[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THEODORE OTTO HERMAN HILL

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, Theodore Otto Herman Hill--with a nickname of 
``Thunderhead'' because of his fiery red hair--was my mom's father. He 
was born in Texas in 1899 and his grandparents were early Texas 
settlers from Germany.
  Theodore was a cotton farmer, raised bees, and raised cattle. He 
married young and had 3 daughters that he called ``the boys'' who were 
expected to help him pick cotton.
  Papa, as we called him, was a hunter, a taxidermist and a Teddy 
Roosevelt conservationist. He found on his land hundreds of Apache and 
Comanche arrowheads that he organized, and his collection will soon be 
turned over to the Texas Ranger Museum.
  He could tell the type of tree by looking at the bark or observing 
the leaves. He predicted the weather by watching the animals.
  One afternoon in the 1950s while he was laying asphalt as a foreman 
of a work crew for the Texas Highway Department, a drunk driver broke 
through the barricade and killed my grandfather. I was 5 years old. My 
grandmother lived another 50 years after his death.
  What I know of my grandfather makes me proud of my heritage.
  This Father's Day we remember our fathers and grandfathers and know 
that a lot of good men have made us who we are today.
  And that's just the way it is.

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