Submitted by Grandson Craig Peterson
Hester Mills arrived in Austin by train on September 10, 1880. Traveling with her, was husband Jacob Wesley Adams Mills and her ten children, Mary Charlotte Amelia Mills Culver, Rebecca Ellen Mills, Aurelia Jane Mills, John Sidney Mills, Elizabeth Ann Mills, Rosetta Elvira Mills, Lafayette Pascal Mills, Theodosia Adams Mills, Daniel Hooper Mills and Lillie Maud Mills. There was also a son in law, Lorenzo Culver, a sister Myra Elizabeth Maddox, neighbor boys, Henry Roberts and his cousin John Hearn, a future son in law. Another Roberts brother, Charles Roberts would soon join them and become another son in law by marrying “Eliza” Ann.
Hester Mills & 8 of her daughters
The trip had originated in the Eastern Maryland lands of the Dalarna Peninsula. All had descended from the earliest colonists and had relatives who aided or participated in the Revolutionary War. Several relatives were in the Maryland Navy.
Why this group left Maryland and choose Austin as their destination in not known. They share cropped land on the south bank of the Colorado. Charlie Roberts bought the farm next door. After a failed return to Maryland to retrieve his fiancé, he saw the young Eliza (she was 14) and marriage resulted.
Hester would have four more children born in Austin, Ethel Tonza Mills, Florence Mildred Mills, William Leander Mills, and Oscar Jacob Mills. With fourteen children (thirteen would reach majority), Hester’s descendants helped to grow the population of Austin and fill many of its cemeteries.
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