MILLARD - DOAN biography

MILLARD, DOAN, SERVIS

Posted By: Amy Robbins-Tjaden (email)
Date: 11/23/2006 at 20:36:09

Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Webster and Hamilton Counties, Iowa (1888)

Benjamin Millard, one of the prominent pioneers of Webster City, is a native of Humerstone, Canada, born February 4, 1816, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Doan) Millard. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Doans were among the first settlers of Massachusetts. John Doan came from England to Plymouth about 1630, and in 1644 settled in Cape Cod. His is the progenitor of all the Doans and Doanes in America. Trees that he had set on the corners of his farm, with the initials J. D. cut on them, are still standing. He died in 1688, aged over ninety years. One of his sons, Daniel, was the first physician on Cape Cod. A son of Daniel, also named Daniel, was married in 1696, and settled in Buck County, Pennsylvania, where he reared a family of thirteen children, one of whom, Israel, was married in 1725, and settled in Plumstead, Pennsylvania. A son of Israel, Joseph Doan, married Hester Dillon, and moved to Humerstone, Canada. They had a family of nine children -- Moses, Joseph, Mahlon, Levi, Aaron, Thomas, Hester, Mary and Elizabeth. Hester married Edward Richardson, and her grandson, George F. Richardson, is superintendent of schools of Hamilton County. Elizabeth was born August 11, 1776, and January 1, 1800, married Thomas Millard, who was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1775. They had a family of seven children -- Esther, born February 13, 1801; Thomas, born May 4, 1803; Rebecca, born September 8, 1805; Moses, February 9, 1808; Elizabeth, October 29, 1810; Rachel, May 24, 1813; Benjamin, February 4, 1816. The parents moved from Humerstone to Yarmouth Township, five miles from Port Stanley and six miles from St Thomas, where our subject was reared. In March, 1837, he came West, and settled in Ottawa, La Salle County, Illinois, and soon after moved to Putnam County. In 1853 he moved to Marshall, Illinois, and in 1855 to Webster City, Iowa. In the spring of 1856 he built the old Hamilton House, which he carried on a year; then sold out, but a year later bought it again, and continued the hotel business until the death of his wife in 1860. He then went to Fonda, Pocohontas County, and engaged in the mercantile business four years, and since 1864 has lived on his farm south of town. Mr Millard was married in October, 1840, to Samantha Servis, a native of Letart Falls, Meigs County, Ohio. In politics he is a Republican, joining that party on its organization, having formerly voted with the Whig party.