The Millikin Family of Butler County, Ohio

DR. DANIEL MILLIKIN.

The first regular physician who practiced in Hamilton for a long time, and whose history was identified with it, was Dr. Daniel Millikin. Several of the other members of his family came here with him, or subsequently, and they and their descendants have maintained a distinguished position up to the present time.

Daniel Millikin was born on the lath day of February, 1779, on Ten-mile creek, in Washington county, Pennsylvania. The early incidents of his boyhood life are not known by any of his surviving descendants. Being the oldest child of James and Dolly (McFarland) Millikin, a young married couple, who had commenced their married life with the view of acquiring and improving a home under the inevitable trials and privations incident to living on the extreme western border of the settlements, and in a neighborhood sparsely populated, it is fair to presume that his services as a boy and young man were constantly required in assisting his parents. The history of all boys on the then western borders at that period will show that they had to perform much labor and to endure many privations.

The facilities afforded for obtaining even a very limited rudimental education were necessarily very meager. What progress he made we have no means of knowing. When, however, he had arrived to the age of eighteen, about 1797, his father and mother found themselves able to give their oldest son some respite from the labors of the farm to afford him an opportunity of acquiring a better education than he could obtain at home.

Accordingly, in fulfillment of their desires, the son was sent to Jefferson College, then located at Canonsburg, about six miles north of the town of Washington, in his native county. He remained there over a year, devoting part of his time to the languages, in view of reading medicine. Soon after leaving college he commenced the study of that profession under the care and instruction of Dr. John Bell, a prominent physician residing in Greensboro, Greene county.

After he had completed his studies under Dr. Bell, and was authorized to commence practice, he deemed it prudent to seek a wife. While residing at Greensboro he became acquainted with the family of Col. John - Minor, living near that place, and, in fulfillment of his purpose, he subsequently, on the 31st day of December, 1801, at the residence of her father, married Joan Minor. She was born where married, on the 22d day of September, J782, being at the time of her marriage a few weeks less than nineteen years old, while he lacked a few weeks of being twenty-two.

Immediately after his marriage Dr. Millikin commenced the practice of medicine, residing at his old home. The sparseness of the population and the general healthfulness of the neighborhood did not furnish a very encouraging prospect for a young physician. Besides the spirit of emigration was prevailing, and young men, especially those who were ambitious to improve their condition, were contemplating new homes in the farther West.

Strongly impressed with the prevailing conviction that “Westward the course of empire takes its way,” Dr. Millikin determined to investigate for himself, and, by personal observation, to see whether it would he wise to follow that course. Accordingly, in 1804, he came to Ohio, and visited the valley of the Miamis. As the result of his investigations, ultimately he and his two brothers — John H. Millikin and Samuel Millikin — on the 7th day of April, 1807, took their departure from their cherished home. The separation was an occasion of deep feeling with parents and sons. They, however, had made up their mind for the undertaking, and went forward. John H. Millikin and wife intended to locate in Knox county, Ohio. Samuel assisted his brother to drive his stock as far as Zanesville, and there they separated. Samuel continued his journey on horseback to Cincinnati, where he expected to meet his brother. Dr. Millikin, with his wife and three children, embarked on a flat-bottomed family Ixiat at Fredericktown, on the Monongahela, descending that river to Pittsburg, and thence going by the Ohio river to Cincinnati. After remaining there for a short time, he, with his family and his brother Samuel, took his departure for Hamilton, reaching it on the night of the 7th of May,

The first house he occupied was a story and a half hewed-log house situated on the precise spot now occupied by the paper mill of Snider Sons, on lot 160. During the ensuing fall and winter he built a two-store hewed-log house on the north end of lot 202, on Second street, north of Heaton street, to which house he removed in the early part of the summer of 1808. Afterwards he purchased lot No. 1 18, on the corner of High and Fourth streets, upon which he erected a frame house and into it he removed his family on the 18th day of September, 1819. He resided there for eighteen or twenty years, and afterwards he built a house on the north end of lot 155, on Third street, where he resided until within a few years of his death.

Dr. Millikin and wife had a large family. Their children were born as follows: Stephen Millikin, on the 2d day of January, 1803: John M. Millikin, on the lath day of October, 1804; Anna Millikin. on the 6th day of September, 1806; Thomas B. Millikin and James H. Millikin, on the 8th day of May. 1808; Anna Millikin, on the 5th day of March, 1811; Joan Millikin, on the loth day of May, 1813; Mary Millikin, on the 22d day of August, 1815; Daniel Millikin, on the 17th day of April, 1818; Jane Millikin, on the 22d day of September, 1819; James Millikin, on the 8th day of July, 1822; Otho W. Millikin, on the 22d day of January, 1826. The first three were born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and the others in Hamilton. Anna and James H. both died young and previous to the birth of others of like name. Nine of the foregoing arrived to lawful age, and were all married as follows: Stephen married Eleanor Ewing, April 17, 1823; John M. married Mary G. Hough, September 6, 1831; Thomas B. married Catherine Hough, November 10, 1831; Anna married Americus Symmes, February 21, 1832; Joan married Robert Kennedy, December 6, 1832; Mary married D. D. Conover, October 19, 1838: Daniel married Sarah J. Osborn, February 1, 1843; Jane married O. P. Line, April 25, 1843 Otho W. married Lida

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

Mrs. Joan Millikin had, for some years, been in feeble health, and died on the 28th day of September, 1830, being then only a few days past forty-eight years of age. Owing to the extremely severe hardships that Dr. Millikin had been compelled to endure in the very extensive and laborious practice of his profession, in the earlier years of his residence in Butler county, his stalwart frame was for years enfeebled by disease. For some time previous to his death he occasionally suffered severely from acute attacks, while his general health was seriously impaired. He finally departed this life on the 3d day of November, 1849, having attained the age of seventy years, eight months and twenty days, and after a residence in Butler county of forty-two years and nearly six months.

The professional career of Dr. Millikin was not only protracted, but it was excessively laborious and severe. There was no mode of conveyance save riding on horseback. Doctors had to ride in the intense hot sun and were exposed to the cold, the rain, and winter storms. The roads were frightfully bad for a large portion of the year. As there were but few physicians, Dr. Millikin had a wide range in his practice, not only visiting in all parts of the county, but receiving occasional calls from adjoining counties. The pressing demands that were made on physicians during the summer and fall months, for twenty-five or thirty years of Dr. Millikin’s professional life, can not be understood by those who did not live at the time referred to. Almost every household contained one or more patients needing medical treatment. Oftentimes the entire family would be prostrate with chills and fever, or with a most malignant case of bilious fever; so that there were not enough well persons in the family competent to answer the pressing calls of the sick. For continuous months the services of physicians were so much required that their average imperfect rest did not exceed four or five hours out of the twenty-four. It is marvelous that the excessive toil, great exposure, and deprivation of comfort and rest did not destroy the most robust constitution or impair the health of the most vigorous and enduring.

In the practice of his profession at the period referred to, Dr. Millikin was enabled to endure much hardship. He was of a cheerful, genial temperament, and submitted to the hardships and discomforts of his professional life with but little complaint. His services were inadequately compensated by those he served. The fees charged and collected were insufficient for the comfortable maintenance of a family. He was unselfish and liberal in his nature, and had apprehensions lest he might demand too much for his services, or call too soon for the miserable pittance that he had charged his patients. He married a second wife, by whom he had several children, the last surviving of whom — Samuel Millikin— died in 1895.

Outside of his professional life he had the confidence of the public, and occupied several honorable positions. He was in the war of 1812, in Colonel Mills's regiment, as surgeon, and, for a period, as quartermaster. He was a trustee of Miami University for many years; represented the county as a representative in the Ohio legislature in 1816; was major-general of the Third Division of Ohio militia, composed of Butler and Warren counties, and served for three terms as an associate judge of the court of common pleas.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

JOHN M. MILLIKIN.

Major John M. Millikin, the oldest professional man in Hamilton, and once treasurer of the State of Ohio, was born in Greensboro, Greene County, Pennsylvania, on the lath of October, 1804. He is the son of Dr. Daniel Millikin and Joan Minor. When ho was three-years of age his father removed to the West and settled in Hamilton, being the first physician who permanently took up Ids above here. John M. Millikin received instruction from I)r. Alexander Proudfit, who taught a school here about the time of the second war with Great Britain, and from others, and in 1821 went to Wuslbngington College, in Washington. Pennsylvania, spending a year there, and returning home the last of May, 182o. In that year he began the study of law with Jesse Corwin, in this city, and on the 5th of September, 1827, at

Columbus, ho was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and immediately opened an office. Colonel Campbell, who is next junior to him at the bar, did not enter practice till 1835, nor Thomas Miilikin, the next in age, till 1840.

In 1834 the law firm of Miilikin & Bebb was begun by the formation of a partnership between himself and William Bebb, afterwards governor, ana this connection lasted till 1840, when Miilikin retired from practice. In 1829 he was appointed brigade, major and inspector of militia, an office he retained till 1833. January 1, 1841, he was appointed an aid-de-camp by Governor Thomas Corwin, and in 1846 he was a member of the State Board of Equalization. In 1856 he was elected a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and was twice re-elected. He served as president of the board one year.

In 1860 be was appointed a trustee of Miami University.

In this capacity he has served two terms of nine years each, and has been reappointed for the third term. In 1873 he was named by the Secretary of the Interior as one of a commission to proceed to the Indian Territory for the purpose of making a treaty with the Creek Nation for the relinquishment of a part of their territory to the Seminoles. In October, 1875, he was elected treasurer of the State of Ohio, and on tiro loth of January, 1876, entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office. The Republicans renominated him for the same position in 1877, but at the October election the Democrats were in the ascendency, and he was, therefore, defeated. He retired from office on the lath of January, 1878. lie has always been a Whig and a Republican in politics. lie cast his first ballot in 1826, and has voted at all State elections since. His first vote for President was cast in 1823 for John Quincy Adams.

Major Miilikin has always been an important man in local aft airs. He has been president of the County Agricultural Society, president of Greenwood Cemetery Association, president of the Farmer's Club, and other societies. He has an excellent knowledge of local history, and skill in narrating it. He is highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, and has frequently been named by them as a suitable man for governor. He resides a little east of Hamilton on a farm which is cultivated according to the true principles of agriculture.

He was married on the 6th of September, 1831, to Mary Greenlee Hough, daughter of au esteemed early cit!7.‘U) of Hamilton, and has had by her four children, who attained full age: Minor, Joseph, Dan, and Mary. Mention is made of them in a sketch of the Miilikin family, on page 185.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

THOMAS MILLIKIN, who at the time of his death was the oldest practicing member of the Hamilton bar, was born in Rossville, now a part of Hamilton,

September 28, 1819. He began his classical studies with Rev. J. G. Monfort in Rossville, in 1832, and then entered Miami University, from which he graduated in 1838. He studied law with Elijah Vance and was admitted to the bar in 1840. Three years later he was appointed prosecuting attorney, serving for one year, and from that time until his death he was uninterruptedly engaged in the practice of his profession. He took a prominent part in public affairs and was one of the organizers of the Hamilton Gas Company and of the Hamilton & Lindenwald Electric Transit Company. For many years he was attorney for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway and the Big Four Railway Companies. In 1874 he was tendered a commission as judge of the supreme court of Ohio, but declined the honor. He was a noted speaker at public meetings and on July 4, 1876, delivered a noted address at the Hamilton centennial celebration and was also president of the citizens’ committee during the centennial celebration of the building of old Fort Hamilton. He also delivered an address at the laying of the corner-stone of the present court house. Mr. Millikin was married at Columbus, Ohio, November 4, 184T, to Miss Mary Van Hook, who died in 1894. To them were born seven children: William, Robert, Sallie, Murray, May, Ira and Julia. Mr. Million's name was a synonym for all that was honorable and few men have left a deeper impress on the city and state in the last half century than he. His death occurred in Hamilton, November 10, 1899.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

COL. MINOR MILLIKIN.

OL. MINOR MILLIKIN. Though many years have passed since this valiant man fell upon the bloody battlefield of Stone River, his memory is still green in the hearts of family and friends. In the prime of many vigor he responded to his country’s call for aid, and, marching to the front with the earliest volunteers, he did brave service against the enemy until he died, a martyr to the cause he loved so well. As long as love of a united country shall well among men, so long will his name be held in reverence.

Colonel Millikin was the eldest child of May. John M. Millikin, of whom a sketch is given in another place, and was born in Hamilton, July 9, 1834. The school which he attended in Hamilton would even now be reckoned an excellent one; but after a course of study at home, he studied further at Hanover College, and then went to Miami University for two or three years. After taking his degree in arts at Miami he went to Harvard College, where he graduated in law. Soon after this he married and made a tour of Europe, at a time when a tour of Europe was a tremendous performance indeed. Returning, he settled upon a farm near Hamilton, and devoted himself to agriculture and to the editing and publishing of the Hamilton Intelligencer. He was thus happily engaged at the outbreak of the Rebellion, but at the first call for volunteers he dropped all work and pleasure and offered his services to his country. Assisting to recruit the first company of cavalry organized in Ohio, he was elected and commissioned its First Lieutenant.

It is an interesting fact that at this time our military authorities could not see that cavalry would be essential in the coming conflict. The enlistment of cavalry was distinctly discouraged by the War Department, and when Lieutenant Millikin ’s company was organized it was with the understanding that the Government would not furnish them horses; the men must furnish their own mount, and the Government would only pa_y for such horses as were lost in service. Inasmuch as few of the men could or would furnish their own mounts, the officers of the company were obliged to purchase almost all the horses needed. It was under these circumstances that they took their company into the three months’ service in West Virginia, to render invaluable service to Rosecrans in his early struggles with Lee.

When the brief term of his enlistment had expired, Lieutenant Millikin returned to his home; but before he had enjoyed any rest, the Governor sent him a commission as Major in the First Regiment of Ohio Cavalry. The young Major, though taken by surprise, hesitated not a moment, but promptly accepted and reported to Camp Chase, where the regiment was being organized. By the time the organization was complete the regiment was well drilled, and was quickly ordered to the front, by which period the young officer had been promoted to the colonelcy.

The last day of the year 1862 was a day of disaster to the army of Rosecrans fighting at Stone River. He was hard pressed by Bragg at all points, but most of all did the rebel general seek to press back our right wing, commanded by McCook. Aware of this, for it was well known to all intelligent men in the command, Colonel Millikin was startled to see that the rebel horse, led by those splendid cavalry general, Wharton and Wheeler, was working its way around McCook’s frank, endeavoring to get completely in his rear and attack his ammunition train. This effort, had it been successfully accomplished, would have resulted in hopeless disaster, for the Union army was nearly exhausted by days of fighting. The brunt of the day’s battle had fallen most heavily on McCook; and the supply of ammunition was not more than sufficient. Colonel Millikin quickly spurred away to point out the imminent danger to his brigade commander, a Colonel of cavalry like himself, and to suggest a charge against the rebel cavalry to throw them into confusion, and delay the movement. He got a curt answer, or, as some say with charity, an obscure one. It was virtually an invitation to Colonel Millikin to make the charge himself, if he thought it best. The answer was sufficient for that heart of fire. The First Ohio Cavalry saw its leader come galloping back in such wise that all knew he bore great news. Even before he reached the front of the regiment his bugle was at his lips, and his butler echoed his musical command to charge. By the losses of war and by the detachment of men to do escort duty, the regiment had been reduced to less than four hundred men, but without parley or delay they hurled themselves into a body of the choicest troops of the South, numbering near four thousand. They threw Wharton and Wheeler into confusion; they pierced the larger body of troops to the very center; they saved the ammunition train. But the little body of brave men was quickly overwhelmed, and many of them were yielding to the demands to surrender while the impetuous commander was still hewing his way through the mass of men about him. As all revolvers were empty, it became a matter of sword-play for a time, and it appeared that enough men could not come near him to cut him down, so swift was his sabre. The enemy gave him every chance to save his life, continually calling on him to surrender, but, adhering to a determination made deliberately months before, he continued fighting until a Texan rode up to the group and brought him down by a shot from his revolver. By this time the astonished brigade commander was swooping down with all his men to recover the field and complete the confusion of the rebel cavalry. The captured men of the First Ohio Cavalry were captured by their comrades, and the ammunition train was made doubly safe, but the young Colonel’s bugle never sounded again.

When this noble sacrifice was fresh in mind, Prof. David Swing, in a memorial sermon, said of his friend and college mate:

“The character of Colonel Millikin cannot be pictured at a stroke. His mind was many-side. To the taste for literature he added a love for the practical in ordinary life. He was philosophic and romantic, ready to lecture on reform, or to leave together such thoughts as might win for one the title of poet. He loved that progress which comes by better education, and he loved also that progress of ideas which comes through the sword. He was ready to teach kindly the little child, or to meet his foe with terrible force upon the battlefield. Talented, original, independent, brave, he was always affectionate and religious.

“He had some faults, but far more virtues, and the deformity of the former fades from our sight when we look upon the beauty of the latter, just as the spots upon the sun are not remembered while we stand in the fields of June.

In his work, “Ohio in the War,” Whitelaw Reid says of his collegemate: “I must not prolong this sketch. And yet I can not feel that I have done justice to the memory of my dead friend without adding the conviction that by no single blow during the war did the country lose among her younger officers one braver, more devoted, more unselfish, more cultured, pure in character, or loftier in honorable ambition. No one on the sad lists of the nation’s slain seems more nearly to resemble him than Theodore Winthrop. Like that lamented officer, he was in some respects of too sensitive and peculiar an organization for the rough ways of common life. But in the fire of our great struggle his true character phone out; and in the halo from Stone River that now surrounds the name, none, even of his enemies, fail to do tender justice to his worth, or to cherish as a sacred possession the memory of Minor Millikin.”

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

PROF. JOSEPH MILLIKIN, the second son of May. John M. Millikin, was graduated from Miami University, and later was a student in the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was licensed to preach, and ordained a minister, but withdrew from that work. Subsequently he became Professor of Greek in his Alma Mater, and in connection with the duties pertaining to his chair he gave instruction in the Hebrew language. In 1873, upon the organization of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, located at Columbus, he was elected Professor of the German, French and English languages and their literature. Here he labored for eight years, extending the work in his department to include the study of Anglo- Saxon, old English and the Romance tongues.

In his youth Professor Millikin found himself the subject of pulmonary disease. In the latter half of his too brief life he was continually hampered by illness and the constant necessity of doing, not what he would, but what lie could. Four times he went to Europe, chiefly for his health, and he suffered many other interruptions. In June, 1881, he was compelled to resign his chair, and, after another brief season of travel, he returned to the old homestead to die. In the fall of 1882 he passed away at the age of forty-two years. He was known and admired as a charming speaker, a beautiful writer, the possessor of wide learning, running to philology and linguistics, but was distinguished most of all for his power of inoculating young people with his own love for learning.

JOSEPH WELLS NICHOL is a worthy representative of one of the oldest pioneer families of Hanover Township. His birth occurred on the farm where he now lives, February 26, 1823, he being the eldest son and third child born to John and Elenor (Marshall) Nichol, and the only surviving member in the family of nine children, four sons and five daughters, all but three of whom grew to maturity.

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

DAN MILLIKIN, M. D.

The subject of this brief review is one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Butler county, has been a member of the faculty of Miami Medical College for the past twenty years, while his genial personality and deep appreciation of all that is true and good in humanity has made him in a significant sense humanity’s friend and gained to him unequivocal popularity among old and young. His is the buoyant, gracious spirit of perennial youth, and by temperament and mental power he is an optimist.

Dr. Millikin is a native of Fairfield township, where he was born on the 17th of April, 1845, being a son of John M. and Mary G. (Hough) Millikin, the former of whom was a lawyer by profession and engaged in practice until he had attained the age of forty years, when he withdrew from his professional work and devoted the residue of his active life to agricultural pursuits. He died in April, 1884. ank3 his devoted wife survived him a little more than fifteen years. The Millikin genealogy is traced back to Scotch-Irish origin, but the paternal grandmother of the Doctor was of stanch old New England stock, she having been a Minor and a representative of ancestors who came from England soon after the arrival of the Mayflower and settled in New England.

Dr. Millikin received his early education in the public schools of Hamilton, this county, being graduated as a member of the class of 1862, and in 1863-4-5 he was a student in the Sheffield School, of Yale College. He was then matriculated in the Miami Medical College, in Cincinnati, and was graduated in 1875, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In his youthful days he set up a small laboratory in his home and gave private study to chemical work and investigation, this being in a measure a preparation for his collegiate studies. Immediately after his graduation Dr. Millikin established himself * in the practice of his profession in Hamilton, and his devotion to his work has been unflagging, while his success has come as the result of his ability and assiduous application. He has taught in his alma water, Miami Medical College, since 1884. He first held the chair of medical chemistry, and after two years of service in this capacity he assumed the chair of materia medical, while since 1893 he gives only a short course each year on medical jurisprudence. The Doctor is not only essentially a man of science and of high professional attainments, but is also a man of letters, having a recondite knowledge along general lines of literary thought. His' services are much in demand in connection with lecturing on topics far removed from medical science. His greatest delight aside from professional work is the elaboration of a popular lecture and its subsequent delivery. No better idea of the genial and kindly nature of the Doctor can be given than that expressed in his own cheery words: I ‘train’ with young people for the most part, and I trust that the new crop, now ten-year-olds, will love me when we are all ten years older.” In politics Dr. Millikin is not partisan, and in state and national affairs he usually exercises his franchise in support of the nominees of the Republican party.

On the 9th of October, 1866, Dr. Millikin was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Hunter, of Hamilton. They have two children. Dr. Mark Millikin, who was born on the 23d of March, 1868, and who is now engaged in the practice of his profession in Hamilton, and Mary, who was born on the

19th of October, 1870, and who is now the wife of Thomas Beckett, a respected citizen of Hamilton.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

DR. SAMUEL H. MILLIKIN.

The subject of this review is a representative of one of the early established families of Butler county, the history of which covers almost a century. The Millikin family needs no introduction to the people of this county, as since 1807 ie>’ have been prominently identified with its growth and progress. The annals of the county record the history of no family more conspicuous or more honorable in the advancement of public thought and action, and none of more diversified interests. They have been represented in all the various lines of human effort, and have always borne and sustained an exalted position in the social, professional and business affairs of the county. It is not the purpose of this volume to give undue prominence to any individual or to extol the merits of the living to the neglect of the dead. The worthy pioneers, 'by whose aggressiveness, self-sacrifice, industry and frugality was rendered possible the high state of advancement which we enjoy today, are worthy of more than a passing notice in the annals of history. This recognition must come through individual families. The Millikin family was established in-Hamilton on the 7th of May, 1807. The founders were Dr. Dan Millikin and his brother Samuel. They came from Washington county, Pennsylvania, and were sons of James and Dolly (McFarland) Millikin. James Millikin was born in County Antrim, Ireland, January 5, 1752, and came to America in 1771. He married Miss Dolly McFarland in Washington county, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1778, she being a native of Massachusetts. They were the parents of nine children, who attained to years of maturity, namely: Daniel, James, John H., Samuel, William S., Robert B., Andrew, Abel and Mary. Five of the family became residents of Hamilton as the years passed and are now buried in Greenwood cemetery.

Samuel Millikin, the fourth son of James and Dolly Millikin, was the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1786. He was in his twenty-first year when he accompanied his brother Daniel to Hamilton. He took up his residence in his brother’s family, and for a few years turned his attention to the study of medicine. Later he came to realize that the practice of medicine would not be congenial to his tastes, and he utilized the knowledge acquired in his previous studies in establishing the first regular drug store in Hamilton. His brother

Daniel was the first physician in the town of Hamilton. Samuel Millikin continued in the drug business for several years. On the 28th of September, 1813, he was married to Miss Mary Hunter, a daughter of Joseph Hunter, an early pioneer of Fairfield township. As a result of this union, three children were born, the eldest of whom was Hannah, who became the wife of William Anderson, a prominent merchant in Hamilton at that time; the second born was James H., who became a partner with his brother-in-law, Mr. Anderson, until the death of the latter in 1845. Mrs. Anderson died on the 25th of May, 1834. James Millikin continued in mercantile business for a number of years, subsequently removing with his family to Decatur, Illinois, where he died. John Millikin was the youngest of the family of Samuel and Mary (Hunter) Millikin, and the father of Dr. Samuel H. Millikin of this sketch. He was born in Hamilton on the 24th day of October, 1826. His mother died when he was a small child, 011 the 1 2th of July, 1828, and he was reared as a companion of his father in Hamilton, and later on a farm in Vermilion county, Indiana. On attaining the age of manhood he continued to operate a farm in Indiana for many years. He married Miss Mary C. Snively, a daughter of Samuel Snively, a well-known and prosperous citizen of Butler county. He was descended from pioneer ancestors in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, his father’s family having located there in a very early day. Samuel Snively amassed a fortune in the tanner) business and was considered wealthy at th time of * his death, in 1863. The father Q Dr. Millikin was engaged in various line of business, but after leaving the farnf

Google which he operated successfully for seventeen years he engaged in the milling business, but the fluctuations of war-time prices were disastrous and he sold out his interests, entered the employ of the well-known firm of Long & Allstatter, with whom he was employed as superintendent of agencies for more than twenty years. He was thus employed at the time of his death, on the 28th of August, 1892. He was a man universally esteemed for his sterling integrity and upright life. He was a devoted husband and father, indulgent and generous to his children, devoted to his home and its environments, ever thoughtful of the comfort and happiness of others. He was a man of high moral instincts and broad philanthropy, He had no enemies, but all who knew him were his friends. The memory of John Minikin will long be remembered, even out- side of the family circle. His family comprises four sons and four daughters who attained to years of maturity. The names are, in order of birth: Adda S., wife of S.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

MARK MILLIKIN, M. D., of the firm of Millikin & Millikin, was born in Fairfield Township, near Hamilton, March 23, 1868, and is the only living son of Dr. Dan and Amanda (Hunter) Millikin. His boyhood after seven years of age was passed in Hamilton. After attending the high school for three years, he entered the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, taking a chemical and biological course preparatory to the study of medicine. After three years spent in that institution he commenced to read medicine, and in the fall of the same year (1889) entered Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, from which he was graduated April 1, 1892, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

At once after graduating the Doctor became associated with his father in the practice of medicine at Hamilton, where he has an extensive general patronage. He is interested in matters pertaining to the profession, and is a member of the Butler County and the Union District Medical Associations. June 29, 1893, he was united in marriage with Miss May Beckett, the youngest daughter of William Beckett. Mrs. Millikin is a native of Hamilton and was graduated from the high school in the Class of ’86. She had evinced considerable talent as a musician, and after her graduation spent two years in Dresden, Germany, where an elder sister was residing at that Lime. These two years were devoted to the study of music under the guidance of competent professors. She also became proficient in the German language. Frequently she has been called upon to assist in leading parts in home opera and musical entertainments. They are the parents of one child, Frances.

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

BRANDON R. MILLIKIN.

This well-known attorney of Hamilton is a representative of one of the most distinguished families in Butler county. He is descended from pioneer stock, and the name of Millikin in Butler county stands for a high class of citizenship and, among the males, almost invariably, for a professional career. Dr. Dan Millikin was the first physician in Hamilton. He and his brother Samuel took up their residence in this city on the 7th of May, 1807, and to this early pioneer family is traceable the entire Millikin family now living in Butler county. Samuel Millikin, before mentioned, opened the first drug store in Hamilton.

Brandon R. Millikin, of this review, is descended in direct line, four generations removed, from Dr. Robert B. Millikin, a brother of Dr. Dan and Samuel. He was the sixth son bom to James and Dolly Millikin, the former a native of Ireland, born on the 5th of January, 1752, in County Antrim.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

Robert B. is the paternal great-grandfather of Brandon R., of this sketch. At the time his three brothers departed for the West to seek new homes he was a lad in his fourteenth year, and he remained with his parents until about twenty, when he became imbued with the spirit of emigration and followed his older brothers to Hamilton. He arrived here in the spring of 1813 and took up his residence with the family of his brother, Dr. Dan, where he remained until the time of his marriage. In Hamilton he completed his preparatory education and took up the study of medicine under the tutorship of his elder brother. In 1817, having mastered the intricacies of professional lore, he was licensed to practice medicine, established an office in Hamilton, and began his professional career. He devoted his attention closely to his profession for many years and was successful in the accumulation of property, as well as in the relief of the distressed. As he approached the age of middle life he relaxed his professional efforts somewhat, though he never retired entirely from the practice of medicine. He was a man of resourceful mind and readily adapted himself to other lines of human effort. He was for years a brigadier general of the Ohio state militia and discharged the duties of several other honorable positions.

He was a trustee of the Miami University,

8 1 2 served for a time as county treasurer, was one of the commissioners for the selection of canal lands belonging to the state, and served as a member of the Ohio legislature.

Dr. R. B. Millikin, on the 6th of December, 1816, married Sarah Gray, who was connected with many of the pioneer families of that day. She died in young womanhood, leaving three children, who arrived at the age of maturity. The eldest of these was Samuel, who resided in Hamilton for many years, but subsequently removed to Missouri, where he ended his days. Thomas was the second born in this family, and the paternal grandfather of the subject of this review. Elizabeth, the youngest child, married William A. Elliott. Both are now deceased. Dr. Robert B. Millikin married, for his second wife, Mrs. Ann Eliza Yeaman, who survived him. Dr. Millikin died on the 28th of June, 1860, at the age of sixty-six years, six months and nineteen days.

Thomas Millikin, grandfather of the subject, was born in Ross vi lie, now Hamilton, on the 28th of September, 1819. No man ever lived in Hamilton who contributed more to the growth and progress of the city, or who maintained a higher grade of citizenship than Thomas Millikin. He was abreast of the times in everything, and the later years of his long and illustrious life were as fertile as the earlier ones. His life career was devoted to professional work, and he never sought, nor would he accept, a purely political office. Thomas Millikin was liberally educated, beginning his career in the classics, under the tutorship of Rev. Joseph G. Monfort, in 1832. After two years of this preparatory work he entered Miami University and was graduated from that institution in July, 1838. In the autumn of the same year he became a student of law in the office of Elijah Vance, and was admitted to the bar December 20, 1840. He at once engaged in active practice, which continued without interruption for more than half a century. In 1843 he was appointed prosecuting attorney and served one year under this appointment, but never again, during fifty years and more, do we find the name of Thomas Millikin announced as a candidate for any office not purely professional. But throughout all of these years he held the post of honor at the Butler county bar. None were there to dispute it. He was a lawyer, and desired to be nothing more. As a public speaker, however, there were few his equal and his voice was always heard as one of the principal orators on occasions of state. His style was terse, convincing and pleasing. Never in his life did he resort to the petty methods of the pettifogger, even in the most animated political debates. He was always a gentleman and treated his adversaries as such, whether they were or not. He was an ardent supporter of the Union during the Civil war and sent two stalwart sons to the front in its preservation. Yet he never believed in the necessity of a resort to arms.- He believed in peaceful arbitration of national difficulties, and recognized the “power of might” only as a last resort. But all of his public utterances breathed an ardent desire for the suppression of the Rebellion and the preservation of the national union, at any cost.

Mr. Millikin was the originator of the Hamilton Gas Company and also of the Lindenwald Electric Transit Company. He was chosen the first president of the latter corporation and remained in that position until the day of his death. As a promoter of these two beneficent enterprises, without which the city could scarcely exist today, he proved himself a man of public spirit and advanced ideals. From 1852 until his death he was attorney for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company. Subsequent to 1852 he was also selected as attorney for the Big Four Railroad Company, serving in that capacity for many years. In 1874 he was tendered a commission as one of the judges of the supreme court of Ohio, an honor which he declined. There are many of Mr. Millikin's public addresses now in print, but probably the masterpiece of his lifetime is the address delivered on the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This was delivered in Hamilton, on July 4, 1876. His address on the occasion of laying the cornerstone of the new court house in Hamilton is another of the sacred relics of past days. It is tempered throughout with a spirit of love and justice between man and man, the sentiment of which could not have been uttered by any save a pre-eminently good man. During the later years of his life he took two partners into his legal business, his grandson, Brandon R. Millikin, of this sketch, and Robert N. Shotts, under the firm title of Millikin, Shotts & Millikin.

Thomas Millikin was married in Columbus, Ohio, November 4, 1841, when he wedded Mary, the daughter of the late William B. VanHook. She was born in 1824, and proved a most exemplary wife and mother. The union was a most happy one, and after walking side by side on life’s journey for fifty-two years, it was terminated on the 13th of January, 1894, when Mrs. Millikin was called to her final earthly rest. They were the parents of seven children, namely:

William B., Robert B., Sallie G., Murray G., Matie M., Ira S. and Julia M. William, Murray and Matie are deceased. The others are, for the most part, residents of their native city. William served as a soldier in the Thirty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war and Robert B. was a member of the Ninety-third Regiment in the same service.

But it is as a lawyer that Thomas Millikin achieved the highest honors and most brilliant success. For more than a quarter of a century there was scarcely an important case brought to trial in Butler county that Mr. Millikin did not appear on one side or the other. He has also carried some very complicated cases through the higher courts of the state and nation, where his ability and sterling integrity were always recognized. Mr. Millikin was a over of history, and delighted to well on reminiscences and scenes of the past, especially during the period of the seventy years with which he was so familiar. He was exceptionally well informed on the current history of Butler county and took special pleasure in discussing the events of the early days. His death occurred in Hamilton, on the loth day of November, 1899.

The father of the subject, Robert Barbour Millikin, was born in Hamilton, March 2 r, 1844. He acquired his elementary education in the schools of his native city. He then spent two years at the Park Latin Schools, in Boston, Massachusetts. Soon after this he entered Miami University, and, after two years’ study there, his college career was suddenly terminated by his enlistment as a soldier in the Union army. He entered the service on the 16th of July, 1862, as a member of the Ninety-third Ohio

Volunteer Infantry. After serving two years at the front and being twice promoted, he resigned his commission as first lieutenant on the 22d of November, 1864, by reason of disability contracted in the service. Mr. Millikin has filled various offices of trust and responsibility. He was the city clerk of Hamilton from 1875 to 1881, retiring from the office to accept the office of clerk of the courts of Butler county, to which he was elected in t88i, and served until 1887.

Mr. Millikin engaged in the manufacture of farm implements and machinery in 1865, continuing that business for many years. He is now quite extensively engaged in real estate and insurance business in Hamilton. R. B. Millikin was married August 16, 1865, at Piqua, Ohio, to Miss Carrie E., daughter of Abel and Martha Brandon, a prominent pioneer family of Miami county. These are the parents of Brandon R. Millikin, the subject of this sketch.

Brandon R. Millikin was born in Hamilton. August 19, 1868. He enjoyed the excellent educational facilities of his native city, where he fitted himself for entrance upon a collegiate course. This he did in 1885. when he entered the classical department of Amherst College, in Massachusetts. Returning from that institution, he took up the legal profession as a life work and entered the office of Hon. Thomas Millikin, where he passed one year in preparatory study. Continuing his professional studies, he entered the Law School of Cincinnati, where he completed the prescribed course and was graduated in 1891. Mr. Millikin then returned to Hamilton and soon thereafter the law firm of Millikin. Shotts & Millikin was formed, the subject becoming the junior member.

Since the death of Thomas Millikin, the senior partner, the firm title has been Shotts & Millikin. The subject is a thorough scholar and endowed with all the characteristics which constitute a successful lawyer. He has the prestige of a long line of ancestors distinguished in the learned professions, the counsels of his late preceptor, and the example of a successful life career fresh in his mind. Mr. Millikin is an exceedingly popular and talented attorney. Along professional lines he inherits many of the peculiar characteristics of his lamented grandfather and early preceptor, and has already established for himself a career of prominence and usefulness. Though a pronounced Democrat, and zealous in the supremacy of party principles, he has never entered politics as a candidate for public honors, but is content with assisting his party and friends with his voice and influence.

Mr. Millikin was married on the 9th of January, 1895, when he those as his life companion Miss Grace E. Jewett, of Wyoming. Ohio. She is a daughter of Joseph E. and Cecelia C. Jewett. Her father was a prominent business man at Wyoming for many years and is now the president of the Cincinnati Carriage Goods Company. Mrs. Millikin was educated at the Wyoming high school, subsequently taking an extensive course in the Cincinnati College of Music, where she studied piano and organ. Mr. and Mrs. Millikin have three children, Caroline E., Margaret B. and Jewett. Mrs. Millikin is a member of the First Presbyterian church, which the family attend regularly.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.