Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
© 2003 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
The Hills Family Papers (1830-1948) document the lives of several generations of Hills family members. Leonard Mariner Hills (1803-1872) and his wife, Amelia Gay, moved to Amherst in 1829. At that time, Leonard opened a small shop in East Amherst for the manufacture of straw hats. With the advent of industrialization, Leonard moved his shop to Amherst, and opened a factory, one of the first in Amherst. (Photographs and a description of the factory circa 1909 can be found in the collection.) Although it was based in Amherst, the company did most of its business in New York City where Leonard's son Henry Francis Hill (1833-1896) served as the company's sales agent. Although the business was ostensibly profitable, the New York office went bankrupt in 1870, and the company itself was dissolved in 1935.
Both Leonard Mariner Hills and Henry F. Hills were prominent citizens in the town of Amherst and were responsible for many civic improvements. Leonard Mariner Hills was president of the Amherst & Belchertown railway company, the first railroad company to come to Amherst. He also established and served as president of the First National Bank of Amherst. With his son Henry, he provided the original endowment for the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Henry F. Hills was one of the first directors of the Massachusetts Central Railway Company, the Amherst Gas Company and the Amherst Water Company. Henry was also an active church member and participated in the movement for the improvement of the grounds of Wildwood Cemetery. His wife, Adelaide Spencer Hills, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Henry F. Hills married Mary Adelaide Spencer of South Manchester, Connecticut in 1863. (For a genealogy of Mary AdelaIde Spencer, see genealogies of the Pitkin family [her mother's family], p. 120, and the Hollister family [her grandmother's family].) Their home, fondly referred to as "The Homestead," on Main Street in Amherst, first served as a summer home before becoming a permanent residence. They lived in New York City during the winter. Henry's father, Leonard M. Hills, built an almost identical home next door on the comer of Triangle and Main Street. The houses are still standing today, and currently house the Amherst Woman's Club (L.M. Hills House) and the Amherst Boys and Girls Club (H.F. Hills House.) Henry F. Hills and Adelaide Spencer Hills had five children: Leonard, Mary, Emily, Caroline and Susan. Leonard, and Mary's husband, Frank Whitman, joined the Hills Company.
Biographical sketches of chief members represented in the Hills Family Papers:
HILLS COMPANY CHRONOLOGY
The Hills Co., which manufactured palm leaf hats, was in fact two companies. The first one, the L.M. Hills Co., started by Leonard Mariner Hills in 1829, was based in Amherst, Mass. Business was also conducted in a New York City office. The New York City office went bankrupt in 1870 and the entire company was sold in 1872 to H.D. Fearing, Leonard M.'s son-in-law, and became the H.D. Fearing Co., which continued the business of manufacturing hats in Amherst. In 1877, the Hills Co. was reorganized and incorporated by Henry F. Hills, Leonard M.'s son, who built his factory across the railroad tracks from the H.D. Fearing Co. factories. The Hills Co. was dissolved in 1935, after more than 100 years.
The Hills Family Papers contain correspondence, deeds, personal financial records, photographs and memorabilia of several generations of this prominent Amherst family during the second half of the 19th century. As a record of a wealthy 19th century family, this collection is important because of its size, time span and completeness.
The correspondence provides a social, civic, economic, political and religious overview of the general state of society as well as daily observations about local matters and family life.
This collection is organized into thirteen series:
Note: Oversize material from all series are filed in Oversize Box 27
There is no restriction on access to the Hills Family Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items are restricted for preservation purposes.
Requests for permission to publish material from the Papers should be directed to the Archivist of the College. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
[Identification of item], in Hills Family Papers [Box #, folder #], Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library
The Hills Family Papers were donated to the Amherst College Archives on March 16, 1992. The Papers were originally deposited on extended loan in the Amherst College Archives in June 1982 by Hills Skillings (AC 1938).
SERIES 1: CORRESPONDENCE, 1830-1953, numbers well over one thousand pieces. The bulk of the correspondence falls between 1853 and 1910. The material is arranged in subseries by writer or recipient. The major subseries is correspondence from Henry F. Hills to his wife, Adelaide Spencer Hills. Henry's frequent absences from home on business trips as Purchasing/Sales Agent for the Hills Company account for his steady correspondence. Despite his warm conclusions, his letters have a general, newsy quality. Another significant subseries is correspondence to Adelaide Spencer Hills from Mary Hollister Pitkin, her grandmother, by whom she was raised. Grandma Pitkin, as she was commonly called, wrote poignantly to her granddaughter about aging (she lived to be almost 100) and her failing health. Mary (Mamie) and Emily, Henry and Adelaide's daughters, wrote numerous letters home while attending boarding school in New York.
There is also some correspondence from Henry F. Hills to his father, Leonard M. Hills and to other members of his family, and letters to Henry from various correspondents, including Austin Dickinson; several folders of correspondence to Adelaide Spencer Hills from other family members and friends; a small amount of Gay Family correspondence (Henry F. Hills' mother, Amelia Gay Hills' Family); and correspondence to Susan Clapp Hills (Skillings), about her engagement to David Skillings and her wedding.
SERIES 2: DIARIES, COMPOSITIONS, ESSAYS AND EXAMINATIONS, 1852-1920, contains a partial diary for 1871 and compositions written while at Monson Academy by Henry F. Hills; compositions written at Monson Academy by Leonard M. Hills, Henry's son; mechanical drawings by an unidentified Hills; essays and examinations for International Correspondence School; and an original comedy by Barrett Whitman. Material is arranged by creator and then by type.
SERIES 3: LEGAL PAPERS, 1785-1948 (bulk 1840-1890), is arranged in three subseries: Deeds, Estate Papers and General. Deeds contains primarily deeds and correspondence which document the exchange of numerous tracts of land in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island, arranged alphabetically by state. Estate Papers includes wills and papers relating to the estates of several Hills family members and others, arranged alphabetically by person. The General subseries includes papers relating to the founding and finances of Massachusetts Agricultural College; letters; contracts; wills; and miscellaneous documents arranged by type.
SERIES 4: FINANCIAL RECORDS, [1818]-1956, contains predominantly personal records arranged in two sequences: General Financial Records and Susan Hills Skillings Records. The General Financial Records Subseries is arranged by type or individual and includes stocks, bonds, bills, receipts, checks, promisory notes, insurance papers, notary public papers. This subseries also contains two folders of financial papers for the Henry Hills Company, which document Hills' frequent loans from Amherst College. The Susan Hills Skillings Records subseries contains personal financial records including bank statements, cancelled checks, deposit slips, promissory notes, trust fund and tax material, arranged by type.
SERIES 5: MEMORIALS AND OBITUARIES, 1861-1909, contains printed memorial volumes, poems and obituaries of Hills family members and friends, which are arranged alphabetically by name.
SERIES 6: MEMORABILIA, 1850-1957, contains miscellaneous materials created or kept by members of the Hills' extended family, which reflect their interests and activities. This material has been organized in four sub-series: Personal Material, Subject Material, Hills Company, and Hills Homestead.
Personal Material, arranged alphabetically by person, includes Adelaide Spencer Hills' cookbooks; Henry F. Hills' passport; David Nelson Skillings, Jr.'s phrenograph and the Pitkin coat of arms. Subject Material, arranged alphabetically by name or type, includes address books, cemetery maps, cookbooks and travel guides. The Hills Company subseris includes a description of the hat factory (c. 1909) and forms. The L.M. Hills Homestead subseries includes building specifications and blueprints.
SERIES 7: PRINTED MATERIAL, 1864-1955 includes books, pamphlets and speeches, arranged alphabetically by author or title; newsclippings about Amherst town or Hills family business, arranged alphabetically; and clippings about weddings and engagements arranged alphabetically.
SERIES 8: SCRAPBOOKS, 1883-1932, contains scrapbooks compiled by Leonard M. Hills, Susan Clapp Hills Skillings and [Henry Hills Skillings], arranged by person. For photographs removed from scrapbooks, see Series 9.
SERIES 9: PHOTOGRAPHS, c. 1873-1930, n.d. contain a wealth of visual information about the Hills family and friends. Many of the photographs, however, remain unidentified or undated. Forms include glassplates, metal plate and paper prints, and one folder of miscellaneous negatives. The photographs have been arranged into four subseries: Portraits, Group Photographs, Subjects and Scrapbook Photographs. Portraits have been divided into identified photographs, including many members of the Hills family, and arranged alphabetically by person; and unidentified photographs organized into three sub-subseries: Children, Female and Male portraits. Group Photographs have been divided as follows: Identified and Partially Identified photographs, arranged alphabetically Identified Persons; and Unidentified Photographs, divided into Children, Couples, Females, Males and Activities, including picnics and winter scenes, all arranged alphabetically. The Subjects subseries contains both identified and unidentified photographs arranged alphabetically by name of subject including animals, buildings, Hills Hat Factory, houses, views and miscellaneous photographs arranged by type, including commercial photographs, postcards and stereographs. Scrapbook Photographs include loose photographs from Leonard M. Hills' and Susan Clapp Hills Skillings' scrapbooks, divided by person.
See Caroline Cheney Hills Allen: Box 18, Folder 4, 1909 photograph
SERIES 10: REALIA, contains an unusual variety of objects owned by the Hills family. These objects are identified and arranged by type. Some of the more interesting objects include: Henry F. Hills' calling card plates, a "pince-nez," jet beads, a "sewing bird," and a leather bridle for horses.