Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

his many years of association with the
Sunday schools, later that of West Hart-
ford Baptist Church. Mr. Des Jardins
was Sunday school superintendent there
for many years, and his West Hartford
summer home has often been enlivened
by the merry laughter of many children
of the village and of course of the Sunday
school, who have gathered at his invita-
tion at charming little "flower parties"
and other children's entertainments Mr.
and Mrs. Des Jardins have provided and
themselves much enjoyed ; and often
while at work in Washington, Mr. Des
Jardins will seek recreation from his la-
bors by entertaining at his home, or at
his "camp" along the banks of the Poto-
mac, the children of his two* classes of
boy and girl members of Calvary Baptist
Sunday school. Later under his direction,
with talented assistance from visiting
children of former years at Washington
and at his Buena Vista playgrounds at
West Hartford, he has organized Wood-
craft lodges and turned much of the
hearty enthusiasm to systematic nature
study and child development. That he is
a true lover of nature, as well as of child-
ren, and that he carries within him the
inspiration of the poet, will be obvious
from a brief reading of some of his poems
contained in a little volume he produced,
entitled "Wild Flower Poems," which
poetry stamps him as a man of versatile
genius, and pure sentiment, and shows
that his true nature has been unspoiled
by the hardening influences of money, nor
embittered by the buffetings encountered
during a life-long struggle in a hard
world.
HILLS, Charles Sidney,
Merchant.
Charles Sidney Hills, of the Hartford
firm of C. S. Hills & Company, dry goods
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
103
merchants, was born in Hartford, Septem-
ber i, 1853, the son of Sidney and Sarah
M. (Rogers) Hills.
The Hills family is an old and honored
one in New England, Colonial records
determining that William Hills, the first
of the name to come to this country, and
American ancestor of many American
families of that name, landed in Boston,
September 16, 1632, and as hereinafter
noted removed to Hartford, Connecticut,
about three years later. Anterior to the
emigration, the Hills family had some
prominence in English records, extending
back for many generations. Careful re-
search has shown it to be distinct in
origin from the name Hill. Edward Has-
ted, English historian, stated, in his "His-
tory of Kent," which was published in
1778, that the name Hills, which was
common in that county of England at
that time, could be traced back to the
Middle Ages, and that it originated as a
patronymic in the following manner:
About a mile southeastward from Darant
Church is the hamlet of Helles Saint Margaret,
commonly called Saint Margaret Hills * * *
This manor afterwards came into the possession
of a family called Hells, who had much land at
Dartford, and at Ash, near Sandwich, and from
them this place acquired the additional name of
Hells, or more vulgarly Hilles. One of these,
Thomas de Helles, had a charter of free warren
granted to him and his heirs for his lands here
and at Dartford, in the seventeenth year of King
Edward the First. One of his descendants, Rich-
ard Hills, for so the name was then spelt, about
the beginning of King Henry the Seventh's reign,
was possessed of this manor of Saint Margaret
Hilles.
As has been the case with almost all
ancient names, this was spelt in various
ways, even by those who were undoubt-
edly oi the same family stock. In the
thirtieth year of King Edward III, one
Gilbert de Hells, of Hells Court, in Ash,
and of Saint Margaret Hells in Darant,