Background
Hillman was born in Albany, New New York
Hillman was born in Albany, New New York
In 1848, at the age of 16, he moved with his family to New Orleans, Louisiana. Not long after relocating to New Orleans, Hillman accompanied his father on an expedition to California during the Gold Rush in April 1849, and stayed out west when his father returned to the east. On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon.
The lake was subsequently renamed Crater Lake.
Hillman shattered a knee in 1855 during the Rogue River Wars and returned east a few years later, settling to a farming life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had one daughter by this marriage who died as a child in 1874.