My Great Grandfather, Samuel Sandys Hillier

This is how it looked in 1994.

Samuel Sandys Hillier was born at Cowage Farm, Bremilham, Malmsbury Wiltshire, England on 22 December 1850.  He was a son of William Hillier and Elizabeth Pike.  In 1861, he appears on the census twice...
In the household of his father at Royal Oak, Bremilham, Malmsbury, as a son age 11.
In the household of Joseph Whale in Corston St., St. Paul, Malmsbury, as a visitor age 11.  He may have been going to school at this second place.

On 23 July 1872, he married Mary Ann "Molly" Newth, a daughter of William Pride Newth and Elizabeth "Betsy" Adkins.  They were married Malmsbury, Wiltshire.  Right after their marriage, they emigrated to the USA and settled in Hastings, Adams Co., Nebraska.  Then, after a trip to England in 1877-1878, they returned and settled in Kansas.  The reason for the trip to England in 1877 was his father's death.  They were first in Gettysburgh and Nicodemus, Graham Co. and then in Lenora, Norton Co., Kansas.  They moved to Pomona, Los Angeles Co., California in about 1886.

Samuel was a butcher most of his life but took up the sale of real estate in Pomona in about 1890.  In studying the Hillier family in England, I found that there were other butchers.  It may have been a family trade passed down.  He became a citizen of the United States in 1888.

Samuel and Mary Ann had thirteen children, nine of whom survived to adulthood.  They were Elizabeth Sarah Grace, William Sandys (died young), George John Ernest, Ruth (died young), Mabel Mary, Allen (died young), Charles Arthur "Charlie", John (died young), Ernest Stephen (my grandfather), Herbert Henry, Ray, Mary Edith, Nelly Ruth (died young).  Sometime before 1904, they were divorced while several of the children were still at home.  Samuel married Alice Erskine in Yuma, Arizona in 1904 and they had one child, Stuart Samuel, together in 1907.  By 1914, they were separated and she was married to someone else.  Mary Ann Newth never remarried.

My father lived with his grandmother Mary Ann Newth Hillier for a while as a child.  He had many stories to tell about the two bachelor uncles, Herbert and Ray, who were still at home at this time.  One story was about the Halloween when one of them (with the help of some friends) turned the outhouse over on its side -- the door side -- while the other one was in there and then ran off.  Daddy said his grandmother sent him to the bar to get them to come home and release him.

Samuel died on the 24 of January 1912 in Pomona.  My father, who was 6 years old at the time, remembered being fascinated by a little mouse that was running in and out, under his coffin.  Samuel is buried in Pomona Cemetery.  When Mary Ann died in 1919, she was buried next him.