Ralph Freeman Shill was born June 22, 1882 in Lehi, Maricopa, Arizona. He was the 7th child of Charles Golding or Goulding Shill (1821-1910)and Harriet Stronach Paynter Shill (1848-1931). He was the seventh of eight children, but the first Shill child born in Lehi, Arizona.
His early years were spent on the Shill family farm working with his brothers. Ralph attended grade school, but had to quit at an early age to help out with supporting the family.
As a young man he took different jobs away from home, working on farms and in mines in the Arizona Territory. Ralph always had an adventurous spirit. When he was twenty years old he left Lehi and drove a wagon up through Arizona, Utah and Idaho almost to the Canadian border. It was over seven months before he returned home. He always said that he enjoyed the trip and going by wagon was the best way to really get to see the country.
In 1904 he worked in the copper mine at Cananea, in Sonora, Mexico. After that he and his brother Charles Victor Shill went to work for Leo Hind's in a rock quarry near Douglas, Arizona. In 1906 Victor and some other workers were killed in an explosion at the quarry. Ralph returned to Douglas to work in a brickyard. When he was in Douglas, Cochise, Arizona, he met and later married Della Mae Duffin on September 28, 1907, daughter of Brigham Fielding Duffin (1858-1940) and Harriet Loraine Gardner Duffin (1862-1909).
They moved back to Lehi and bought 20 acres which is now at the corner of Mesa Drive and McKellips. Their first home was destroyed by fire. A second home was built and was still standing until torn down a few years ago for a trailer park. [Coincidentally, this trailer park is where Norma Baldwin Ricketts, author of The Mormon Battalion book, lives at 6209 East McKellips, in 2006.]
While living in Lehi, Ralph worked for his brother Milo Goulding Shill in the brickyard and on some construction projects. In 1915 he went to Bisbee to work at the mine for Phelps Dodge. A strike in 1917 closed down operations, so they came back to Lehi.
When on his farm he raised canteloupes in the summer and lettuce in the winter as his main crop.
Ralph had acquired the bricklaying trade from his brother Milo. He worked at different jobs in Mesa and Phoenix. I was told the job he liked best was working on the Mormon Temple in Mesa. He said it was such clean work laying the white terracotta stone and instlling the figures on the building. In 1927 Ralph sold his farm and moved to Mesa. Della Mae Duffin Shill died in Mesa on February 10, 1945. On June 4, 1948 Ralph remarried to Rozelpha "Zelpha" Rhoton Garner.
Ralph was a masonry contractor until he retired in 1956. Today his survivors are his four children, 15 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.
This biography was written by Ralph's son, Darrell Freeman Shill, in connection with the 99th Annual Shill Reunion held at Porter Park in Mesa, Arizona on April 18, 1987. The reunion honored Ralph Freeman Shill and his descendants.
Back row: Martha LaVerna Williams Shill, Lillie Emma Rothrock Shill, Vernetta "Nettie" Lockett Shill, Marguerite Webb Brown Shill, Rozelpha "Zelpha" Rhoton Garner Shill
Seated in front: Orson Obed Shill, Wright Paynter Shill, Harry Scott Shill, Otto Stronach Shill I, Ralph Freeman Shill,
c. 1955
Photo courtesy of Anita Jones Smith
Children of Ralph Freeman Shill and Della Mae Duffin
