Hilliard was born on November 14, 1887 in Lee County, Mississippi.  He was an only son, having two sisters.  Because of this, he was treated like a king growing up.  From his early days, he knew he was going to be a farmer, and he always lived on the same land he grew up on, passing it on down to his heirs when he died.

When Hilliard was a young man, he fell in love with a Deason girl.  She was Exie D. "Bunch" Deason, daughter of Robert M. Deason and Amanda Reynolds.  For some reason they decided to part ways though.  These Deasons lived on property that was sold to them by John George Stovall in 1905.  He had obtained it through the father of his wife, Dolly Hill.  Martin Hill had previously owned the quarter section of land just to the northeast of Plantersville.  John George Stovall had moved away closer to the Unity community, and this is where his daughter, Anna Kate, must have met Hilliard. It seems funny that Hilliard loved two girls that had lived on the same property!

In 1914 Hilliard and Anna Kate Stovall were married.  Anna stayed home and cooked.  They were members of Unity Presbyterian Church, which was just half a mile on up the ridge.  Around 1916 he built the small house at the furtherest end of Kitty Morgan's property on Co. Rd 1233 for him and Anna to live in.  When his dad built the big house in 1933, Hilliard built the big white house that stood in the front yard of Chad and Morgan Files home.  This was about 1935.

Anna and Hilliard might have been a strange pair at first sight.  She taught school at Verona and was a big woman - where Roy got his size.  She was 5'9" or 5'10".  She was a very tall and big woman when she was older.  Anna stayed home and cooked most of the time. She was dedicated to the Lord. She studied the Bible everyday.  Anna used to sit by the window and study.    According to Curtis, she taught Sunday school and knew the Bible better than most college professors who taught it.  Sometimes, a preacher would even stop by the house and ask her opinion on a passage of scripture.  She had a hard life. She had to cook on an old wooden stove because Hilliard wouldn't eat anythign cooked on the new electric stove. She had to bring the wood in by herself.   She had a battery radio, but no television, even when others did.  She loved to listen to Herbert W. Armstrong, a preacher out of Texas, on the AM at night.

Anna had typhoid fever when she was 19 years old. She lost all her hair and it never grew thick afterwards.  She had rheumatoid arthritis. She developed a kidney infection which made her back hurt severely.  She thought it was the arthritis hurting her so she didn't go to the doctor.  The kidney infection got so bad that it caused her to have a stroke. She was in the hospital from Jan 1960 to the last of April 1960. Dr. Tatum said she was going to die anyway so the family carried her home. She died May 6.

Though she stayed at home most of the time, she got out occassionaly.  Anna had rarely ever eaten a meal out.  Her daughter in law, Kitty, took her out, years later, to eat in town occassionally.  She really loved Johnnie's in East Tupelo.  Once she took Anna to town, and when they came back, she gave Kitty a mean look when they passed Johnnie's without stopping.  Kitty turned around!

Once, when Curtis was 4, he found Anna burning the skillets.  They would have to do this a few times a year, to burn off the accumulated grease that was too hard to come off otherwise.  He asked her "What the damn hell are you burning the skillets for?"  She asked him what he said, and he told her again. She tore him up!!!  He had heard an uncle say it and thought he was a big man by saying it to her, but he never did that again!

One of his children still tells that when Hilliard and his brother-in-law, William Henry Stovall, were still young men, they used to go out late at night and buy votes from neighbors in county elections.

In his family life, Hilliard ruled the roost.  He provided for his family but he was not affectionate or kind.  He worked his kids on Saturdays when other neighbors let theirs off.  He was tyrannical in many ways.

When his daughter in law's mother died, in the paper there was a goof and it read that she was a direct descendant of President Madison (she was a cousin, but Madison had no children).  Hilliard upbraided the daughter in law and her family for trying to be "uppity."

He got so mad at one of his grandchildren once that he would not speak to them for an entire year!  This was because they decided to buy a trailer when they got married and live between nearby, but not with Hilliard himself.  Hilliard wanted them to live in his house and take care of him.

He was a mean old man at times. But he was a smart man too.  An upstanding man.  Hilliard was, like his dad Alec, a very charitable man, especially to people down on their luck.  Curtis remembers once at the store at the Union community, Hilliard and Curtis ran into the wife of an elderly man, Henry Bacon, who had been sick all winter.  Hilliard gave her $50 and told her to take care of Henry.

He rarely drank a drop and never chased other women.  His son Curtis tells a funny story about this though.  Hilliard didn't drink often at all (almost never), but Curtis said that once he told him, when Curtis said he was going to the store, to get him some corn whiskey.  He said it was for medicine, and in those days it was common to take a spoonfull a day to help certain ailments.  A few days later, he didn't come home one afternoon for lunch.  Anna was looking for him, worried, and so Curtis went out to find him.  He found the mules were out of the pasture and kept looking for his dad.  Curtis finally found the wagon and in the back, Hilliard was passed out, holding the jug beside him!  It was the only time Curtis said he ever saw Hilliard drink.  The ride was bumpy on the way back, and he woke up.  He pleaded with Curtis, "Please don't tell Anna!!"

He was small, about 5'6" and very stout.  He went barefoot most of the time and some of his children thought he looked a little like an Indian in his old age.

In his later years Hilliard loved picking at the grandkids and teasing them.  Sunday afternoons was a gathering time at Hilliard and Anna's house. All the area kids would come to play with Hilliard's sheep, Ed.  They played a peculiar game with the sheep and some old wooden boards.  For some reason or another, the sheep would chase anyone who was not standing on a board. They would lay boards out, one less board than they had people. Whoever was not on a board being chased by a sheep, would run and push somebody off their board then they would have to run, and so on.

Hilliard was in a nursing home for five years before his death. He died in a home in Amory. He fell and broke his hip while in one of the two nursing homes. He died from pneumonia which developed from being old and not being able to get around.  Hilliard was old and unable to do a lot for himself.

Before Hilliard died, all the children met at his house to divide his belongings. They divided everything evenly and put it in piles. They drew names to determine who got each pile.  His son Roy bought up the other children's shares in the family land and continued to farm it until his death also.

Randy and Laura Morgan still have Hilliard's wallet and other papers.

Bernice Frances Morgan (md. Ben Gregory Ruff)

Herman Roy Morgan (md. Mary Kate Williams)

James Curtis Morgan (md. Mary Davis Patterson)

John Hugh Morgan (md. Connie Mae Hester)