James B. Hill

James B. Hill (born November 29, 1856, near Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio, died in 1945 in Raceland, Louisiana) was an American inventor.

[1] Hill worked as a drainage tiler in northwestern Ohio in the 1870s and 1880s, during which time he devised a wheel trencher that he later named the Buckeye Traction Ditcher (U.S. Patent 523-790; July 31, 1894[2]).

Finding his early machines bogged down by the mud of Louisiana, Hill designed wheels that could travel over soft, wet earth.

[1] While visiting business associates in Florida at the turn of the 20th century, Hill designed an early amphibious vehicle.

His son, Cloyse Adrian (aka Butch), married Elizabeth's daughter, Ada Jurgens.