Milling 'round Ireland: A Mills family story @millingroundireland - Tumblr Blog

Photograph of RBM I and Stanley (I think). This could be one of the photos Tom sent to Bob. This was published on my sister blog.

#mills #mills family #genealogy #family history #ancestry #black and white photography #date unknown

Photograph of John Mills. This could be one of the photos Tom sent to Bob. This was published on my sister blog.

#mills family #mills #genealogy #ancestry #family history #beards #john mills #date unkown #sepia photography

Colorized photo of Margaret Bibby, the wife of John Mills. This could be one of the photos Tom sent to Bob. This was published on my sister blog.

#bibby #margaret bibby #mills #mills family #colorized photo #date unkown #genealogy #family history #ancestry

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 6]

continued in part 6

Furthermore, Edward is clearly the son of Hollis and Blanche, as evidenced by the 1900 (when two Ellises are living in the household), 1910, and 1920 censuses. [9] The 1910 and 1920 censuses also prove that Ida is the daughter of Hollis and Blanche as well. However, there's still the question of Elizabeth Chalmers, whom apparently was Elizabeth Mortimer but became wife of Kenneth Chalmers. How is she connected? As it turns out, there is an 1940 census entry for a Coloradan man Kenneth Chalmers in Fort Collins City, Larimer, Colorado, married to an Elizabeth. Then there's a 1930 census entry to the same effect, showing them living in Hartsel, Park, Colorado. [10] This is clearly our Elizabeth. That being determined, what is her maiden name and when was she married? Well, we know that Elizabeth's full name is Elizabeth Muriel Mortimer and that she married Kenneth Wadley Chalmers on November 21,1925 in Colorado Springs. We also know that Kenneth, born in 1899, died in 1962 while Elizabeth, born in 1904, died in 1986. We only have one source for Elizabeth prior to marriage listed on Family Search: a 1920 census listing her as the daughter of Stella L. Mortimer. Perhaps this is the Stella Mills whom was said to be Hollis's sister. [11] After all, this census lists her as born in 1881, pretty close to the estimated 1880 I saw on Family Search.

Since her Family Search profile is inadequate, I looked further. The 1930 and 1940 censuses list her as married to an English-born man, John H. Mortimer, who was born in 1871, with the 1910 census also listing Elizabeth as her daughter. [12] However, the 1900 and 1910 censuses say she was born in 1880, while the 1930 and 1940 censuses say she was born in 1881. The 1910 and 1920 censuses lists John's immigration date as 1894. This means he is the individual listed in varied records as born in Cornwall, England. [13] As another clue, the 1900 census shows John and Elizabeth living right next to Edward E. Mills and Edna Russell in Sanborn Precinct, Lincoln County, Colorado:

This census seems to say that Stella and John were married in 1900. But what about the Stella Mills claim? Let's go back to that Family Search profile. Basically the "source" just cites the 1900 census as evidence! This isn't good.

So far, I haven't found anything, even looking in the 1880 census specifically, to support that Stella is the sister of Hollis, and by extension, the daughter of Edward E. and Edna. Perhaps the evidence is out there, but I haven't found it yet. I did find the obituary of Kenneth, who was a Colorado state conservationist, which noted that at his death his wife Elizabeth and his half-sister Belle Wadley were surviving. I couldn't find much in Colorado Historical Newspapers Collection either, unfortunately.

So, this is a good first attempt! Until next time.

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

#mills #chalmers #mills family #chalmers family #family history #ancestry #genealogy #1900 #1910 #1880 #1881 #1920 #census #1871 #mysteries #wordpress #20th century #19th century

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 5]

continued from part 4

While this Edward Mills cannot be his father, it is an interesting connection. Perhaps that is his son. One death record listing notes four Millses, but no death record for Hollis, sadly:

Hollis was also on a jury in Colorado Springs in 1903.

I did find, however, a photo of Hollis in the 1920s:

Courtesy of page 31 of Images of America: Park County, assembled by the Park County Local History Archives, which has a resource file for the Mills family

Continuing the story, there are records showing an Edward E. Mills in Colorado in 1891 and 1896. I searched on Fulton History and got nothing! Thanks to the Park County Local History Archives, with their name index database, they had a whole list of photos of the Mills family provided by one Marguerite (Mills) Payne (who may be still living). One picture answers the question about who Elizabeth Chalmers, Ida Spindle, and Edward E. are:

Left to right: Edward Mills, Elizabeth Mortimer (became wife of Kenneth Chalmers), and Ida Mills (became wife of Berthelot Spindle). Source: Mills Family from Marguerite (Mills) Payne

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

#mills family #mills #spindles #spindles family #spindle family #ancestry #genealogy #family history #wordpress #death records #1920s #1903 #sheep herding #family tree #1940 #census #1870s #1930s

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 4]: Ellis Spindle and Robert Spindle

continued from part 3

So, we are stuck in quite a pickle! The land tract books are confusing and hard to use, the land records from Denver only give one entry for an Edward H. Mills, and the 1885 census is not helpful here. The Internal Revenue Assessment Lists do not have El Paso County! The Colorado State Archives, interestingly, definitely has some records on Hollis:

Same record is listed in another index. He was actually married to Blanche Ellis, but at least this record exists.

I thought my quest was at a dead end, and lo and behold I came upon the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. From this, we know that, for Hollis [7]:

He owned an El Paso County Farm, in Colorado Springs as early as 1910

He was listed as a rancher in 1911

He was appointed, in 1911, superintendent of South Park Land & Live Stock Co., in place of J.F. Rhodes, with him and his wife living on the Hartsel ranch

He was moving his sheep to the mountains in the summer of 1914

He was an east bound passenger from Hartsel in 1914

In 1914, his wife was ill in Colorado Springs

A Ms. Hollis R. Mills (his wife) and himself were hosts at a St. Patrick's Day Party in 1915 at the Hartsel hotel

In 1917, Hollis is elected president of the Colorado Sheep Growers' Association

He was a member of a stockgrowers association in 1920

In 1921, he , his wife, and his daughter Ida visit in Leadville

He was a witness to a land sale in Howbert, Colorado in 1923

He was vice-president of the Leadville-Holy Cross Sheepgrowers Association in 1924

Hollis is nominated for county commissioner of the 3rd district by the Republican party in 1926

He is second vice-president of the Colorado Wool Growers Association in 1930

Hollis is a director of the Park County Wool Growers Association in 1931

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

#spindles #spindles family #family history #genealogy #ancestry #colorado #el paso county #wordpress #1920s #mills family #mills #sheep #sheep industry #sheep herding

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 3]

continued from part 2

Now, the necessary link is from Hollis R. Mills to Edward E. Mills (1848-1918). Hollis is not living in the household of Edward and Edna in 1900, whom are living in Lincoln, Colorado, United States at the time with two lodgers. [5] This census also estimates their marriage date as 1871. A New York State Census of 1892 lists a "Mabel E Mills" but this person is a daughter of Henry C. Mills and Annie Mills, so I'm not sure they are related. Reportedly Hollis had a sister named Stella whom was born in 1880, but I can't find anything about here more than what is claimed in varied genealogies online.

I held out hope that the 1880 census would mention this connection. [6] The first page Family Search sent me to was discouraging as it only listed Edward and his wife Edna, but no children. The next page mentions an Ira Whitney with a Robert Mills, a laborer, in the household, obviously RBM I. But why is Edward and Edna's child not mentioned? That seems strange to say the least. It brings up all sorts of questions. We know that Hollis is living in a similar area to Edward and Edna in 1900 but this still does not prove a connection conclusively.

However, we do have photos of Edna Russell and her son Hollis Mills and his wife Blanche Ellis, which is great, thanks to a descendant on FamilySearch, mikespindle:

Edna Russell

Hollis Mills

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

continued in part 4

#spindles #spindle family #ancestry #genealogy #family history #photos #19th century #1900 #1871 #1892 #wordpress #census

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 2]

Continued from part 1

It is not known if any of the other Spindles in the same cemetery are related. We can easily find Hollis R. Spindle (1930-1998). However, Robert B. Spindle does not seem to be on Find a Grave currently.

I found Ida and Berthelot's marriage in a Colorado marriage index [2]:

Thanks to a profile of Ida, whose full name was apparently Ida Stella Mills, we can find her in the 1910 and 1920 censuses, with Hollis R. Mills (1877-1934) listed as her father and Blanche Ellis (1879-1949) as her mother [3]. In 1910 they were living in the El Paso County Hospital in El Paso, California, and in 1920 they were living in Hartsel, Park, Colorado. It is clear from the censuses, shown below, that she had a brother named Edward. We can't be sure about Elizabeth Chalmers just yet.

For Ida, she is listed in Hollis Spindle's 1998 obituary, which is indexed completely incorrectly on Family Search, and her obituary is abstracted in one record. [4] Beyond this, one can also find Ida, with her husband Berthelot in the 1930 and 1940 censuses, living in Park, Colorado. It shows she has two sons, Hollis R. and Robert B., just as was noted in her obituary!

1930 census

1940 census

On Family Search there is even a photo of "Ida Mills Spindle and Berthelot Swenson Spindle" as a user named mikespindle calls it, with the year not known:

As for Ida Spindle, we know from the Windsor Beacon that she hosted a matrons club in 1960, that she was part of the Eastern Star in 1962 (along with the Garden Club), was a member of the OES in 1964 (and in 1962), along with many other topics.

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

continued in part 3

#marriage #spindles #spindle family #genealogy #ancestry #family history #20th century #colorado #census #1910 #1920 #el paso county #hartsel park #familysearch #obituary #1930 #children

Who are the Spindles anyway? [Part 1]

This is a rough chart of all the 33 mentioned in RBM I's will. The names of many of the spouses are known, but are not added. Note that Robert Mills (whom he calls Robert Packard) is considered a child of RBM I here, even though RBM I was his adopted father. The ancestry of the Billmans (Dr. B. Billman and Mrs. B. Billman), Cunninghams (Joyce and Bessie), Clarence A. Hammond, Jr., Mrs. R.H. Hodgins, and Mrs. Marion Robbins is not currently known. The connection of Edward Mills to his grandchildren is speculated here. It could also be through a daughter. It is only theorized that Elizabeth Chalmers is a sister of Ida and Edward E. This could be wrong.

RBM I's will mentions over 30 people, giving a whole new genealogy I wasn't aware of previously. It also gives a list of places where his relatives are living. [1] Some are living in Fort Collins, Colorado, like Elizabeth Chalmers (RBM I's grandniece), and others in Como, Colorado, like Ida Spindle (RBM I's grandniece), Hollis Spindle (Ida's son), and Robert Spindle (Ida's son). There are even some in Colorado Springs, like Edward E. Mills (RBM I's grandnephew), Jean Marie Mills (Edward's daughter), Marjorie Mills (Edward's daughter). We know well those who were living in Cheviot (RBM II, Helen, and Carol). There were others in Heath, Massachusetts (RBM I's nephew Charles Packard), Melrose, Massachusetts (RBM I's niece, Margaret Brown), Littleton, New Hampshire (RBM I's niece, Mary Church), Dalton, Massachusetts (RBM I's nephew John Packard), Bridgeport, Connecticut (RBM I's niece Marion Deane), South Boston, Massachusetts (RBM I's niece Mabel Whitley Landstrom). We already know about those nieces and nephews fully well. But what about Elizabeth Chalmers of Fort Collins, Colorado, the Spindles (Ida, Hollis, and Robert) of Como, Colorado, and the Millses of Colorado Springs (Edward E., Jean Marie, and Marjorie)?

In order to answer this question, I turned to newspapers.com first. Unfortunately the Fort Collins Coloradoan only goes back to 1972. So, I didn't find anything for Elizabeth Chalmers there. On Find a Grave there is only one pertinent result of an Elizabeth Chalmers who lived from 1904 to 1986. But that early birth date makes me doubt it is her. In order to figure out a bit more, we should step back to RBM I's brother, Edward. I described him in a short entry on Find A Grave:

Edward was born in July 8, 1848, born in Glens Falls, Warren, New York, United States. Evidence does not show he served in the Civil War at age 17. Instead, he was a farm laborer in Chester, Warren, New York, USA from 1870-1875, at least, married to a woman named Edna, and living with his brother, Robert Mills, and others. He would stay as an agricultural laborer until 1900, while possibly being a butcher (along with other jobs) in Brooklyn, New York, USA over the years. In 1910, he was a boarder at the Hotel Sterling, a hotel run by his brother, Robert Mills. He died on Feb. 14, 1918 in Colorado, 9 years after his wife had passed on August 6, 1909.

This post was originally published on WordPress in February 2019.

#family chart #family tree #genealogy #ancestry #family history #last will and testament #mysteries #wordpress #mills family #mills #spindle #spindle family #tombstones

Sure look it: Joseph and Anne hitched up in Tipperary!

There's a lot about the Millses in Ireland we still don't know. I've talked on this blog before about John Mills's journey in 1835 from Ballysheehan in County Tipperary in Southern Ireland to upstate New York, settling in Warren County, the fact that the Bibby family, which John's wife Margaret was part of, also came from the same county, the scattered mentions of Millses in census fragments from Ireland from the 1820s all the way to the 1870s, and that fact that the Millses came from the "heartland of Ireland" which was then part of the United Kingdom, most of which, apart from the northern section, become it's own independent country. Apart from that, I've found records, as I've recounted on here, of Millses in Dublin and the same county, the possible similarities in terrain between Southern Ireland and upstate New York, records of various John Millses in the 1820s in the same county, and records the National Archives of Ireland has on Millses. Furthermore, I've talked about Ireland's various famines (like the potato famine), so-called "goat gangs" or that Bob Mills at one point spent time in Ireland itself, if I have that right. Whether John and Margaret, who raised the Mills family of 10 children (by my count) [1] in Glen Falls, Chester, and other towns on Warren County, [2] grew up poor we will never know, but we can say they seem to have grown up in a rural area, connecting to what I've mentioned in passing before, with the same said on whether John Mills was a canal boat captain, or all the specifics of John's early years in Warren County, even as his death date of 1876 is pretty clear.

With that being said, and since this blog is focused on "the Irish history of my familial roots" as I noted back in March 2018, with a cast of important characters, informed by the existing history of the U.S. and Ireland, I was excited to see this email from FamilySearch:

It left open the possibility of getting one of the questions I asked back in April 2018 fulfilled, at least in part: who were John Mills's parents?

The records themselves were marriage bonds of Joseph Mills and Anne Ryall! They would have, if my implications are right, possibly six children: Rachael, Thomas, Edward, Isaac, and Dorothea "Dorothy," and John. [3] Unfortunately, I have no direct evidence that Joseph and Ann are the parents, so I am only going with the supposition right now. Anyway, here are screenshots from the pages [4] which show Joseph Mills and Anne Ryall married in Emly, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1796:

This post was originally published on WordPress in November 2020.

Wasting away in Massachusetts: Dora Mills and the scourge of tuberculosis [Part 2]

Continued from part 1

Given that TB is that infectious, I'm not sure how Joseph Beals (and likely his wife Hattie) visited her a couple times every week without getting infected himself. Did he wear a mask like people are doing with the COVID-19 crisis? [3] At the time that the American Lung Association was formed 11 years after the death of Dora, in 1904, dedicated itself to TB, calling itself the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the treatment of the disease was not reliable. While purgings and bleedings were occasionally prescribed by physicians but most of the time, "doctors simply advised their patients to rest, eat well, and exercise outdoors" and very few recovered. Thomas Gaetz wrote in his book, The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis about the environment of death which pervaded the 19th century:

To live in the 19th century was to experience infectious disease as a constant, to have death loom around any corner, and to always live in fear that a cold, a rash, or a cough might soon be the end of one’s days on earth...The 19th century, though, was a 100-year dirge from one horrid epidemic to another. Cholera, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, measles—all of these pulsed through growing urban populations of the 1800s, killing thousands and then stealthily retreating for a generation or two, waiting for immunity to fade, before returning to kill thousands once more...All told, the pervasiveness of tuberculosis and the impotence of medicine to treat it created a specter of misery in 19th century Europe and America. To live in this environment would have been to be always reminded of the presence of death.

Although many patients of TB (known as consumption) sought a cure in sanatoriums, with the belief that rest and "a healthful climate could change the course of the disease." This built upon the discovery by Robert Koch in 1882 that TB wasn't transmitted genetically but generally contagious, and was "somewhat preventable through good hygiene." Eventually the medical community embraced the findings of Koch, with U.S. later launching "massive public health campaigns to educate the public on tuberculosis prevention and treatment." TB even shaped Victorian fashion. When Dora died, the skin test for TB was years off, with Clemens von Pirquet and Charles Mantoux developed the test in 1907 and 1908, with extracts of the tuberculosis bacillus "injected under the skin, and body’s reaction was measured." Even worse, often those infected with TB couldn't afford medical care, leading to increased deaths and suffering, with the last phase of TB as fatal. According to a map shared by Brian Altonen, MPH, MS, focusing on Public Health, Medicine and History, on his blog, focusing on diseases in 1890, TB was prevalent in New England, including in Massachusetts itself.

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2020.

#tuberculosis #disease #death #massachusetts #family history #genealogy #ancestry #1890s #1895 #mills #mills family #beals #beals family #covid 19 #pandemic #wordpress

Wasting away in Massachusetts: Dora Mills and the scourge of tuberculosis [Part 1]

In the past I've written about my great-great grandmother Dora Mills, one of the key ancestors I have focused on as part of this blog, part of the general family story. As a refresher, she was born in Glens Falls, a small town in upstate New York on June 1, 1849, a date derived from my calculations through various records, the daughter of a huge family headed by John Rand Mills and Margaret Ann Bibby. She lived in Warren County, staying in the same town, but also living in nearby municipalities like Bolton and Chester. She later moved to Western Massachusetts after she married Cyrus Winfield "Winnie" Packard sometime after their marriage on November 21, 1881 at the Glens Falls Methodist Episcopalian Church. She would live in Cummington and Plainfield, especially in the latter, until her death in 1895, and would be the mother of Robert "Bert" Barnabas Packard, along with many other children, whose last name was later changed to Mills, becoming Robert Byron Packard (RBM II) after Dora's brother, a hotel proprietor named Robert "Uncle Rob" Byron Mills (RBM I), with Uncle Rob adopting Bert and bringing him to Cincinnati with his wife, Hattie Stanley. As I've written in the past, when Dora died, she did not have a will or administration, and this is because the "attitude of romantic paternalism," prevailed in U.S. law, with men seen as "protectors" of women. Even though Massachusetts (as did New York) had a law which allowed married women to have property at the time, the Massachusetts Supreme Court said this only applied to property a woman "had as separate property” while that she could not own property with her husband jointly. Even if Cyrus believed in this notion, thinking that women should have a "domestic" housework goal, Dora clearly worked outside the home before her marriage, as I have noted that she worked as a shirtwaist worker in the 1880s, and a teacher in the 1870s.

Putting aside the aftermath of Dora's death, as I wrote on my Packed with Packards! blog, Dora died on February 5, 1895 of tuberculosis (TB) in the town of Plainfield, then buried in the Pottersville New Cemetery within Pottersville, a town in Warren County, 35 miles away from her birthplace of Glens Falls, likely because it was near her "surviving family members." I also noted that in West Cummington on May 11, 1895, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Mountain Miller Women’s Relief Corps hosted a memorial service for her, meaning that she had ties to both of these organizations. In the documents I looked at which are part of the Packard family file at the Cummington Historical Museum (which I wish I had taken a photograph of), there are documents noting that Joseph Beals, Dora’s brother-in-law (through marriage to Dora's sister Hattie) described Dora as “kind to everybody” and said that he knew Dora through her “sickness," visiting her 2-3 times a week. I speculated that that this indicated she was sick from 1889, when Hattie and Joseph married, to 1895, but that is probably too long of a time frame to be honest.

"Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch: 6 April 2020), Dora A. Mills Packard, 05 Feb 1895; citing Plainfield, Massachusetts, v 455 p 45, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 961,516.

To get some more information, I looked back at her death record in the death registry and it says that her parents were both born in Great Britain, which is technically correct as Great Britain controlled Ireland at the time, and that she died at home. It also misstated her age, but that's whole other discussion I'm not getting into right now, as that deserves its own post.

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2020.

#tuberculosis #mills #mills family #disease #death #family history #genealogy #ancestry #cummington #massachusetts #beals #beals family #packards #packard family #packard #temperance movement #1890s

Uncle Rob and the hotel business [part 4]

Continued from part 3

The same article described him as "well known in hotel circles throughout the United States, having managed hotels in the Middle West" and as "past President of the Ohio Hotels Association" along with ten years as General Manager of the Grand Hotel (since Mar 1, 1918).

By 1929, the following year he was still the hotel's proprietor. [11] And the year after that, this did not change, as indicated in specific records within the city directory:

Page 715 of the Cincinnati 1930-1931 Directory, courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

One of those records even listed his adopted son, Bert, who was then an insurance agent in Cheviot:

Page 1223 of the Cincinnati 1930-1931 Directory, yellow arrows that I added to this image for descriptive purposes, point to Rob (R B) and Bert ("Robt")

Additionally, he was part of the automobile association in the state of Ohio. In 1932, it was announced that the Grand Hotel would be closing their doors, with one publication saying that "this is sad news for B & O employees who have enjoyed the hospitality of R.B. Mills for many years," saying that he was "always anxious to please the railroad men and on many occasions went out of his way to make us feel comfortable." [12] By June 1934, he was described by the same magazine as "manager of the Hotel Sinton-St. Nicholas." That is where this image fits in, proving this as correct:

Courtesy of mgk_man on ebay (also see here).

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2019.

#hotel industry #hotel management #hotel #cincinnati ohio #ohio history #mills family #mills #ancestry #genealogy #family history #1929 #1918 #cheviot #adoption #wordpress #1934 #1932 #obituary #1950 #1905 #1953

Uncle Rob and the hotel business [part 3]

Continued from part 2

At the same time, Rob was defending the interests of the hotel industry before the state legislature as the continued Manager, Vice-President, and Director of the Grand Hotel [10] This is no surprise as he was a chairman for the second congressional district of Ohio for the American Hotel Association and attended the association's meeting.

Ad for the Grand Hotel on page 566 of The Official Hotel Red Book and Directory, which was published in 1920. Also see page 568.

In 1922, he was described as the hotel proprietor and manager:

Page 615 of the Cincinnati 1922 City Directory (Cincinnati: Williams Directory Company, 1922).

And the hotel rates were described:

Page 1926 of the Cincinnati 1922 City Directory (Cincinnati: Williams Directory Company, 1922).

Rob was also, at that time, Treasurer of the Cincinnati Hotel Association:

Chilton Hotel Supply Index [Chilton Company: May 1922], p 469.

He was pictured six years later in a Cincinnati Inquirer article noting how he was elected as the general manager and president of the Grand Hotel:

Continued in part 4

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2019.

Notes

[10] The Hotel World: The Hotel and Travelers Journal [1920], Vol. 90, p 21, 31, 56-7, 74, 85.

#hotel management #hotels #cincinnati ohio #ohio history #mills #mills family #genealogy #family history #ancestry #20th century #wordpress #hotel industry #1920s #1920 #1922 #grand hotel

Uncle Rob and the hotel business [part 2]

Continued from part 1

The following year, 1907, he was said to be working at the Hunts Hotel in Cincinnati. [2] Three years later, Rob and the rest of his family "would all be living at the Hotel Sterling." The following year, he was described as "formerly of Hotel Bennett, Binghamton, N. Y., and Grand Hotel, New York City." It was around that time that Reverend Charles Frederic Goss wrote a biography of Rob for his book in Cincinnati. By 1917, he was appointed manager of the back part of the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati, working with W.E. Hawk, the assistant manager. [3]

Two years later, in 1919, there was an article in The Hotel World about Rob, working at the Grand Hotel in Cincinnati who had been recently elected to the hotel directorate after being a manager of the hotel for "several years," even a new vice-president of the Ohio State Hotel Association. [4] He outlined some of the "most essential" elements of hotels, in order to make them "efficient," in a letter to employees where he explained a bonus system, writing in a manner that somewhat reflects bosses in the corporate world today, the "corporate pursuit of happiness" as one article a few years ago called it:

The most essential items in the conduct of a hotel are courtesy, the elimination of waste, and faithful attention to one's work by putting forth our best efforts. Think what it would mean if our force of 125 people [at the Grand Hotel] all set out to be courteous to the guests and to one another, cut out all waste--which means turning out lights when not needed, turning off water, saving soap, stationary of all kinds, heat, coal, steam linen, butter, cream, sugar, matches, time and many other things. The directors have put us in charge of this hotel and we can make it just what we wish. We can fill the hotel to capacity every day by being courteous, alert, and giving quick, careful attention to service. Then, if each one of us is a committee of one to boost and smile, we will get the new rooms, and if we get them, we will fill them. Be thoughtful of noise in the falls at all times and especially in the morning. People often retire late and want a little beauty sleep until about 8 or 9 in the morning. The dining room is a touchy institution and requires the closest study, and courtesy always wins there. One thing which we should be careful about is to watch the patrons when they come in the dining room door and be sure to seat them. If the head waiter is busy elsewhere or if his attention is taken up, the other waiters should take it upon themselves to see that the guest receives the proper attention....Let us all get the habit to make the Grand Hotel one bright spot, and one year from now take account of stock and see if it pays.

These views were no surprise, as the previous year, the Grand Hotel, called "one of Cincinnati's older hostelries," was being remodeled with addition of thirty guest rooms and a number of baths, with Rob "placed in charge of the hotel" after being joint manager of the Hotel Gibson. [5] Elsewhere he was described as one of the "prominent people" in the hotel industry, as the previous "co-manager of the Hotel Gibson" with W.E. Hawk in Cincinnati. With this, it was noted as taking "management of the Hotel Grand in that city," [6]

By the 1920s, he was providing a space for a group called the Cincinnati Carriage Makers' Club to meet, even addressing them at their meeting in May 1920 [7]. The hotel orchestra even played for this group. As it turns out, this group was made up of those whom tried to sell their horseless carriages, dreaming up passenger vehicles in the early 20th century. Most of the articles on them, including from webpages on the Carriage Museum of America's website focus on their role in the 1880s or 1890s. By 1917, they, part of the Carriage Builders National Association, seemed to be in the business of selling vehicles of some kind [8], while also talking about automobiles, that looked like:

Left to right: First image courtesy of the Spokesman and Harness World, Vol. 33, p 84. Second image courtesy of the Spokesman and Harness World, Vol. 33, 194. Third image courtesy of The Spokesman and Harness World, Vol. 33, 195.

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2019.

#mills family #mills #cincinnati ohio #ohio history #hotels #hotel management #grand hotel #1920s #1910s #carriages #horseless carriages #wordpress #genealogy #ancestry #family history #20th century

Uncle Rob and the hotel business [part 1]

Burnet House and Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati in circa 1900, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Also see "The Burnet House, Cincinnati, Ohio" image a few years later. Rob worked at the Burnet House.

In September 1970, Tom Packard of Plainfield, MA told Bob Mills about Robert “Uncle Rob” Byron Mills I, the foster father of RBM II (Bert), noting that Rob was "in Heath with Charles Packard before he died, even coming to Plainfield to stay with Tom and his family." But more can be said about Rob, as we can call him in this article, especially when it comes to hotels. Highlighting in this post is through the programs I used for this article and is not reflected in the original records, to be clear.

One of the first descriptions of him and his role in the industry was on page 351 of the August 1899 issue (no. 8) of the Masonic Voice and Review:

Mr. R.B. Mills, the new proprietor, is young in years, but ripe in experience. He has had superior advantages and thoroughly understands the hotel business. He is pleasant and agreeable, and has a watchful eye to the comforts and wants of the patrons of the house. If you contemplate a visit to the city [of Cincinnati], on business or for pleasure, stop at the New Sterling [later renamed Hotel Sterling]. If you are looking for a resident hotel for yourself and family, with the surroundings and atmosphere of home, go to the New Sterling. There is no better nor more comfortable house in the Queen City.

This would make sense because the 1900 census shows him, his wife Hattie, and Bert, living in Cincinnati! By 1901, he was listed as the manager, with George D. Potts, of The Burnet House in Cincinnati:

Ad for the Burnet House in International Railway Journal, Vol 9, p 51. This ad is repeated on pages 43 and 47.

That was the same year that Rob and Hattie would have their only natural child, Stanley Sterling Mills, and they were living at "Cincinnati’s Hotel Sterling, which sat at Cincinnati’s West End at 6th and Central Streets" as I've written in the past. I don't wish to cover the same ground I did in that post, but I may add in mentions to it here and there.

This post was originally published on WordPress in May 2019.

#hotels #hotel management #ohio history #cincinnati ohio #family history #genealogy #burnet house #ancestry #wordpress #20th century #masons #1970 #census #hotel sterling #1900s #grand hotel

The story of Harry Church and Mary Hammond

On May 12, 1880, Mary Emogene Hammond was born in Bolton, Warren County, New York. She would marry Harold "Harry" David Church on May 3, 1899 in Goshen, Hampshire, Massachusetts. She would then die on September 2, 1953 in East Derry, Rockingham, New Hampshire, with her husband dying in 1969. On Find A Grave, we know that they had at least four children: Joseph, Clarence, Edith, and Georgie. But there is more to the story than this. Mary's parents were Hetabella "Hattie" Belle Mills and Hannibal T. Hammond.

In June 1869, Hattie and Hannibal had married. The following year, they boarded with Hattie's family, the Mills Family, in Chester, Warren, New York with Phebe Bibby who could be the adopted child of the couple.In 1871, their first child, Joseph, was born. Five years later, their second child, Clarence, was born. Then in 1880, Mary was born. By 1880, Hattie and Hannibal were living in Glens Falls, Warren, New York. Hannibal was a carpenter and Dora was staying in the same household. He would due on December 14, 1886 in Cummington, Massachusetts with Cyrus W. Packard (Dora's husband) serving as an informant for his birth, death, and other information. When Hannibal died, he was age 53, 10 months, 17 days, married, dying of "consumption" (tuberculosis) and being a farmer. His parents were listed as Perry G. Hammond (born in Caldwell, NY) and Mary Ann Hammond (born in Granville, NY). He would live his last days in Cummington.

But where did this leave Hattie? Well, on December 22, 1889, three years after Hannibal's death, she married a man named Joseph Beals. Little is known of her life after this point. We do know that in 1900 she was living with her husband Joseph in Goshen Town, within Massachusetts’s Hampshire County, with Marian and Charles E. Packard, children of Dora and Cyrus, living with them, along with Edith B. Hammond, a daughter of hers from the marriage with Hannibal. Ten years later, in 1910, she was still living in Goshen but with her daughter Edith and she was widowed, evidencing Joseph Beals’s death. There was also a boarder named George A. Andrews is living with them. As such, it makes sense that she died in 1912. Her death certificate says she died of chronic vascular heart disease on Aug. 3, 1912, and says her birth date is Jan. 29, 1850, with these days treated as correct but the year totally false. This is due to the fact that the 1855 census shows her living in the household and as age 12 (meaning that she would be born in 1843), to give one example:

Mills families in Bolton in 1855 (see bottom entry of Mills family, specifically he one labeled "Hetabella Mills."

Or see the 1850 census, calling her Hetabella, which says she is age 9 (which is why I said she was born in 1841 on her Find a Grave bio):

This post was originally published on WordPress in March 2019.

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