work in St. Paul, particularly for the Catholic Church and the Red Cross.

In the early 1880s Mary was diagnosed with a “consumptive condition,” possibly tuberculosis, and her health was often poor from then on. She died of heart failure on November 22, 1921, at the age of 75, and her funeral was held at the Cathedral of St. Paul.