Benjamin Harvey Hill [Senior] was born in Jasper County, Georgia, in 1823, to John J. Hill and Sarah Elizabeth Parham Hill. Ben Hill, as he was known, graduated from the University of Georgia in 1844; was admitted to the bar the same year; and commenced practice in LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia. In 1845 he married Caroline Elizabeth Holt in Clarke County, Georgia and by the 1870 census lived in Athens, Clarke County. He became a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1851 and the Georgia Senate 1859 - 1860. From 1875 to 1877 Hill represented the 9th District in Georgia's House of Representatives. In 1877 he resigned his house seat to serve in the United States Senate until his death in 1882 (place of residence in the 1880 census is Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia). He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia.