This collection contains correspondence, financial correspondence, addresses, notes and sermons

Claiborne Milton Hill was born November 16, 1857 in Suisun, California, his parents Sterling and Sarah Russell. The family moved to Oregon where he received his B.A. from the University of Oregon, 1881. He graduated from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1884 and was ordained into the Baptist ministry. It is claimed that he was the first native-born Californian to enter the Baptist ministry. (Fleming, Pg. 107) He married Anna F. Pengra in December 1884, their children were Amy Helen (Mrs. Paul K. Yost) and Carey Sterling Hill. He served as pastor for the Eugene, Oregon Baptist Church 1884-90, as Superintendent of missions for the American Baptist Home Mission Society for Oregon, 1890-93, and as pastor of the 10th Ave. Baptist Church, Oakland, California 1893-1904 before assuming the presidency of the Pacific Coast Baptist Seminary in 1904. He also taught Bible and practical theology. After his retirement from Berkeley Baptist Divinity School in 1937, he remained in Berkeley active in the community and in the Baptist associations until his death January 27, 1950. (Who Was Who in America, Vol. 3 (1951-1960), A.N. Marquis Co.: Chicago, 1963.)The Pacific Baptist Theological Union was incorporated in 1889 by a group of Baptist clergy and lay people with the express intention to establish a seminary for the whole Pacific coast to fit men and women "for efficient ministerial, missionary, church and Sunday School work, and for all kinds of practical Christian labor." (Fleming, Pg. 32) The school, known as the Pacific Baptist Theological Seminary, formally opened in Oakland, California in 1890 under the presidency of Edgar H. Gray. When Gray died in 1894, there was no one to continue the work of the seminary and instruction ceased. The Theological Union however continued to meet to work on building the endowment and financial means to establish a school.

25 boxes

10 linear ft.

Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research.