Hattie Belle (sometimes called Hetabella) Mills was born in 1841 in Chester (part of Glens Falls metropolitan area). She lived in New York until 1880, when she was living with Hannibal Hammond with three children whose last name was Hammond, along with Dora Mills, her sister-in-law. In June 1869 she had married Hannibal Hammond.

On December 22, 1889, after Hannibal's death three years earlier, she married Joseph Beals. Nothing else is known of her life.

From a story I wrote up titled "The mystery of Phebe Bibby, Hannibal Hammond, and Hattie Mills," sources for this will be provided if asked.

The 1870 U.S. Federal Census shows the Mills family, my ancestors, living in Chester, Warren, New York. The household is headed by John Mills and his wife, Margaret A., both of whom were born in Ireland. They have eight children listed, all with the surname of Mills: Joseph B. (age 23), Edward E. (age 21), Dora A. (age 19), Mary S. (age 17), John C. (age 14), Maggie (age 11), Willie (age 7), and Robert (age 5). At the tail end of the page is one person named Hannibal Hammond, described as a 31-year-old carpenter, and married in June 1869. The following page lists two others: a 25-year-old named Hattie Hammond with her occupation as “keep house” (maintaining the household), married in June 1869 and a 10-month-old named Phebe Bibby, born in July 1869, and living at home. Looking at this information brought up several genealogical questions in my mind: Who is Phebe Bibby? Is Hannibal Hammond related to the Mills family? If so, how?

Other information seems to answer these questions. A marriage of Mary E. Hammond on May 3, 1899 shows Hannibal T. Hammond and Hattie B. Mills as her parents. One record accidentally calls her “Addie.” It turns out that Hattie B. Mills was born as Hetabella Mills in 1841 (among other variations of her name), also listed in the 1855 New York State Census, 1860 U.S. Federal Census, and 1865 New York State Census (incorrectly transcribed as Kattie), with no evident results in the 1875 New York State Census. The clincher is the 1880 U.S. Census which shows H.F. Hammond, or Hannibal Hammond, Hattie’s husband, as a carpenter in Glen Falls, Warren, New York, with three children with the surname of Hammond: Joseph (age 9) [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117892828/joseph-h-hammond], Clarance/Clarence (age 5) [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80399383], and Mary (age 2) [, along with a sister-in-law named Dora Mills. As it turns out, Dora, or Dorothy A. Mills, is the sister of Hattie, Hannibal’s husband, which is why she is listed as a sister-in-law.

Before moving on, it is worth exploring who Phebe Bibby is. From available records, it seems clear that John Rand Mills, Hattie and Dora’s father, married a woman named Margaret Bibby, both of whom were born in or near each other in the same part of Ireland, possibly immigrating to the United States together as a couple. Hence, this child is from her family. In 1870, a child by the name of Phebe Bibby is listed in the household of Thomas and Sarah Bibby. Other records, such as the New York State Census of 1875, show that this could be the same as Phebe Bibby in the Mills Household in 1870. Her Find A Grave seems to hint that this is the same person. While there is a related entry for a Hattie J. Hammond, this is not Hattie B. Mills not only because of the gravestone pictures shown but because our Hattie, who was discussed earlier, was in the 1880 census. Any other connections of the Bibby and Mills family are not known.

However, one aspect is clear: Hannibal died before December 22, 1889. This is proven by the fact that on that day, Hattie B. Mills, now called Hattie B. Hammond, married a Civil War Veteran by the name of Joseph Beals (age 57) in what was described as her (and his) second marriage, first married to someone named Martha, within Massachusetts, either Goshen or Plainfield. The marriage record clearly states that Hattie is the child of John R. Mills and Margaret, so it is the final piece of evidence proving that Hattie married Hannibal Hammond in June 1869 and had a few children. At this point, Hattie became to be called Hattie B. Beals, her name for the rest of her life.

The probate records for Hannibal do not currently exist, only for a man named Hamilcar, who died in 1883, with varying other Hammonds within the microfilm of the New York Probate Record series for Warren, New York. That’s because he died on Dec. 14, 1886 in Cummington, Massachusetts, with Massachusetts Death Records showing the informant to be Cyrus W. Packard, the same person who had married Dora Mills, Hattie’s sister, five years earlier.

As for Hattie, she was still living in 1900, but 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, likely a daughter of Hannibal and Hattie. While this census was issued on June 16, a Headstone Application for U.S. Military Veterans in February 1948 claims he died on June 10. The only reason for this discrepancy in dates means that either the census information was collected before June 10 or that Joseph died on a date after June 16, since they could have remembered the date of death incorrectly.

Ten years later, in 1910, Hattie was still living in Goshen. Clearly Edith is her daughter from her marriage with Hannibal, and she is widowed (evidencing Joseph Beals’s death), and a boarder named George A. Andrews is living with them. This makes it wholly possible that she died in 1912, although her gravestone gives her wrong date of birth, off by 9 years, if we use the 1850, 1855, 1860, 1865, 1870, and 1875 censuses. Why the gravestone is that wrong is not known but could be because later censuses claim she was born in 1848 or 1849. 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. The available information here solved many mysteries, opening the door to further research.