Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-05-12
ECCENTRIC JABEz HILLS
A Miser of Marked and Peculiar
characteristics

The razing of the old Pettis-Suter block,
which has been accomplished during the
past week. recalls to many old citizens of
Bellows Falls one of the most eccentric and
remarkable men who have lived in all this
vicinity.
Jabez Hills died in an old room in that
building at the age of SO years in Septem-
Der, 1871. He had owned the block near
ly 40 wears. 1t was erected by Simon
Pettis in the autumn of 1928, and came
into Mr.. Hiss possession on mortgage
few years thereafter. Mr.. Hills was q
bachelor, and during whole lifetime had
evinced singularly miserly instinct APP
preaching greed for money-getting that
became in his later years mania, and he
was often spoken Of as Of unsound mind.
He lived the life of recluse, having few
friends or intimate acquaintance. Those
who looked over his room after his death
found on the top of an old cupboard tin
teapot in which was about $500 in gold
pieces Nothing else in the room was of
value, it being filed largely with old tin
pans which contained bent nails and bits of
iron which he had picked up about town.
His bed, which was nothing but rags, was
of that nature which demanded its imme-
date burial in the bank behind the block.
After many days search will was found
in an out of the way place made few
years earlier, which bequeathed his entire
estate to Mrs Harriet II. Bingham of Bos
| ton, a niece The will was brief, contain
ing less than dozen lines, but its making
had caused an enlargement between Mr.
Hills and Hon. j. ID. Bridgman, in those
days a prominent lawyer here, because he
charged Mr. Hills 800 for drawing it. 1t
is said Mr.. Hills objected to the fee, but
Mr.. Bridgmau insisted it was not large be-
cause of the amount of the estate disposed
of and it was paid. The late Edmund
! Blake was named executor, but refused to
qualify and Hales W. Suffer, son in-law of
! Mrs. Bingham, was appointed, has handled
the estate until this time, and is now re-
! building the block There is no record of
! Mr.. Hills ever purchasing but one piece
of property, although he owned many when
! he died He acquired all by taking mort
| cages and foreclosing them Among his
! holdings was the Pettis block now being
REBUILT, and all the property between that
and the School street stairs; the old paper
mill site and water privilege near the grist
mill, where the first paper mill in Bellows
Falls had been burned; the property where
the Pierce Pharmacy now stands, and a
dwelling on Henry street, standing where
John T Moore's present residence now is,
afterwards owned by O. f. Woods. He
has gold in the bank amounting to S545
and currency 1898. He owned other per-
sonal property amounting to S4631, the
total appraisal of both real and personal
property being $50, 531.32 as appraised
then. The real estate has much increased
in value, and considerable is still held by
the heirs of Mrs. Bingham.
As early as 1905 Mr.. Hills was employed
in the country store of Hall x Green, a
frame building standing where Union block
now does, and TO which E H. Green re-
ferred in a recent historical article in these
columns. In those days and many years
after Mr.. Hills wore an English queue and
knee buckles, as many Americans did then.
In 1910 he was appointed postmaster and
held the office until 1890, he being the
third postmaster Bellows Falls ever had.
1t is stated that he was very accommodate
ing, usually delivering any incoming mail
to all parts of the village, and as far as
1.-THE Forest where in those days were ex-
tensive mills. After 1880 he never had
business except to tend his hay scales,
which were in the square in front of where
the bank block is now, and to accumulate
money, living alone upon crackers and
bread and molasses, purchasing each in
quantities and keeping them in his one
room. He dressed like a beggar, had a
peculiar STOPPING posture, and for the last
20 years of his life always wore an old
stove pipe hat, greasy, battered and worn
beyond semblance of shape.
In the old block was a basement used a:
a bakery, and in it was an immense brick
oven, in which a number of present citi
zens have seen his bed and know he SLEPT
during cold weather. In his room in tn,
second story southwest corner he had {
small wood stove in which he used to burr
four foot wood, pushing the sticks in a
they burned off. Over this he would
crouch, and one spring when he came on
it was found his shins were burned from
) the ankles to the knees from sitting da,
, after day so near it. Before he was 81
years old he at times would dress up lit
tie having a blue coat with brass buttons
with his, then, new beaver hat, but he wa
! never guilty of such sin later in life
With only two men did he ever approach
intimacy, John Sawtelle, the village coop
er, and John Billing, the village miller
His last sickness was of only a weeks dur
t alton and he died, as he had always live
and slept, with his old clothes on. He
said to have had an extreme characteristic
of obstinacy, and that he sacrificed NOR
9 money to that than to any comfort of hi
life, materially decreasing the amount O
q wealth he left 1t was well known tina
for many years he practiced starting out @
n the village about the middle of March, wit
his trunk containing his valuables and oil
S clothes, loaded on the centre of two lon
z poles. He would take up the front end c
1 these poles, dragging the rear end on til
ground, and go across the river for fey
. weeks to avoid taxation April /. A pre-
n emit citizen tells of seeing him start on thes
d pilgrimages, and one year his old trun
i was found high up on Mount Kilburn an
y turned over to the selectmen of Rocking
: ham by two farmers from Langdon.
t Late in life he rarely ever spoke to an
l. one on the street. He was pleasant I
: those who befriended him, but petulant an
r cross to those who made fun of, or laughe
h at him. Naturally he was picked upon
: certain class of boys, and often when o
e the street sticks or old boots would /
s. SHE'D at him. The boys at one time use
!, to bother him in his room in the basemeI
: by pounding on the doors and window
Levi Russell, a well known character
later days, then working as a boy
Towns's stable, promised Jabez he woul
It keep the boys away for him. One night
: began to be dull about the stable and Lee
It thought he would go over and plague j,
e bez a little. He pounded on the doc
Z, when suddenly Jabez threw the door ope
? and rushed out. Levi ran with all h
u might around the block, but seeing JADE
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