James B. Hill

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James B. Hill was born November 29, 1856, near Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio. He died in Raceland, Louisiana, in 1945.

James worked as a drainage tiler in northwestern Ohio in the 1870s and 1880s, during which time he devised a machine that he later named the Buckeye Traction Ditcher (U.S. Patent 523-790; July 31, 1894). The Buckeye allowed for the quick placement of drainage tiles to aid in cultivation. After ridding northwest Ohio of its Great Black Swamp, James’s invention, produced by the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company of Findlay, Ohio, went on to drain large parts of Florida and Louisiana.

Finding his early machines bogged down by the mud of Louisiana, James designed wheels that could travel over soft, wet earth. He termed this style of wheel “apron traction,” and it became the forerunner for modern tank wheels (U.S. Patent 866-647; 24 September 1907).

James remained mentally active and creative throughout his life and spent his last years breeding new varieties of corn which could flourish in Louisiana, most notably Hill’s White Cob Yellow Dent.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated an original Buckeye Steam Traction Ditcher as an "International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark" in 1988. This organization also maintains James's gravestone at Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio, on which a ditcher is engraved. An antique ditcher can be seen today at the Hancock County Historical Museum in Findlay, Ohio.

James and his first wife Ella MacDonald had 10 children. Near his death, he boasted of having more than 100 descendants.