Check with wedge cancel. Civil War Era dated! Sam Hill is an American English slang phrase, a euphemism or minced oath for "the devil" or "hell" personified (as in, "What in the Sam Hill is that?"). Etymologist Michael Quinion and others date the expression back to the late 1830s; they and others consider the expression to have been a simple bowdlerization, with, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an unknown origin. Candidate referents for the use date back to at least the 19th century. The following are possibilities of the term's origin. Euphemism for the devil: H. L. Mencken suggested that the phrase derives from Samiel, the name of the Devil in Der Freischtz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber that was performed in New York City in 1825. The phrase "Sa' m Hill" can also be seen in the variant "Samil". Store owner in Arizona: Sam Hill was also a mercantile store owner who offered a vast and diverse inventory of goods. People began using the term "what in the Sam Hill is that?" to describe something they found odd or unusual, just like the inventory found in Sam Hill's store. The original Sam Hill Mercantile building still stands on Montezuma Street in Prescott, Arizona, and is listed on the register of Historic Places. Politician in Connecticut: An article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled "Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford, Connecticut" mentioned that, "Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his s Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.