Hilton roots attract family descendants

The magic of the Hilton name and the magic of the Internet is bringing together descendants of two prominent Hilton familes.

Great-grandchildren of the Hilton and Cross families will come from California and Maryland to visit the area September 13-15, hoping to explore their roots and meet local people.

Parma Town Historian Shirley Cox Husted received a call from Charles E. Hilton earlier this year after he found her web page, Husted.com/Shirley, on the Internet. When he told her he planned to visit here in September, she began arrangements to make their reception truly hospitable.

Hilton and his sister, Carol Clough, and her husband, will stay at Husted's home and be guests of honor on Saturday, September 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Parma Museum.

The patriotic program there will also commemorate Husted's 35th anniversary as the Parma Town Historan, the first anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks and the 188th anniversary of the writing of "The Star Spangled Banner," America's National Anthem.

"Our Flag Is Still There!" will be the theme of a display of over 80 patriotic photographs taken by St. Lawrence School which will be shown in the museum's lower level, along with a painting depicting Parma's ethnic heritage just completed by a young Russian artist under a grant from the New York Council For the Humanities, a non-profit organization in New York City.

Admission to all events at the museum will be free, including refreshments. A 5 p.m. banquet, for which reservations are necessary, (call 392-3410), will follow at the Parma Greece United Church of Christ. There, Charles Hilton will relate information on his family, including an uncle, Donald Hilton, who was part of the support staff during Admiral Charles Byrd's scientific explorations in Anartica.

The village of Hilton bears the name of the Rev. Charles Hilton, once pastor of the Baptist Church. His son married a daughter of Elam Cross, first mayor of the village. Among sites that will be of special interest to the descendants will be the church buildings and parsonages in the village and the Cross homestead on North Avenue. But even more, they hope to personally meet today's residents of the community bearing their family's name.