Ethel Vera (Hanner) Mills (1892 - 1985)

Born 25 Jan 1892 in Stevens, Kansas, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Leo Mills — married 12 May 1912 in Liberal, Seward, Kansas, United States

Descendants

Died 31 Mar 1985 at age 93 in Campo, Baca County, Colorado

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Biography

Ethel (Hanner) Mills was a homesteader in Stevens County, Kansas. Join the Homesteaders Project.

Excerpt as otherwise footnoted, the following adapted from Seward County Kansas.^[1]

Ethel was born 25 Jan 1892 in Stevens County, Kansas the daughter of Jasper and Harriett (Holloway) Hanner. When Ethel was young, the Hanners next door neighbors were her maternal grandparents, Mr and Mrs Eliot Holloway and after her grandfather Holloway's death in 1897, Grandma Holloway lived with the Hanners.^[2]

In 1911, her father moved the family to Liberal, Kansas where he had built a home at 823 North Washington Avenue and took a job as custodian of the old Washington School. On 12 May 1912, Ethel married Bob Mills at the home of her parents in Liberal, Kansas^[3] and the young couple moved to the one-room house on Bob's homestead claim in Stevens County. A little later a second room was added to the house. Bob took a job at a lumber yard in Hugoton while Ethel remained at home where she was noted for killing chickens for dinner by shooting their heads off rather than the more conventional methods. Ethel was an expert horse woman and spent many hours riding her horse given to her by her father when she got married. She was also an excellent seamstress and sewed all of her own clothes and later those of her children. There were no patters to buy so she devised her own.

For about ten years, Bob and Ethel owned a lumber yard in Minneola, Kansas^[4][5] but in 1928 moved to Liberal, Kansas after selling the Minneola business. After some years working for the International Harvester Company, they bought a produce and feed business at the corner of Fourth and Kansas Avenue in Liberal, Kansas. That building was destroyed by the 1933 tornado which destroyed much of downtown Liberal. They moved the feed and produce business to a building on First Street.

Ethel taught Sunday school at the Liberal Methodist Church for many years, sang in their choir, and was one of the first ladies in Liberal to help organize the Red Cross Grey Ladies and remained active with them in rest homes and hospitals until her health failed.

Her husband Bob passed away in 1961 and Ethel continued to live in their home at 404 North Grant Avenue in Liberal until at least late 1979. She moved to Colorado to live with her daughter Alene and passed away 31 Mar 1985 at Campo, Colorado^[6] and was returned to Liberal for interment at the Restlawn Cemetery.^[7]

Children^[8]

• Vivian Alene - 1913-1992 (m Everett Hinds)
• Robert Leo Jr - 1916-1967
• Charlotte Ernestine - 1922-1985 (m Albert Davis)

Sources

1. ↑ Seward County Historical Society, compiler, "Seward County Kansas," K C Printers, Liberal, Kansas, 1979, pp 295-97, from information submitted by Ernestine Mills Davis and Roy Smith; pp 250-51, information submitted by his daughter Ernestine Mills Davis.
2. ↑ US Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Vorhees, Stevens, Kansas; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0312; FHL microfilm: 1240501
3. ↑ The Liberal News, Liberal, Kansas, 13 May 1912, p 1
4. ↑ US Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Minneola, Clark, Kansas; Roll: T625_525; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 28
5. ↑ Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1925 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1925_22; Line: 17
6. ↑ Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #11595789
8. ↑ US Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Liberal, Seward, Kansas; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0002; FHL microfilm: 2340453