After having advanced well on the road to recovery from injuries received from a fall on cedar poles July 31 at Turtle River when four ribs were broken and his collar bone fractured, William Hillgrove fell a victim to pneumonia Thursday and died yesterday. At the time of the injury, Mr. Hillgrove was assisting the D. K. Deal Lumber company in loading cedar poles. He was a mason by trade and was doing work at Turtle River but yielded to a request to aid in handling the poles, and while on top of a car which was being loaded was hit on the head with a pole, throwing him to the ground. While being brought to Bemidji he caught a severe cold which developed into pneumonia. Mr. Hillgrove appeared to be recovering rapidly, and yesterday afternoon while talking to his wife told her he soon expected to be taken home. An hour later he was dead, his heart having given out under the strain of the disease, although double pneumonia is given as the real cause of his death. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and step-children. Florence Huck, Allen, Clarence, Susan and Severn Huck. The funeral will be held Tuesday morning at 8:30 from St. Phillip’s Catholic Church. He was 52 years old. (Aug 12, 1911)
Mr. Hillgrove was born in June 1872 in Maine. He moved with his mother and siblings to Minnesota about the time of the Civil War. He was in Rice County in 1870, and at Black River near Red Lake Falls in Polk County in 1895 and 1900, a single man.
Elizabeth Hillgrove, a pioneer resident also, passed away on January 12, 1945 at the home of Mrs. Ernestine Tharaldson, 723 Irvine avenue, following a short illness. Mrs. Hillgrove was born April 17, 1864 at Wellesley, Ontario, Canada, and came to Bemidji in 1904, where she was married to William Hillgrove and resided at 707 Irvine avenue for many years. Se is survived by one daughter. Burial will be held at New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada, her childhood home. The body will be taken there by Miss Huck, accompanied by Mrs. Tharaldson. (Bemidji Daily Pioneer, Jan 13, 1945)