USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 38
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General Mills invented the woven cartridge belt and loom for its manu- facture and founded the Mills Woven Cartridge Belt Company, of Wor- cester, Massachusetts, which manufactures woven cartridge belts and equip- ment for all the world. He was a member of the board of visitors at West Point in 1866, and was United States military attache at the Paris Exposi- tion of 1878. Since October, 1893, General Mills has been United States
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commissioner on the international boundary commission, United States and Mexico, during which he originated the principle of eliminating bancos (small islands) which are formed by the action of the Rio Grande and much complicated the boundary question previous to the treaty of 1905 for the "elimination of bancos in the Rio Grande," which he prepared. He was also appointed commissioner in 1896 to investigate and report upon a plan for an international dam near El Paso, Texas, for the purpose of equitably dis- tributing the waters of the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico. The American section of the boundary commission has published, under Gen- eral Mills' direction, many valuable reports, including the proceedings of the commission, in two volumes (1903) ; two reports on Elimination of Bancos in the Rio Grande (1910-12), and Survey of the Rio Grande, Roma to the Gulf of Mexico (1913).
He sat on the arbitral commission for the hearing of the Chamizal case, Hon. Eugene La Fleur, of Canada, presiding, which case involved the ques- tion of international title to land forming part of the city of El Paso, Texas, and his dissenting opinion in the findings of the arbitral board was approved by his government.
General Mills is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and was commander of the Washington commandery in 1908; Order of the Indian Wars of the United States and was commander in 1911, Society of the Army of the Cumberland, American Society of Inter- national Law, honorary member Society of Indiana Engineers, Army and Navy Club and Metropolitan Club of Washington. He was married October 8, 1868, to Hannah Martin, daughter of William C. Cassell, of Zanesville, Ohio, and had two sons, Anson Cassel and William Cassel Mills (both de- ceased), and one daughter, Constance Lydia, wife of Capt. Winfield Scott Overton, United States army.
WAR DEPARTMENT.
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, February 24, 1897.
Statement of the military service of Anson Mills, of the United States Army, compiled from the records of this office :
He was a cadet at the United States Military Academy, July 1, 1855, to February 18, 1857.
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He was appointed first lieutenant, Eighteenth Infantry, 14th May, 1861 ; captain, 27th April, 1863; transferred to Third Cavalry, Ist January, 1871 ; major, Tenth Cavalry, 4th April, 1878; lieutenant-colonel, Fourth Cavalry, 25th March, 1890; colonel, Third Cavalry, 16th August, 1892.
He was brevetted captain, 31st December, 1862, for gallant and meri- torious services in the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; major, Ist Septem- ber, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, and during the Atlanta campaign, lieutenant-colonel, 16th Decem- ber, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, and colonel, 27th February, 1890, for gallant services in action against Indians, at Slim Buttes, Dakota, September 9, 1876.
SERVICE.
He was on recruiting service July 19, 1861, to February 17, 1862, with regiment in Army of the Ohio, and Department of the Cumberland, to Octo- ber 22, 1864, and Acting Inspector-General, District of Etowah, to February 25, 1865. He participated in the siege of Corinth, April 29th, to June 5, 1862; battles of Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862; Murfreesboro, Tennessee, December 29, 1862, to January 5, 1863 ; Hoover's Gap, Tennessee, June 25 and 26, 1863; Chickamauga, Georgia, September 19 and 20, 1873; siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, September 21, to November 4, 1863; Mis- sionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 24 and 25, 1863; Tunnel Hill, Georgia, February 23 and 24, 1864; Buzzard's Roost, Georgia, February 25 and 26, 1864; Atlanta campaign, May 3 to September 8, 1864; Resaca, Georgia, May 13 to 15, 1864; Dallas, Georgia, May 24 to June 5, 1864; New Hope Church, Georgia, May 29 to 31, 1864; Kenesaw Mountain, June 22 to July 3, 1864; Neal Dow Station, July 4, 1864; Peach Tree Creek, Georgia, July 20, 1864, where he was slightly wounded ; Utoy Creek, Georgia, August 7, 1864 ; Jones- boro, Georgia, September 1, 1864, and Nashville, Tennessee, December 15 and 16, 1864.
He was on recruiting service from February 25, 1865, to November 15, 1865, when he rejoined his regiment and served with it in Kansas to March, 1866; on leave to October, 1866; (member of Board of Visitors at United States Military Academy, in June, 1866) ; with regiment at Fort Bridger.
(27)
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Wyoming, to October, 1867, and at Fort Fetterman, Wyoming, to May 10, 1868; on leave to July 10, 1868; with regiment at Fort Sedgwick, Colorado, to April, 1869, and in Georgia and South Carolina, to January 15, 1871.
He joined the Third Cavalry, April 15, 1871, and served with it in Arizona, to December 1, 1871.
He commanded his troop at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, January 17 to May 1, 1872; at North Platte, Nebraska (on leave December 2, 1872, to March 9, 1873), to August 13, 1874; in the field commanding the Big Horn expedition, to October 13, 1874; on leave to January 18, 1875; commanding troop and post of North Platte, Nebraska, to April 14, 1875; at Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, to November 20, 1875; at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming (in field February 21 to April 26, 1876, being engaged in action against Indians at Little Powder river, Montana, March 17, 1876), to May 18, 1876; commanding battalion of regiment in the field on expedition against hostile Indians, to October 24, 1876, being engaged against them at Tongue River, Montana, June 9, at Rose Bud River, Montana, June 17, and at Slim Buttes, Dakota, September 9, 1876 (where he commanded), commanding his troop at Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, November, 1876, to May 21, 1877, and on leave of absence to February 27, 1878; on duty in Paris, France, with the United States Commissioner, Paris Exposition, to November, 1878, and on delay to March, 1879.
He joined the Tenth Cavalry, April 11, 1879, and served with regiment in Texas (on leave March 23 to June 30, 1880, and August 26, 1880, to March 21, 1881), to May 21, 1881 ; commanding battalion of regiment at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, to November, 1881; on duty at Fort Concho, Texas, to July, 1882; at Fort Davis, Texas (on leave October 26, 1883, to January 2, 1884), to April 1, 1885; commanding post of Fort Thomas, Arizona, to August 26, 1886; on leave to March 27, 1887; on duty at Fort Grant, Arizona, being frequently in field to September 24, 1888; on sick leave to May, 1889; on duty at Fort Bliss, Texas, assisting officers of the Interior Department in surveys (before Congressional Committee in this city, Janu- ary to March, 1890), to April 2, 1890, and on leave and under orders to July, 1890.
He joined the Fourth Cavalry, July 13, 1890, and served at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, to October 31, 1891 ; commanding regiment and post of Fort Walla Walla, Washington, to February 11, 1893.
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He joined the Third Cavalry, February 28, 1893, and commanded it and the post of Fort McIntosh, Texas, to June 21, 1893, and the post of Fort Reno, Oklahoma, to August 12, 1893; on leave to October 26, 1893, and since then on duty as Commissioner of the United States International Boundary Commission of the United States and Mexico.
(Signed) GEO. D. RUGGLES, Adjutant General.
ADDITION TO THE RECORD OF COLONEL ANSON MILLS, UNITED STATES ARMY, NOT INCLUDED IN THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S CERTIFICATE OF MILI- TARY SERVICE.
He left West Point in 1857, went to the frontier of Texas and engaged in engineering and land surveying; laid out the first plan of the city of El Paso; in 1859 was surveyor to the Boundary Commission establishing the boundary between New Mexico, Indian Territory and Texas; in February, 1861, on submission to the popular vote of the state of Texas, the question of "Separation" or "No Separation," he cast one of the lonely two votes in the county of El Paso against separation, to nine hundred and eighty-five for separation; in March, 1861, he abandoned the state, going to Washington, and there joined the military organization known as the "Cassius M. Clay" Guards, quartered, armed and equipped by the United States government, and served there protecting federal officers and property, until relieved by volunteer forces called out by the President. On May 14, 1861, was appointed first lieutenant Eighteenth Infantry on the following recommenda- tion from the then first class at the military academy.
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, West Point, N. Y., April 30, 1861.
Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: We, the undersigned, members of the First Class at the United States Military Academy, respectfully recommend to your favorable consideration the claims of Mr. Anson Mills, an applicant for a commission as second lieutenant in the United States army.
Mr. Mills was formerly a member, for nearly two years, of the class preceding ours, when he resigned.
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During that time his habits and character conformed to the strictest military propriety and discipline, and we feel assured that he would be an honor to the service and that its interests would be promoted by his appoint- ment.
Respectfully submitted,
James F. McQuesten, Charles E. Hazlett, Henry B. Noble, Francis A. Davies, John I. Rogers, J. W. Barlow, W. A. Elderkin, A. R. Cham- bliss, Emory Upton, Eugene B. Beaumont, J. Ford Kent, J. S. Poland, Addelbert Ames, A. R. Buffington, C. E. Patterson, Leonard Martin, Sheldon Sturgeon, Wright Rives, Charles C. Campbell, M. F. Watson, Ohio F. Rice, Erskene Gittings, Franklin Howard, Charles Henry Gib- son, J. H. Simper, H. A. Dupont, J. Benson Williams, Charles M. K. Leoser, R. L. Eastman, Leroy L. Janes, Guy V. Henry, N. W. Henry, John Adair, Jr., Judson Kilpatrick, S. O. Sokalski, Samuel N. Benja- min, J. B. Rawles, L. G. Hoxton.
During the four years of the war he was never absent either on leave or from sickness and was present in all of the engagements of his regiment.
Fox's "Regimental Losses" states on page 3, that his regiment (Eigh- teenth Infantry), lost more in killed and mortally wounded than any other regiment in the regular army and that his company, H, First Battalion (page 420), lost more in killed and mortally wounded than any company in his regiment.
He invented the woven cartridge belt (and loom for manufacture) now adopted and exclusively used by the army and navy of the United States.
He stands No. 24 on the lineal list of seventy-one colonels in the army.
PRIVATE RESOLUTION NO. I.
Joint resolution permitting Anson Mills, colonel of Third Regiment United States Cavalry, to accept and exercise the functions of boundary commissioner on the part of the United States.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Anson Mills, colonel Third Regiment United States Cavalry, having been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as a commissioner of the United States under
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the convention between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico concluded and signed by the contracting parties at the city of Washington, March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, is hereby per- mitted to accept and exercise the functions of said office of commissioner ; Provided, Said officer shall continue to receive his emoluments in pay and allowances as colonel in the army while holding said office of commissioner the same as he would receive were he performing such duty under military orders and no other or additional pay or emoluments for his services as such commissioner.
Approved, December 12, 1893.
JAMES P. AND SARAH KENWORTHY MILLS.
One hundred years ago there was born August 22, 1808, at York, Penn- sylvania, a male child, who was christened James P. Mills. At the early age of eight years he was left an orphan. He was bound out and apprenticed to learn the tanner's trade. When he reached his majority he caught the fever of Greeley's advice to go west, before that sage thought of giving it, and in his twenty-second year crossed the Alleghanies in a Dearborn wagon and continued his journey towards the setting sun, until he reached Craw- fordsville. Here he became a citizen of the young state of Indiana, and as such we wish to follow him closely as a factor in the development of the state. His life is typical of the body of men that laid the foundations of the commonwealth. In this age he would not be termed educated.
The opportunities in Pennsylvania were meager a century ago, for the average young man, yet many of her sons, possessing brawn, grit and a sense of honor, forged to the west, and laid strong arms against the dense forests of Indiana. Our hero was one of that number. As soon as he was in Crawfordsville, he began to cast about for land. He had the ambition of ownership. He had planned in his mind to be a freeholder and purposed in his heart to own land with intent to build a home. On this sentiment the basis of this story is cemented. It's the same old story that lies at the foundation of every pioneer family in the state. Mr. Mills' employer recom- mended him to go to Thorntown in lieu of there not being desirable land to enter around Crawfordsville. This was the time when the question of
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organizing Boone county was before the legislature of the state. There were about six hundred souls living in this section of territory at that time. The county was organized in 1830. James P. Mills was one of the stalwart young men that stepped upon its wild soil with the nerve to build a county. In that year he came to Thorntown and sought employment with one Gapen, a tanner. It was not long until he drove his stake for life and received title to his homestead from Uncle Sam for portions of sections 6 and 7, in town- ship 19 north and range I west.
PIONEER HOME OF JAMES P. MILLS.
-Argus-Enterprise.
About the same time his heart sought a fair maiden by the scripture name of Sarah, daughter of Judge Kenworthy, who was among the first white men who took up their abode in the old French and Indian village of Thorntown, as early as 1819. Now Sarah was fair and kind of heart and James was drawn towards her. She was born in Miami county, Ohio, on next to the last day of the year 1810, and her parents moved to Thorntown when she was of tender age, and settled just east of the old French and
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Indian trading point in section 31, township 20 north, range I west, just a little over one mile across the woods from where our hero had located his home. There is no positive record of the process of movements, but the sequence tells the story. It must have run the same old road of lovers. There were meetings and cooings, horseback rides to the old church, apple parings, corn huskings, etc., during which the young man lost his heart. It put nerve into his arm. He drove a stake for his home just north of a gurgling spring, laid the ax to the root of the tree, like a tanner, not a woodman with trained chopping art. He hackled all round and round the tree until it fell in the line of gravitation. Thus he cleared the spot, hewed the logs and reared the home to the gables and put on the roof. All this while his heart strings were pulling stronger and stronger towards the Judge's daughter. He could wait no longer, not even to build the gables.
On the twenty-second day of November, 1832, James P. Mills was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Kenworthy and after one month of honeymoon, the bride at mother's and the groom trotting back and forth to his farm, one mile, and working like a beaver each day, fitting the home for his queen, at the close of the year 1832, with ax, mattock, handspike, hackle, loom and high hopes, they began home building in earnest in the wilderness. The story of this home is the story of Indiana. Its struggles, its privations, its hard- ships, its joys, its sorrows were the common lot of all. In this sketch we cannot stop to give the colorings, but must pass on.
We have spoken of James P. Mills as a pioneer, and it might be well on this occasion to speak of him as a man and citizen. As an orphan and ap- prentice, his youth passed without opportunity of education to qualify him as a public man. Landing in Indiana as he entered upon his majority, he at once became too busily engaged in subduing the wilderness and in his zealous home-building and struggles to provide for his family to look into books. He was a devoted husband, a provident and faithful father, and a conscien- tious citizen. With all these duties pressing upon him continuously day by day there was little opportunity for mind culture. In the very prime of life, when the light of a better day was dawning, the angel of death entered his home and took away the companion of his struggles.
There he stood, having passed the wilderness, in full view of the Canaan land. ready to pass over and feed on its honey and milk, but alas! The com- panion of his joys and sorrows, of all his toils and hardships was called away
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and left him standing on the shore, with all the little ones clinging to his knees and pressing on his heart. This was a time to try his soul. Dazed, bewildered and uncertain how to move, he stood as a father true to his trust, even clinging to his babe in his desperation to hold the family of children together. He rose to the emergency of filling the place both of father and the truest of mothers. What a task of love! What a test of manhood! Few men would have borne the burden. He held his place as the head of the home, protecting and providing for his children until they grew to manhood and womanhood. He not only provided food and raiment, but saw that the fundamental principle of government was instilled and imbedded in their nature, that comes from the law of obedience. His word was the law of the family. He also provided for their education, even to the sacrifice of send- ing them from home, where they could have better facilities.
During the lonely days of his widowerhood he read much of patriotism and obedience to her call took all the sons from the home. Later Cupid entered and the daughters fell by his darts and the house was left desolate and the hero of all its conflicts stood solitary and alone. It was in the midst of this period of his life we first met him. For one year in the early eighties we sat at the same table three times a day. Mr. Mills was reticent by nature and slow to form acquaintance, but he grew upon you slowly and surely. He possessed more in mind and heart than appeared on the surface. If you came in touch with him where he lived you would find him a live coal. He was a graduate in the affairs of life. He may not have had the culture of college training, but he did have that high sense of honor and manhood that comes through the school of life's' duties and trials. He was polished by the friction of hardships and refined by the pressure of a life devoted faith- fully to duty under the most trying circumstances. He was indeed truly educated and his life is a rich legacy to children and children's children.
GOVERNMENT DEED TO MILLS.
The government deeded to James Philips Mills, of Crawfordsville, Indi- ana, the following described land: The east fraction of the northwest quarter of section seven in township nineteen, north, range one west, in the district of lands subject to sale at Crawfordsville, Indiana, containing eighty
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acres, deed dated, Washington, D. C., March third in the year A. D. one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one and the year of the Independence of the United States of America Fifty-fifth. Signed Andrew Jackson, Presi- dent of the United States.
In the pioneer home were born all the stalwart sons and fair daughters. Anson, August 31, 1834; William, Marietta, Eliza Jane, Emmett, Allen, Gil- bert John, Caroline and Thomas Edwin. Sacrifices were necessary to edu- cate them. Schools there were none and they must needs be sent from home to the far east and south. The parents rose to the emergency. The mother spun, wove, made the garments and prepared food; the father tilled the soil and economized to provide means. In this home amid all the hopes and anxieties of the parents came the white-winged cupid with orange blossoms and daughters were given in marriage; came dark-winged death with sorrow also, bearing away its inmates in infancy, childhood and in young manhood's ripened prime on the field of battle. Saddest of all became the home when the mother, the light of its hearth, the bond of its union, was borne from their midst on September 4, 1849.
The mother and children, all gone by marriage or death, the father was left alone to live over and over the joys and griefs of the household. He trod the way companionless, down the sunset of life, until he passed under the shadow April 22, 1889, survived by three sons and two daughters. Thus ended the life work of one pioneer family of Indiana, after a full half century of toil.
Industry, frugality, truth, honesty and temperance were the cardinal virtues that made the sure foundation of this home. Such as these made the great republic possible. Parents of nine children, self-sacrificing, self- denying, self-reliant and peaceful, joint occupants of the same farm with the Pottawattamie Indians.
The house has mouldered away and given place to the new and modern, but the spirit generated in it is alive today, of which this occasion is a glorious and lasting witness.
IN MEMORIAM A. D. 1909.
A live memorial is erected upon our streets by the eldest son, General Anson P. Mills, Washington, D. C., to commemorate these lives. As the
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warp and woof of mother's loom ran down like a golden web through his mind and heart, inspiring success in life, mayhap there was also a continu- ous silver thread, flowing from the gurgling spring at the old home to this memoriam.
As the iridescent spray flying crystal-white from its sculptured forms and flowers, thrill our being with a sense of beauty and perfection of taste, it is well for us to remember the story of the toil and sacrifice of hands and hearts that made it possible.
Marietta Mills, daughter of James P. and Sarah Kenworthy Mills, was born December 31, 1837 and died February 12, 1914. She is a sister of Anson P. Mills.
She was united in marriage to John T. Burckhalter, April 15, 1858. To this union were born ten children, three having preceded the mother in death. The surviving ones are, Abraham, of Montana; Rembrant W., of Pennsylvania; Sarah and Grace, of Thorntown; Rosa, of Hazelrigg; and Bertha and Howard, who lived with her and administered to her in her de- clining years.
She leaves six grandchildren and one great grandchild, her namesake, Marietta, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Taylor, of Rochester, Indiana. Besides these two brothers, Brig. Gen. Anson Mills, of Washington, D. C., Allen Mills, of Thorntown, and one sister, Mrs. Jane Smiley, of Thorntown.
She became a member of the Christian church in 1857 under the preach- ing of Rev. A. L. Hobbs.
Mrs. Burckhalter was a woman of very fine type of mind, taking a very philosophical view of affairs at all times and up to the very time of her death her mind was exceptionally clear and keen.
Mrs. Burckhalter was born in an old log house that stood on the - site of the present modern home, in fact her death occurred within a few feet of the place of her birth. The farm on which she was born, lived and died, was entered by her father, James P. Mills, September 30, 1834, who also on March 18, 1837, entered a tract of land adjoining. Sheepskin letters of patents are still in possession of the family, the first signed by Andrew Jack- son, the second signed by Martin Van Buren, presidents of the United States at the time of entry.
Mrs. Burckhalter had witnessed the greatest era in the history of the nation and the most wonderful era, scientifically in the history of the world.
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She had a large part in the history of the state and nation, one brother being consul to Mexico, while the illustrious Anson Mills, so distinguished himself in time of war as to secure the position of brigadier-general. Dur- ing all these years she quietly remained at home, keeping the family together and rearing to sturdy manhood and winsome womanhood her sons and daughters who give to our nation those qualities and virtues which make us great among the nations of the earth.
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