[1] Born on August 9, 1853, in Porter County, Indiana, he came to California with his uncle when he was fourteen; his father had come West shortly before Andrew's birth but died of exhaustion and exposure after surviving an Indian attack.

In the earthquake of 1906, Hill's studio and the works there were destroyed, as was his painting The Murphy Party, which hung in the historical room of the California Pioneers Association in San Francisco and depicted the first settlers crossing Sunset Pass.

In 1899, Hill was commissioned by the English The Wide World Magazine to photograph the scenery at what is now called Big Trees Grove at Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains after a forest fire had been put out with wine from a local winery.

He had an altercation with the landowner, who demanded payment for allowing photographs of the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees and told him that they "were destined to become firewood and railroad ties.

Just as the gate closed, the thought flashed through my mind that these trees, because of their size and antiquity, were among the natural wonders of the world, and should be saved for posterity.

I argued that as I had been furnishing illustrations for a number of writers, whom I knew quite well, that there was a latent force, which, when awakened to a noble cause, would immediately respond, and perhaps arouse the press of the whole country.

[2] After nearly two years of lobbying legislators in Sacramento, California, in which Father Kenna's persuasion of the Catholic members, who were then in the majority, was crucial,[8] and after securing a monetary guarantee from Phelan, a bill that allocated $250,000 to purchase the Big Basin land passed.

As stated in Eugene T. Sawyer's history of Santa Clara County, "Mr. Hill had a public duty to perform, and he went at it with a singleness of purpose which has made men conquerors of fate since the beginning of time.

"[14] In the book Big Basin Redwood Forest by Traci Bliss, Hill's photographic contributions to saving Big Basin Redwoods State Park are highlighted along with revealing the significant roles women played in this endeavor.”[15] The California State Parks named the Hill Award for Inspiration after him.