William Edgar Hillstead

WILLIAM E. HILLSTEAD. An an authority on real estate values, with an experience derived from extensive ownership and from participation in real estate transfers, William E. Hillstead's position in Sheridan County is generally acknowledged. He has spent practically all his life in the northern and western counties of Kansas, and is one of the strenuous business men and public spirited citizens of Hoxie.

He was born in Phillips County, Kansas, November 9, 1876. His father, John Hillstead, was born in Norway in 1848. His adventuresome disposition caused him to run away from home when twelve years of age, and he crossed the Atlantic to Canada. About 1868 he came to Kansas, was a pioneer in Mitchell County, owned a farm there, and in 1872 homesteaded and tree-claimed 160 acres in Phillips County. He proved up the homestead, lived on it for many years and it formed the nucleus for his later accumulations. He finally had 780 acres. After selling this farm he continued dealing in lands and became an extensive land owner. He was also engaged in the mercantile business at Marvin, Logan and Hoxie, Kansas. He moved to Hoxie in 1906, and was associated with his son William E. both in the store and in the ownership of 3,500 acres of ranch land nearby. In 1914 John Hillstead moved to Morland, Kansas, where he died February 26, 1915. He was a republican in political affiliations and a member of the Sons and Daughters of Justice. John Hillstead married Kizziah Ann Ray. She was born in Taylor County, Iowa, in 1856 and is still living at Morland, Kansas. William E. Hillstead is the only son of his parents. His sister, Nellie, married Charles E. Perry and lives with her mother.

William Edgar Hillstead attended the rural schools of Phillips County and in 1896 supplemented his common school education with a course in the Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina. The following five years he spent in the hardware business with his father. Then they were associated in the ownership and management of a ranch of 2,320 acres. That property they sold in 1903, and both were in the mercantile business at Logan, Kansas, for two years. Their business there was exchanged for land in Sheridan County. In 1905 W. E. Hillstead conducted a store at Beloit, but disposed of it and entered the store with his father at Hoxie. In the spring of 1914 he sold his interests as a merchant, and thereafter devoted his entire time and energies to the real estate business, which he founded in 1912. He has made a specialty of handling farm lands and is himself one of the large owners of wheat soil of Sheridan County, having 1,680 acres. Among other property interests he has a good home on Sixth Avenue.

Mr. Hillstead has served on the City Council of Hoxie and is now a member of the Sheridan County High School Board and the City School Board. He is a republican voter and is affiliated with Hoxie Lodge No. 348, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Hoxie Camp No. 417, Modern Woodmen of America. January 15, 1901, at Marvin, Kansas, Mr. Hillstead married Miss Minnie E. Miller, daughter of Fred and Nancy (Brown) Miller. Her father is a retired farmer now living at Greeley, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Hillstead have two children: Hazel, born October 23, 1901, and Edgar John, born March 12, 1908.

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