Re: John McMillan
JOHN MCMILLAN
Posted By: Rick Bergman (email) In Response To: John McMillan (maxine richardson)
Date: 5/8/2016 at 15:02:53
Birth: Dec. 19, 1822
Monroeville
Huron County
Ohio, USA
Death: Jul. 23, 1903
Illyria
Fayette County
Iowa, USAJohn McMillan
s/o Morrison 1 McMillan 1799 – 1860 snd
Rebecca Clarissa Brown 1801 – 1857John McMillan, late of Elgin, but for many years a prosperous farmer in Illyria township, came to Iowa on a prospecting tour in 1850, but did not bring his family here until the next year. He located on the northwest quarter of section 5, and entered the land at Dubuque. He brought his family from Janesville, Wisconsin, in a wagon drawn by four yoke of oven, having also the necessary appliances for commencing the work of opening up a new farm, which was mostly timber land. At this time there was but one house between McMillan's and Elkader, a distance of some fifteen miles. John McMillan thus became one of the first settlers in northern Illyria, and in point of usefulness and prominence so continued during his long sojourn in that locality.
One of the early post offices of the county was located at his house, on a route established between Independence and McGregor, and a brother of the writer carried the mails between these points across the trackless prairies of Buchanan and Fayette counties. The motive power was a small mule named Bob, and Bob and Eli became well known to the patrons on the route, and were eagerly looked for as the only means of communication with the outside world. During the first year of the Civil war the people used to line up along the road and interrogate the boy as to the "war news," but the next year he enlisted and went to the front to assist in making "war news," and Bob and the mail pouch became the charges of another. Mr. McMillan has told the writer that many times he feared the delicate boy would be unable to withstand the rigors of an old-time Iowa winter, but he always was "on time."
During the later years of his life John McMillan and his son, Henry, owned and operated the lime kilns west of Elgin, but the father retired from active labors some time before his death in 1908. John McMillan is authority for the statement that there were but three hundred voters in Fayette county in the fall of 1851, divided as follows: One hundred and seventy-five Whigs and one hundred and twenty-five Democrats.
It is not assumed that the foregoing is a complete record of all the pioneers who settled in Fayette county in 1850, but further mention will be given, not only of that class, but of other early settlers and prominent people, in connection with the township and village histories. This is considered the more rational method, since it cannot be assumed that the bare fact that a family settled here on a definite date supersedes in importance the achievements of a later comer, whose life record is indelibly fixed as a part of Fayette county history.(Past and Present of Fayette County IowaBy George William Fitch, 1910 B. F. Bowman and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana)
Family links:
Parents:
Morrison McMillan (1799 - 1860)
Clarissa Brown McMillan (1801 - 1857)Spouse:
Elizabeth Margaret Carmichael McMillan (1832 - 1908)Children:
Nannie M McMillan Fritz (1855 - 1938)*
Celestie May McMillan Nicholson (1859 - 1943)*
Jennie E McMillan Gruver (1863 - 1940)*
Mary Jane McMillan (1866 - 1872)*Siblings:
John McMillan (1822 - 1903)
Orlando McMillan (1824 - 1852)*
Agnes Jane McMillan Kingman (1827 - 1900)*
Morrison McMillan (1832 - 1904)*
Mary Arnott McMillan Alcorn (1843 - 1922)**Calculated relationship
Burial:
Elgin City Cemetery
Elgin
Fayette County
Iowa, USACreated by: H BRAUN
Record added: Dec 15, 2013
Find A Grave Memorial# 121788335
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