by Paul Bass
Mills family descendants at St. Matthew UFWB Church. Contributed Photo
Arnold Mills Sr. joined 75 of his descendants in a Newhallville backyard the other day.
He didn’t eat any of the pineapple cake or collard greens or hush puppies. He didn’t shake anyone’s hands. That’s because he was there in spirit, not body.
Arnold died more than 100 years ago. He lived in North Carolina. Hundreds of New Haveners who occupy subsequent branches of his family tree — people with last names like Mills or Hardy or Moye or Dawson — spend their days making New Haven a community. And they gather once a year to renew and broaden those connections.
They do so thanks to the Connecticut Chapter of the Mills Family Committee. They held their 41st annual local reunion Sunday.
Thirty or so of them gathered first inside St. Matthew’s UFWB Church on Dixwell Avenue for a service presided over by Pastor Kevin C. Hardy — a member of the committee, and the extended family.
Then the skies cleared, and more than twice as many extended family members gathered in the backyard of family member David Moye Sr. for the food-filled reunion party.
They all trace their lineage to Roland Mills, a “free mulatto” who had a farm in Haddocks Crossroads in Greenville, N.C. Many family members still live there today, where a bigger Mills family gathering (including busloads of New Haveners) periodically takes place. Many more family members migrated to New Haven to take factory jobs in the mid-20th century. They became teachers, factory workers, hospital workers, beauticians, police officers.
One of those descendants, Sean Hardy, has been a central figure in the volunteer-run local Mills Family Committee. He spoke about the latest event Tuesday during an episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
He spoke of how people presented new genealogical findings this year that helped people connect the dots to how they are related. He spoke of newly discovered information about Roland Mills’ grandparents.
And he spoke about Arnold Mills Sr., who happens to be his great-great grandfather.
Arnold, a farmer and landowner, accrued enough wealth to donate the land for a new school in North Carolina’s Pitt County. Decades later, Hardy’s mother became an educator, here in New Haven. Sean Hardy has spent the last 29 years working as an educator at Mauro-Sheridan School.
Family traditions endure.
“I felt the presence of” Arnold at Sunday’s gathering, Hardy said.
“It’s very exciting to know where you come from, how you’re connected, what our family did back then to make us be what we are today. How hard they worked, especially our ancestors. A lot of them were farmers. A lot of them were merchants. A lot of them were great entrepreneurs within the community. A lot of them were school teachers. Whatever they did to make it successful, then they pass that torch down to the next generation.”
Click on the below video to watch the full conversation with Mills Family reunion organizer Sean Hardy on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”