New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-30
REV. J. W. HILL
SUED BY GIRL
FOR 100000
Chicago Poetess Says Not
ed Author and Lecturer
Promised to Marry Her.
HE'S 50 AND AVOWED
FOE OF 'SOULMATES'
Clergyman, Close Friend Of Taft,
SWore He Was Single, She
Avers-Blackmail Hinted.

AVerS-BlaCkma f1lnted.
The Rev. Or. John Wesley Hill, au-
thor. religious and political lecturer,
former pastor of the Metropolitan Tenn
pie and now president CT the Interna-
tiOnal Peace Forum, was yesterday
made defendant in suit for 100000
by Miss Lucille Covington. of Chicago,
once his employe and, before that,
school teacher in Chicago.
Only the summons in the suit was
filed in the County Clerks office here
yesterday, and this legal paper does
not disclose the nature of the action.
However. this attitude of reticence was
abandoned so far as the newspapers
were concerned when Miss COvington's
attorney, Nathaniel +. Schmidt, of 22O
Broadway, was asked if he had any
thing 70 say.
Yes he replied "My client is
suing DR.. Hill for breach of promise.
He met her in the summer Of 1910 in
Chicago. where she was manager of the
Lyceum and Chautauqua branch of the
Western Vaudeville Association. Or.
Hill fell IN love with her. Truth TO
tell, she returned his love at the same
time. II was literally case OF love
at first sight.
, In July. 1910, DR.. Hill proposed, and
Miss Covington accepted him. In the
following December she came here to
become manager of the booking office
Of the international Peace Forum, at
1s East Forty-frst Street. All this
time she believed him single man
he had told her that he was unmarried
/ IL was not until late in 1911 that she
discovered that he not only had wife,
( but that there were two children by a
+ first wife.
Looks Like Marie Doro.
, 81 might add that she is a poetess
and fiction writer" -,
/ "Where Is the young woman now -
! Schmidt was asked.
"She has gone back to Chicago" the
/ lawyer responded.
Dir. Hill was served with the sum
mons on Tuesday morning. He left
/ here at o'clock yesterday afternoon
| for Detroit TO fill lecture engagement
! that had been arranged for several
weeks ago. He is expected back here
within four or five days.
The woman is described rs being a
; brunette of an age that guessers PICK
IS about thirty-tive. She Is OF medium
height. A person who has seen her often
was struck by her facial resemblance
to Miss Marie Doro, the actress. Other
nersons who have seen her said they
could not strengthen this, as they had
never looked on Miss Doro.
cambridge Colby. who lives at 49
East Sixty-sixth Street, is DR.. Hills
attorney, and has been for several
wears. Mr. Colby said last night that
he knew very little about the case;
that he heard of the summons only yes
terday morning and at that time did
not know what lay behind it.
81 regret that the young lady is out
of town" he said, "and we shall be
very much interested in her return.
She has written several letters. have
two of them. In one of them she
speaks of blackmail.
There will be no compromise IN TINS
proceeding. | shall file notice Of ap-
pearance have twenty days in which
to do that When | apprise the plain,
tif's lawyer that am DR.. Hills legal
representative he will be called on to
serve his complaint"
Hill Foe of Soulmates.
At DR.. Hill's home, 131 West 1lsth
Street, il was said yesterday that an
other member Of the family had re-
ceived a letter from Miss Covington
embodying certain suggestions. 1t was
said also that Miss Covington had not
been in DR.. Hill's employ for three or
four years, and that when she was her
position was that of a clerk, and that
her association with her employer was
not any closer than customarily IS IN
dicated by the term employer ana en-
ploye.
DR.. Hill is noted foe of Mormon
ism. His utterances in Ogden, Utah,
on that subject several years ago won
him hearty enmity throughout the
state. Quite as strongly, he sits down
natlv and solidly on efforts TO justify
a married persons acquisition OF
soulmate.
"When a married man finds wom-
an whose mental vibrations apparently
are attuned better than those of his
wife" he said. in 1909. that Is the
devil using telepathy for his own dsrk
purposes. 4 man should not listen 70
such vibrations"
Dr Hill was born in Kalida, Ohio. in
1868. making him ffty-two years old
He was married in 1888 to Miss Moran
Holmes. Of Findlay, Ohio. Their two
children-one, Warren, Deputy AS
sistant District Attorney in Mr.. Per
kins's office are both living.
Mrs. Hill died in 1904. Two years
later DR.. Hill was married TO Mrs. Sa-
die Harrison Schmidt, widow. who
lived with DR.. Hill in the West lloth
Street house.
DIR. Hill has been as prominent
figure in politics as in religion. lie
was chaplain of the Republican Ma
tional Convention. in Chicago. in l9OS'
when Mr.. Taft was nominated. DR..
viii accompanied Mr.. Taft on a cam
paign trip through the Northwest. max
ING several speeches. They are strong
friends. Dr. Hill played prominent
part in the Blaine and Mckinney cam
paigns.