52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #14 Children, Grandchildren, and Other Descendants of Sarah Reed and Joel Hill

After posting last week about Sarah Reed Hill, I knew I needed to say more about her family. Sarah herself was the starting point, but the larger purpose was to serve as collateral research. In genealogy, collateral research means looking beyond a direct ancestor and studying related family lines — siblings, cousins, in-laws, nieces, nephews, and descendants of those families. Sometimes a record for one of those relatives provides the clue that our direct ancestor did not leave behind.

That is why Sarah mattered to this search. She was a descendant of Peter Reed and is thought to have been the sister of Benjamin Reed, the man I am trying to prove as Peter Reed’s son. I hoped that by tracing Sarah’s family forward, I might find a record, connection, or clue that would place Benjamin more clearly within Peter Reed’s family.

The Reed Genealogy: Descendants of William Reade of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1635–1902 showed that Sarah and some of her descendants were in touch with Benjamin Reed's family. As I followed the family lines, the locations alone suggested that these families likely knew one another well.

One connection was especially interesting. Sarah’s son, David Hill, had a daughter, Ann Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hill, who married David S. Reed. David was the son of Benjamin Reed Jr., who was the son of Benjamin Reed—the same Benjamin who may have been Sarah Reed Hill’s brother and Peter Reed’s son. 

Unlike Sarah’s children, who stayed in Windham County, the grandchildren scattered. I found some in Windham County, but others in Illinois, Iowa, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. There were some in prison, working in vaudeville, and two missing persons. Some were easy to follow. Others led me through tangled records, repeated names, mistaken family trees, and a few stories that were sad but still worth knowing.

The most surprising story in this search belongs to the Cherry Sisters. Their mother, Laura M. Rawson Cherry, was a granddaughter of Sarah Reed and Joel Hill through their daughter Electa Hill Rawson. Laura was living in Windham County, Vermont, in 1850, but by 1856, she had moved to Linn County, Iowa, with her husband, Thomas Cherry, and a young daughter. Laura and Thomas had at least seven children – only one was a son. By 1890, both parents were dead, their son Nathan had left home, and five daughters remained on the family farm. Addie, Effie, Ella, Lizzie, and Jessie went on to perform as the Cherry Sisters, a vaudeville act remembered as one of the most unusual and widely known of its day.

The sisters first performed locally in the early 1890s. Their act was called “Something Good, Something Sad,” and it included songs, recitations, skits, morality pieces, and a dramatic sketch titled “The Gypsy’s Warning.” Audiences did not respond gently. The sisters became famous less for talent than for the reaction they provoked. People came to laugh, heckle, and sometimes throw vegetables, shoes, and other objects at the stage. Still, the Cherry Sisters kept performing. In 1896, Oscar Hammerstein* brought them to his Olympia Music Hall in New York, where their reputation as a terrible act became part of the attraction. They sold tickets, drew crowds, and became a national curiosity.

Gradually, the act was reduced to three sisters, and late in life, only two. Addie and Effie Cherry were living in Cedar Rapids when Addie died in 1942 and Effie in 1944.

This was not the kind of discovery I expected while tracing the grandchildren of Sarah Reed and Joel Hill, and it did not answer my Benjamin Reed question, but it made this collateral line impossible to forget!

If you would like to learn more about the families I research, follow my Facebook page, where I share each post along with other genealogical finds.

Diana

© 2026

*Oscar Hammerstein opened the Olympia Theatre in New York City’s Longacre Square, later Times Square, in 1895. Although he went bankrupt three years later, he continued building theaters in the city. Today, the Hammerstein name is best remembered through his grandson, Oscar Hammerstein II, the Broadway lyricist and writer.

Sources 

1850 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont, population schedule, Wilmington, p. 415, dwelling 821, family 846, Luther Rawson household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4206192_00459?pId=1309965  : accessed 8 May 2026); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 929.

1850 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont, population schedule, Wilmington, p. 410, dwelling 470, family 493, Timothy Brown household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8054/records/1308129 : accessed 8 May 2026); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 929.

Andrew Henshaw Ward, Family Register of the Inhabitants of the Town of Shrewsbury, Mass.: From Its Settlement in 1717 to 1829, and of Some of Them to a Later Period (Boston: S. G. Drake, 1847), 78, marriage entry for Elizabeth Goddard and David Hill; digital images, HathiTrust Digital Library (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009576951 : accessed 9 May 2026).

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Ephraim H. Newton, The History of the Town of Marlborough, Windham County, Vermont, with introduction by John Clement (Montpelier: Vermont Historical Society, 1930); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofm00newt/page/n9/mode/2up : accessed 18 April 2026).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164036557/laura-brown: accessed May 8, 2026), memorial page for Laura Brown (1801–21 Oct 1843), Find a Grave Memorial ID 164036557, citing Bennett Cemetery, East Dummerston, Windham County, Vermont, USA; Maintained by LadyGoshen (contributor 46951894).

“Jamaica, Windham, Vermont, United States records,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8999-VWT4?view=fullText : accessed 9 May 2025), image 281 of 568, page 517 marriage of Luther Rawson and Electra Reed; Image Group Number 005463989; citing Jamaica, Vermont, Town Clerk.

“Jamaica, Windham, Vermont, United States records,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8999-V4MD?view=fullText : accessed 9 May 2025), image 287 of 568, page 526 marriage of Laura Hill and Timothy Brown; Image Group Number 005463989; citing Jamaica, Vermont, Town Clerk.

“Jamaica, Windham, Vermont, United States records,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37V-T9V2-C?view=fullText : accessed 22 February 2025), image 295 of 546, deed involving Joel Hill, Louisa Hill, and Sally Hill, 1839.

John Ludovicus Reed, The Reed Genealogy: Descendants of William Reade of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1635–1902, vol. 1 ([no place]: [no publisher], 1901); digital image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/reedgenealogydes01reed/page/n11/mode/2up : accessed 18 April 2026).

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