Charles Hayward Hillman (Nashville, TN)
Charles Hayward Hillman (July 21, 1885 – August 9, 1966)
Biography
- Name: Charles Hayward Hillman
- Birth: July 21, 1885 Kentucky
- Death: August 9, 1966 Nashville, TN
- Spouse: Katherine (Butler) Hillman (1888-1970)(Married 1911)
Charles Hayward Hillman was born July 21, 1885. According to his death certificate, he was born in Tennessee, but the 1900 census stated he was born in Kentucky. When his parents were married in 1884, his father worked in Louisville, and there are no records of the family being in Nashville in 1885. Charles' father was Frederick Travis Cummins and his mother was Lena Erwin Hillman, daughter of Charles Erwin Hillman. Charles E. Hillman was the owner of a large and prosperous Nashville iron company, as well as being a Director of the American National Bank of Nashville, charter 3032. Fred and Lena moved to Nashville sometime after 1885.
Something happened in the marriage of Fred and Lena. There are newspaper reports of a Fred Cummins being involved with another woman, resulting in her suicide in January, 1891. The newspaper stated that this Fred Cummins was married, but never tied him to Lena by name. We cannot say for sure it was the same Fred Cummins. We do know that Fred and Lena somehow divorced, as he remarried in New York in 1906. There are several Nashville newspaper accounts of a Fred Cummins being arrested in the 1890's. Charles and his mother were living with her brother in the 1900 census using the last name Cummins, but sometime before 1905 Charles had changed his last name to Hillman, as had his mother. His mother was listed as Mrs. Lena Hillman in the Nashville City Directories from 1905 forward, and Charles was Charles Hillman, student at the Angus Gordon Bowen public school in Nashville in the 1905 directory. There are many newspaper accounts of Mrs. Lena Hillman being involved with Nashville society, so one could assume there was some inheritance.
We can pick up Charles from the city directory starting in 1906, where his employment is listed as clerk. Around 1909 he is employed as a receiving teller for the Nashville Trust Company, which was a sister company to the First National Bank of Nashville, charter 150. On December 26, 1911, he married Katherine Butler.
On April 1, 1912 he was promoted to manager of the real estate department at the Nashville Trust, and we can assume it is in this position that he learns to buy and sell real estate. In 1916, he entered a partnership with his friend Tavel Pickard to sell real estate under the name Hillman & Pickard. It must not have been too successful, because on his 1918 draft card, he listed his occupation as bookkeeper at the First Savings Bank & Trust of Nashville. In the 1920 census, his occupation was listed as travel agent. In January, 1926, he was in Miami, Florida selling real estate for Dan Jarvis Properties. He again changed jobs when, on May 22, 1926, he was elected cashier of the Tennessee-Hermitage National Bank of Nashville, charter 9532. This seemed to be the pinnacle of his many places of employment.
On November 15, 1930, Tennessee-Hermitage had been subjected to a bank run, and was merged with the Commerce Union Bank of Nashville. Charles was brought into the new bank as Assistant Chief Cashier, and he stayed there for a few years. The 1935-1938 city directories list him as Secretary/Treasurer of the H.E. Parmer Roofing Company in Nashville. In 1940 he was a sales agent for the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company and in 1941 he was a clerk for the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Nashville. The directories from 1943 and 1944 list him as an examiner for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
By 1946 he had returned to selling real estate and this remained his employment until retirement. Charles died of pneumonia in Parkview Hospital on August 9, 1966, and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.
Bank Officer Summary
During his banking career, Charles H. Hillman was involved with the following bank(s):
- Hermitage National Bank/Tennessee-Hermitage NB, Nashville, TN (Charter 9532): Cashier 1926-1930
References
- Bio written by Greg Culpepper 3/2/2021.
- Sources: Ancestry.com & Newspapers.com (Not found in findagrave.com).
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://bbdata.banknotehistory.com