CONCENTRATION 745COMMENTARY
It is indeed possible that Hill knew of this family from his childhood, when he lived
in Wise County, Virginia, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Kentucky border.
It's also possible that he created the story by way of example, based it somewhat
loosely on his own family, and combined it with details of others he knew.
As told in A Lifetime of Riches, Napoleon's father, James Monroe Hill,
immigrated to America from England and adapted well to mountain living. Having
learned the printing trade from his father, after he was married he made his own
printing press and published the county's first newspaper. But it provided little
income, so in 1883 when "Nap" was born James gave up the paper to work as
a blacksmith and farmer. Later he helped establish a local post office, where he
became postmaster, and was also a trader and ran a general store.
When Napoleon was nine his mother died. A year later his father married
Martha Ramey Banner, a well-educated, cultured woman who, in addition to
imparting knowledge and values to Napoleon and his brother, would later
encourage James to become a dentist. But Martha's greatest contribution may
have been to turn Napoleon from a wild kid, who terrorized the county, toted a
six-shooter, and posed a serious disciplinary problem, into a young man with a
direction and dreams of success.
When Napoleon was twelve Martha offered to replace his gun with a
typewriter, saying, "If you become as good with a typewriter as you are with that
gun, you may become rich and famous and known throughout the world. "
Whether he accepted her offer as quickly as he accepted Carnegie's is unlikely,
but her early influences would certainly have prepared him for that day.For many years I have been studying the biographies of many of
those whom the world calls great, and it seems to me more than a
mere coincidence that in every instance where the facts were available,
the person who was really responsible for the greatness was in the
background, behind the scenes, and seldom heard of by the hero-
worshiping public.