Mills, Elias

MILLS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 16:08:23

ELIAS MILLS
born Mar 26, 1839, Indiana

Elias Mills - Among those who faithfully defended their country in the hour when destruction seemed imminent is numbered this gentleman, a respected and well known resident of Liberty township, Warren county, Iowa. For nearly a quarter of a century he has resided in this locality, and since 1847 he has been a resident of the State. Mr. Mills is a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred on the 26th of March, 1839, in Warren county, that State. His parents were Peter and Mary Mills, and their family numbered eleven children, four sons and seven daughters, but only three are now living, namely: Jane, wife of Ira Hart of Nebraska; Elias, who was the eighth in order of birth; and Rachel, wife of Elisha Wright of Washington. The father of this family was a native of North Carolina, and there wedded Mary Stanley, who was born in the same State. Emigrating Westward, they located in Indiana, and in 1847 became residents Jefferson county, Iowa, where the mother died. She was a member of the Quaker Church and left the impress of her earnest Christian character upon her children. The father died at the home of our subject in county. His political support was given the Republican party. Mr. Mills of this review was a child of only eight years when with his parents he became a resident of Iowa. Shortly after the death of his mother, when he was only ten years of age, he was bound out to Joel Paxton, for whom he was to work until his twenty-first year. He fulfilled the terms of the contract; when he left that gentleman he was the possessor of two suits of jeans clothes and fourteen dollars in money. He was a young man of five feet, eleven inches, weighing 160 pounds, and entered with zest upon his business career, resolved to make the most of his opportunities and to advance on the road to success as rapidly as possible. After working for one season in Lucas county, Mr. Mills enlisted among the boys in blue of Company C, Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, joining the service at Chariton, in September, 1861. The regiment rendezvoused at Davenport, and in October left that city for the front, going to Jefferson City, Missouri. He took part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, those of the Atlanta campaign and other engagements and at the close of the war was honorably discharged, in 1865. At the battle of Atlanta, Georgia, on the day when General McPherson fell mortally wounded, Mr. Mills received a wound from a minie ball in the right hip, and was incapacitated for service for about three months, being in the hospital at Rome, Georgia, during that time. He then rejoined his regiment at a point about twenty miles below Atlanta, and continued to faithfully follow the old flag until hostilities had ceased and the preservation of the Union was an assured fact.
On the 3d of April, 1864, while home on a veteran furlough, Mr. Mills married Miss Elizabeth Edwards, a native of Indiana, and a daughter of Abel Edwards. They became the parents of eleven children, namely: W. H., who was born September 2, 1866 and is a farmer of Liberty township; Lucy E., who was born May 8, 1868 and is the wife of Ira Sones, of Otter Creek township, Lucas county, Iowa; Eli, who was born November 12, 1869, and died September 11, 1870; Charlie L., who was born August 22, 1871 and on the 22d of August, 1895, married Carrie Caviness, of Ringgold county, Iowa; Laura E., who was born May 18, 1873 and is now a teacher; Abel E., who was born December 12, 1874 and is attending the Highland Park school; Norval R., who was born December 2, 1876 and is a student in the same school; Elvin, who was born September 20, 1879, and died on the 8th of October, following; Herman E., born July 17, 1881; Janet A., born February 2 1883; and Jesse, born July 14, 1884. The mother of this family, who was born June 26, 1846, died November 8, 1884. On the 12th of April, 1891, Mr. Mills was again married, his second union being with Mary Breece, who was born February 2, 1863 in Appanoose county, Iowa, and is a daughter of Preston and Martha (Gray) Breece. One son and two daughters were born of this union but are now deceased. In his political views Mr. Mills is a stalwart Republican, having supported that party since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. He has served as Town Trustee several times, and has also been School Director. Socially, he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and today is recognized as the same valued citizen who, at the country's call for troops, donned the blue and shouldered the musket in defense of the Union. Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.448

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.989
ELIAS MILLS
Elias Mills, who has large landed holdings in this state and is also extensively engaged in the stock business, makes his home on section 33, Liberty Township. He was born at or near Lafayette, Warren County, Indiana, March 26, 1839, his parents being Peter and Mary (Stanley) Mills. The latter was called to her final rest in 1847, while Peter Mills, who was a hatter by trade, survived his wife for about twenty years. The last three years of his life were spent at the home of his son Elias, in Lucas County, Iowa, where he passed away in 1868 at the age of seventy-two and a half years.
When ten years of age Elias Mills was "bound out" to a Quaker named Joel Paxton, in Jefferson County, Iowa, to which place the family had removed in 1847. He remained with Mr. Paxton until he had attained his majority and then received two suits of jean clothing, a mare worth eighty dollars and fourteen dollars in money. Subsequently, in 1860, he operated a farm on shares in Jefferson County, receiving a third share. In December, 1860, he removed to Lucas county, Iowa, locating on the farm of his brother, Isaac Mills, which lay partly in Warren county. There he remained throughout the following spring and summer, raising a crop on a neighboring farm.
In the fall of 1861, at Chariton, Iowa, Mr. Mills enlisted as a member of Company C, Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Seventeenth Army Corps. He participated in many important engagements of the war, including the first battle of Shiloh and the engagement at Atlanta. He was also with Sherman on his famous march to the sea and took part in the grand review at Washington at the close of hostilities. He was three times wounded and at one time his injuries were so serious that he was compelled to spend four months in a hospital at Rome, Georgia. In 1864 he returned to Lucas county, Iowa, on a furlough and was married, but subsequently again joined his comrades on the battlefields of the south, serving in the army until July 31, 1865. Thus for four years he loyally defended the interests of the Union, having reenlisted at the end of his three years' term.
On once more taking up the pursuits of civil life Mr. Mills settled on a farm of eighty acres which he had purchased in Lucas County, Iowa, being engaged in its operation until 1872, when he came to Liberty Township, Warren county, and has here been successfully and extensively engaged as a farmer and stockman to the present time. He owns and operates his home farm of about seven hundred acres in Warren and Lucas Counties, while his holdings also comprise two hundred and eighty acres in Virginia Township, a tract of land in Missouri and an entire section of solid timber in Dallas County. In addition to his agricultural interests he has also largely engaged in buying, raising, feeding and shipping cattle, hogs and horses, meeting with a most gratifying and enviable measure of success in his undertakings. Since the reorganization of the Bank of Lacona he has served as president of that institution, and is widely recognized as one of Warren county's most influential, prominent and prosperous citizens.
Mr. Mills was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Edwards, who was born in Indiana in 1844, a daughter of Abel and Clarissa (Bennett) Edwards, who resided on the farm on sections 33 and 34, Liberty township, Warren county, which is now the home of our subject. The Edwards family were comparatively early residents of this county, but the father and mother of Mrs. Mills are both deceased, the former passing away in Lucas County in 1895 and the latter in Warren County about 1875. Mrs. Mills was about fifteen years of age when she accompanied her parents on their removal to this county and she acquired her education in the old district school. By her marriage she became the mother of eleven children, namely: William, of Lincoln Township, a teacher and coal miner, who is married and has six children; Lucy, who died about 1898, leaving her husband, Ira Sones, and two children to mourn her loss; Eli, who passed away at the age of ten months; Charles L., who was a farmer of Liberty Township and died about 1900, leaving a wife and two children; Laura, who resides at New Virginia, this county, and is the wife of Alva Gripp, by whom she has four children: two who died in infancy; Abel E., of Liberty township, who is married and has three children; N. R., an agriculturalist of White Breast township, who is likewise married and has three children; Herman, who follows farming near New Virginia and is married and has one child; and Jesse I., of Liberty Center, who is cashier of the Farmers Savings Bank. Mrs. Elizabeth Mills passed away November 8, 1889, when forty-four years of age, her demise being deeply regretted by many who had come to know and esteem her. After losing his first wife Mr. Mills was again married, his second union being with Mary J. Breece, of Lucas County. They had seven children, of whom three died in infancy, while those who still survive are Lowell, Zella, Orle and Raymond, aged respectively twelve, ten, eight and six years. Mr. Mills has given each of this older children eighteen hundred dollars, thus enabling them to make a good start in life.
Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Mills has given stalwart allegiance to the men and measures of the Republican Party, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He has served as township trustee and in other positions of public trust and responsibility, ever discharging his duties in a manner entirely satisfactory to his constituents. He is a charter member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Liberty Center, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Christian Church of Liberty Township. Brooking no obstacles that honest effort can overcome, he has steadily worked his way upward until, having long since left the ranks of the many, he today stands among the successful few.