Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry focuses on Mashpee Chief of Police Louis/Lewis Francis Mills and family. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue to look at some of the history of the Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) with some AI enhanced photo features gathered from newspaper clips and archives.

The Wampanoag, the “People of the First Light,” are comprised of two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe located in Mashpee, Massachusetts; and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) located on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Their people have inhabited this land for 12,000 years.

My subject today is Mashpee Chief of Police Louis/Lewis Francis Mills (1881-1952).

Here is a photo of Chief Mills (center) taken in 1928 during his time serving on the Mashpee Police with Ted Gardner (left) and William James (right).

In this next photo we see Police Chief Louis/Lewis Francis Mills (center), with Running Cloud (right) a Mashpee Indian resident, and Sergeant John F. Dempsey of the Massachusetts State Police (left), who is discussing the latest news regarding the investigation of the kidnapping of Peggy McMath, a high-profile case in Harwich, Massachusetts, in 1933.

Chief Mills was born 8 August 1881 to James S. Mills and Delscena Jennette (Anderson) Mills.

Chief Mills married Melissa Godfry Coombs (1884-1927), born to Darius Coombs and Martha Ann (Mye) Coombs, in 1904. Melissa is a descendant of Deacon Isaac Coombs (1774-1848), a Mashpee Wampanoag, born to Joshua Coombs and Patience (Newcomb) Coombs, whose records are preserved in the archives including the Crocker account book.

Below is a photo of Melissa with three of her children, taken in the early 1920s.

Below is a 1920 census listing Chief Mills, his wife Melissa, and their children Richard, Alice, and William. Living with the Mills family is Darius Coombs, father-in-law, and Bertha M. Pocknett, sister-in-law.

Chief Mills’ brother Ferdinand Wilson Mills lived right next door with his family.

Louis and Melissa’s daughter Alice J. “Bright Moon Beam” Mills (1917-2014) married Roy E. Burrill (1912-1950) on 24 April 1936.

Alice belonged to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Ladies Auxiliary and was a founding member of the Mashpee Baptist Church. She was also an NAACP member and active supporter. She began serving on Mashpee’s Board of Library Trustees in 1961 and worked at the Popponesset Inn for many years.

Roy E. Burrill died a hero on 23 September 1950 while on duty for Boston Fire Department Ladder 14. Here is a newspaper report on what occurred and a photo of Roy.

This article reports:

Lt. Roy E. Burrill, 38, of 107 Sterling St., Roxbury, was one of two firemen killed fighting a $100 fire in a cellar boiler room of the Eagle Mattress factory, Allston, last Saturday morning. Four others were overcome by fumes.

Wearing masks, the six men had descended by ladders through a small window from which poured a thick volume of smoke. Hose lines were let down and [the] men battled in the semi-darkness until the suffocating fumes forced them to leave.

The firemen started up the ladders to escape but when a quick check-up was made in the open Lt. Burrill and Ladderman William R. Benson, 25, of 72 Perthshire St., Allston, were missing.

Then Lieut. John Sullivan donned a special-type mask and life-line and went down into the boiler room. He located one of the unconscious men and carried him to a door which by this time had been forced open by other firemen.

Lt. Frank A. Sikora found the other stricken fireman, who was hauled up the ladder to the small cellar window.

The two unconscious men were rushed to the City Hospital where they were pronounced dead.

They were found in three feet of water, and it was first thought they had been drowned. A medical examiner’s autopsy revealed they had had died from carbon monoxide and smoke.

I found a newspaper clip listing the relatives who attended Roy’s funeral, including the Mills family.

This article reports:

Among the many relatives of the late Roy E. Burrill who were present at his funeral held at the Twelfth Baptist Church, Tuesday, September 26, were the following: Mrs. Gladys Irving, aunt; Mr. and Mrs. McKerrow Anderson, uncle and aunt; Mrs. Mary Beansoleil, aunt; and [the] following cousins: Mrs. Edna Rose, Mrs. Hilda Irving, Miss Judith Irving, Mrs. Edith Barbour, Mrs. Delores Burton, Miss Dorothy Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Beansoleil, all of Boston; Mrs. Lillian Robinson, aunt; Mrs. Kathleen Anderson, and Mrs. Dudley Anderson, of New York; Herbert Wozencroft, cousin, of Newport, R. I.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Burrell, uncle and aunt, of Lynn, Mass.; Louis Mills, William [Wadsworth] Mills, father and brother of Mrs. Burrill of Mashpee; Richard Mills of Bournedale, Mass., brother of Mrs. Burrill; Mr. and Mrs. James Mendes [Melendez]*, brother-in-law and sister of Mrs. Burrill, of Hyannis; Miss Stella Hicks, Miss Pauline Hicks, and Mrs. Gladys McKamey, cousins of Mrs. Burrill, of Mashpee. Besides these, there were many friends from the Cape who attended the funeral, among them Mr. and Mrs. Robert Johnson (Theresa Barco).

*Melissa A. Mills married Ernest S. Furey and 2nd James Melendez.

Alice (Mills) Burrill married 2nd Frank Edward Hicks, aka “Many Moons,” a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council and one of Mashpee’s leading civil servants, and a longtime Mashpee selectman who held more than 20 town offices in his lifetime.

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Note on the header image: Ousamequin, or “Massasoit” (Wampanoag term for “Great Sachem”) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons. [052825]

Related Articles:

• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 1)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 2)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 3)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 4)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 5)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 6)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 7)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 8)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 9)