Samuel Hill, New Salem’s most prosperous businessman, owned the only four-room, two-story house in the village.
The opulence reflected in the Hill residence was not common to the homes of New Salem.
Samuel Hill was also owner of the woolhouse and carding machine. In spring, during wool shearing time, farmers brought their wool to the warehouse in sacks, old bed quilts and petticoats, pinned with thorns from the honey locust.
The carding machine in action was New Salem’s most dramatic attraction. From dawn until darkness the weary treading of oxen hoofs on the cleated treadmill powered the squeaking, moaning, wooden gears of the carding machine.
Samuel Hill and John McNeal owned the most successful store in New Salem. It was the center of village life. Under its protective porch people gathered to argue the questions of temperance, travel and human slavery.