Rev. Elmer E. Higley was born 6 Jul 1867 and attended Conneautville High School, Edinboro State Normal School, Allegheny College. After preaching for six years he went to Madison, New Jersey where he entered Drew Theological Seminary. He finished his college courses and graduated from both the New York University and Drew Theological Seminary. He was a Master Mason, Knight Templar, and Member of the Sons of the American Revolution.spouse: Dowler, Alice Carrie (1872 - >1913)In 1914 he was pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Des Moines, Iowa, the largest Methodist membership in Iowa at that time. Previously he was pastor of Grace Church in Denver. (Source: Letter of March 17, 1914 from Alice (Dowler) Higley to J. Granville Leach).
(Source: Chronicles of the Bement Family in America, 1928, pp. 181q, xiii, xiv.)
JONATHAN HIGLEY (5-30) married Mary Thompson, the only daughter of the Reverend Edward Thompson, minister of the Simsbury Church. Jonathan drowned in the Farmington River. (Source: Bement Chronicles in America, 1928, p. 50)spouse: Thompson, Mary (1720 - 1795)
HENRY UNDERHILL HILL was married, spouse maiden name unknown, had issue of three sons (Eugene, Edgar, Elwyn) and three daughters (Emma, Elma, and Nellie). Little else is known about this family except that they were living in northern Michigan in 1913. (Source: Letter of 6 Sept 1813 to J. Granville Leach from George E. Bennett of Beaver, Pennsylvania). (Source: Chronicles of the Bement Family in America; 1928, pp. 139b, 139c)spouse: ???, Climena Hill (~1823 - )
Sara Julie Hill was born 21 Nov 1830 in Peterboro, Hillsboro Co., NH and died 4 May 1908 in in Salt Lake City, Utah. Not much is known of her early life. She married Bingham Bement as his second wife. The first wife, Melissa (Russell) Bement, died in Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa, on May 11, 1850.spouse: Bement, Bingham (1817 - 1854)Sarah bore a child whom they named Inez Edwina Bement, December 13. That child died December 18, 1851, in Kanesville.
One of the three children who came with Sarah and Bingham was Charles Henry Bement, born November 22, 1846, the only known surviving child from Bingham's first marriage to Melissa Russell.
Albert Henry Bement, was born to Sarah on February 23, 1853. When grown, Albert married and moved to Payson, Utah, to farm, but his wife and children died of diphtheria and he suffered a stroke, necessitating his return to his mother's home. He died January 21, 1937, at the County Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Alice Matilda Bement on January 5, 1855. Years later, Alice was making plans to marry William H. Fletcher, but he was killed September 10, 1874, in Cottonwood Canyon. She was sealed to him two months later.
After being widowed, Sarah raised her three children alone. The oldest son, Charles Henry Bement, worked at the sawmill. He also helped build Cove Fort in the 1860s and in 1884 was called to help settle Kanosh, Utah. October 21, 1885, he married Margaret Annie Prows in the Logan Temple, and they had six children. Charles died of appendicitis February 20, 1903. The last child of this union, Henry Allen Bement, was born four months after his father's death. Margaret died July 24, 1946, at her home in Kanosh, Utah.
The first school in the ward was held in the home of Sarah J. (Hill) Bement at 629 East Eighth South. Her daughter Alice assisted in teaching. The house, a story-and-a-half structure with meager furnishings, was not equipped with blackboards, comfortable desks, or efficient lighting. Textbooks were limited and conditions were generally primitive. In later years a schoolhouse was built adjoining the old ward chapel at 8th East and 8th South--the forerunner of the Hamilton School.
Sarah and her children resided in the original First Ward in Salt Lake City, where she and her daughter Alice taught the first school in their home. Alice also made and sold LDS garments to earn a living for her mother, her brother Albert and herself. Albert raised vegetables and cared for animals. Alice often told her nephew, Henry Allen Bement, how Brigham Young would ride in a carriage pulled by a white horse when coming to their home. He would tease Alice by asking her to come and be his daughter and live at his house.
Sarah never remarried. She died May 4, 1908, and was buried in the Salt Lake City cemetery next to her husband Bingham. Their adobe home was torn down in 1937 and a home for her great-grandson was built in its place. Three homes at 625, 629 and 633 East 800 South are still (1930) owned and occupied by the Bement family. (Source: Ken Bement)
An Enduring Legacy, Volume Three, Page 97 Salt Lake's Original Nineteen LDS Wards, First Ward
Harley Hills was the first blacksmith to work on the Grand Trunk Railroad, helping build it from the Ohio state line to Port Huron and Saginaw. He eventually settled in Flushing, a small town near Flint, where he had a thriving smithy right on the river bend, and where he served as constable in 1887. (Source: Barb Chapman, Rochester Hills, MI; May 1999)spouse:
Harley Hills took in his nephew, ______________, after the death of ________ parents. Harley gave __________ a home while he finished high school and helped him get in to Michigan State University and also get a job with the newspaper there. Harley was the business director of the Flint Public Schools from mid-depression to post World World II, and took them from near bankruptcy to solvency through periods of immense growth. (Source: Barb Chapman, Rochester Hills, MI; bchapman@@ri-exp.beaumont.edu, May 1999)
Joseph Hills, third son of Benjamin Hills and Martha (Deming) Hills, was born at Glastonbury, Conn., about 1759, was a prisoner of war in the Revolution, and married, but wife's name is unknown. They had four children: Hannah Hills (twin), Martha Hills (twin), Joseph Hills, and Obed Hills. (Source: The Tryon Family in America; Compiled and Edited by Wes. M. Tryon, 2612 Elmont Street, Wheaton, Maryland 20902; (301) 949-1241, Published February 1969; p. 65)spouse:
Sherman Hills stood five feet eight and one half inches tall, had a light complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair. In the Civil War, he enlisted as a Private in Co. B, 137th Regiment, Pa Inf. on Aug. 11, 1862 and was honorably discharged as a corporal in Jun. 1863.spouse: Castile, Antonette (1836 - 1904)Sherman was a blacksmith and blind in the later part of his life. Since diabetes is common in the Hills family, Sherman may have been diabetic. Sherman and Nettie lived in Cussewago Twp. which is near Meadville, PA. He died at the home of his adopted daughter, Mrs. Cyrus Westcott
Thomas Wilson Hills was employed as a garage mechanic. He and Maude lived in Geneva, East McKeesport and Poplar St. in Meadville (all in PA).spouse: Cushman, Ann Maude (1876 - 1933)
DR. WILLIAM HIMBAUGH graduated with a degree in medicine, but after practicing medicine for some time he gave it up and entered the lumber and milling business. He was very interested in scientific farming and the keeping of fine cattle. They were Congregationalists and had no children. Julietta served as the organist in the church for years. (Source: Chronicles of the Bement Family in America; 1928, pp. 181q, xviii, xix.)spouse: Clark, Julietta Bement (1857 - >1915)
William Himrod, b. at Bedminster, N. J., 1766, d. 8 Feb.. 1813, at Ovid. N. Y., married Elizabeth Sutphen, daughter of Peter Sutphen, of Somerset Co., N. J., b. 1766, d. 19 Nov., 1849, at Trumansburg, N. Y. He learned the trade of tanner and currier from his Uncle Aaron Malick, and in 1796 settled on a farm at Lodi, Seneca Co., N. Y., where he established a tannery. Ten years later he exchanged this property for 320 acres at Hector, Schuyler Co., N. Y., to which he removed with his family and the large families of his two slaves Tom and Sill that had been his wife's dowry. He was captain of the militia 1797, was appointed major in 1801, lieutenant colonel 1804, and major general during the war of 1812, died from fever contracted in the service and was buried with military honors in the Presbyterian Churchyard at Ovid, his body being subsequently removed to Trumansburg. Had ten children.spouse: Sutphen, Elizabeth (1776 - 1849)The Story of an Old Farm or Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century by Andrew D. Mellick, Jr. with a genealogical appendix The Anionist Gazette; Somerville, New Jersey, 1889 William Himrod: p. 657; Descendants: Ten children, pp. 663-664
Mary Hinebaugh's mother was apparently a rather famous person, but no information has yet been discovered regarding the reason. (Source: Spencer L. BeMent, Ann Arbor, MI; June 1998)spouse: Bement, Claude G. Jr. (1924 - 1999)
Montford Crough Holley was graduated from Lockport High School, in 1890, and in that year commenced the study of law, being admitted in 1894 to the Bar, and was still practicing law in Lockport about 1913. He was a prominent Mason, and in 1910-1911 served for two terms as District Grand Master of Masons for the 37th Masonic District of the State of New York. (Source: Chronicles of the Bement Family in America; 1928, p. 334)spouse: Bement, Lotta Marie (1875 - >1913)