Themann

History of Kentucky, Vol. 4, Charles Kerr

Hector F. Hillenmeyer. For about fourscore years the name Hillenmeyer has been intimately identified with the nursery industry at Lexington. The Hillen- meyers were nurserymen and landscape gardeners in France as far back as 1768, and a large business of that kind is still carried on by Hector F. Hillenmeyer at Lexington. Mr. Hillenmeyer was born in Fayette County August 28, 1849, son of Francis H. and Mary (Hahn) Hillen- meyer. Both his parents were born in Eastern France, in a district that was taken over by the Germans dur- ing the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. The father was born in 1812 and the mother in 1810. They were married in France. Francis Hillenmeyer had first come to the United States when about twenty years of age. As a youth he was bound out to learn the nursery trade in France, his father having paid his tuition of SCO francs. When he came to the United States the first time he was in quest of adventure, and in 1838 joined Sam Houston's army in Texas, and for his services to the Texas Republic was granted a tract of land of 640 acres near Galveston. He traveled all over the South and eventually became associated with a wealthy Georgia planter named Munchen, for whom he managed his extensive properties. For Mun- chen he planned a park in the center of the City of Savannah, Georgia, and was given a commission to go to France and buy a large consignment of orna- mental plants and trees. On his return to France he married, and a few weeks later, having shipped the valuable cargo of plants and trees, he and his bride followed and for several years lived at Savannah, Georgia, where he superintended the planting of the park. In 1840 he came to Kentucky, and the following year bought a tract of land in Fayette County. This land, in part, is still owned by Hector F. Hillenmeyer. Francis Hillenmeyer remained a Kentuckian the rest of his life and died in 1892, while his wife passed away in 1890. They were faithful Catholics and in politics the father voted as a democrat. Of their five children two are now living. Hector being the youngest child.

Hector Hillenmeyer acquired his education in pub- lic schools and attended the oldest collegiate institu- tion of Kentucky, St. Mary's College in Marion County. He took up the traditional family profession, and he still owns 185 acres of the old Hillenmeyer estate, most of it being devoted to the growing of nursery stock. At one time the Hillenmeyer farm contained 600 acres, but Mr. Hillenmeyer has given two places to his children and has sold two farms. He is a man of wide experience and authoritative knowledge in all branches of plant and tree growing. He has spent several years in France, the home of his ancestors, and has traveled widely elsewhere. Mr.

Hillenmeyer is a director in the First and City Na- tional Bank of Lexington, is a director of the City Gas Company, the Waterworks Company, and is a practical business man and has never sought the honors of political office. He votes independently and is a member of the Catholic Church.

July 17, 1877, he married Mary Ossenbeck, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Six children were born to their marriage : Herbert, the oldest, is a Catholic priest ; Ernest B. married Martha Scott and has one daughter ; Raymond J. is the third ; Louis married Anna Bain and has three children; Mazie B. is the wife of Edward T. Houlihan and has two children; and Walter W. married Marie Reiling and has two