Escambia County AlArchives Biographies.....McMillan, James April 30 1847 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 22, 2004, 11:32 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JAMES MCMILLAN, the popular and efficient sheriff of Escambia county, is a
descendant on the paternal side from an old and highly respected Scotch family,
several representatives of which emigrated from Kentyre, Scotland, to America,
as early as 1785, and settled in Robeson county, N. C. The first members of the
family, of whom there is any reliable information, were Duncan McMillan and his
wife, Mary, whose maiden name was McPhatter. They had a son, Daniel, who married
Christiana McLean, and among the children of the latter couple was Duncan
McMillan, who was about twelve years of age when his parents settled in North
Carolina. Duncan McMillan, by his wife, Mary Wilkinson, was the father of twelve
children, namely: John, Daniel, Neil, Duncan, Peter, Angus, Malcolm, Edward,
Margaret, Christian, Mary and Catharine. Daniel McMillan was a man of excellent
reputation in the community where he resided, as the following certificate, now
in the possession of one of his descendants, sufficiently attests:

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
ROBESON COUNTY.

   We, the undersigned, do certify that we have, for a considerable number of
years, been acquainted with the bearer hereof. Mr. Duncan McMillan. That he is a
gentleman of undisputed honesty and the strictest integrity, that he is of
respectable connections, and has at all times maintained the character of an
honest and upright man. We do, therefore, recommend him to the notice and
protection of all good citizens wheresoever his business may call him, or his
inclinations lead him. In testimony of which, we have hereunto set our hands and
seals, this second day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and twenty-eight.
                                D. MCPHAUL, J. P.,
                                N. MCALPIN, Dy. Shff.,
                                PETER JOHNSON, Constable, 
                                JOHN MACKAY, 
                                DANIEL SMITH, S. Clk.
A true copy.
      D. MCMILLAN, Co. Treas., Gadsden Co., Fla.

   The parents of Mrs. Duncan McMillan were Neil Wilkinson and Mar 
garet (McAllister) Wilkinson, both natives of North Carolina, and members of old
and highly respectable families. Malcolm McMillan, seventh child of Duncan
McMillan, and father of James McMillan, was a native of Robeson county, N. C.,
born about the year 1815. By occupation, he was a farmer; during the war acted
as a captain of militia in the Confederate service, and after the cessation of
hostilities was tax collector for a district in Florida, and later, served as
sheriff of Escambia county, Ala., for a period of four years. He was married in
Santa Rosa county, Fla., April, 1842, to Mary J. McCaskill, and lived in that
county until his removal to Escambia county, Ala., in 1871. Mr. McMillan died
October 19, 1880; his widow still survives and resides at this time in Brewton.
They reared a family of eight children, namely: Allen M., lumber dealer, of Pine
Barren, Fla.; Neal, lumber dealer, doing business at Repton, Ala.; James, Mary
E., Duncan, deceased; Edward S., merchant, at Brewton; Margaret H., died in
childhood, and Sarah C., wife of Hon. James Davison, of Brewton. James McMillan,
whose name appears at the head of this sketch, was born in Santa Rosa county,
Fla., April 30, 1847, and received a limited education in the schools of his
native town. Not old enough to enter the regular service at the breaking out of
the Civil war he nevertheless became greatly interested in the southern cause,
and for some years served in the state militia without taking part in any actual
battles. He remained under the parental roof until attaining his majority, and
later entered the employ of his brother, Allen M. McMillan, who carried on the
mercantile business at Pollard, Ala., for whom he clerked several years, and was
also employed, in a similar capacity, with W. M. Carney, at Williams' Station.
In 1878, he removed to Brewton, and engaged in the general mercantile trade,
which he carried on with varying success until 1885, at which time he disposed
of his business, and the year following was appointed sheriff of Escambia
county, to serve out an unfinished term, caused by the resignation of T. F.
Owens. He discharged the duties of sheriff in a manner so acceptable to the
people that at the ensuing election he was chosen his own successor, and is now
the incumbent of the office. "Jim" McMillan, as he is familiarly called, is one
of the most efficient sheriffs Escambia county has ever had, and his name has
become a terror to all law breakers in Escambia and adjoining counties. On
taking the office, there were on file a number of dead warrants against parties
whom his predecessors had feared to arrest, but nothing daunted "Jim." He
immediately set about to bring these lawbreakers to justice or drive them out of
the county, which he succeeded in doing so effectually that none of them have
been heard of in the county since. He has the reputation of being bold, and
absolutely fearless in the discharge of his official duties, but, withal, is a
man of fine feeling, and always tries to make better men out of the prisoners
placed in his charge. Politically, Mr. McMillan has always been an active member
of the democratic party, and as such takes an interest in the deliberations of
such in Escambia county. He is a member of the Masonic and the K. of P.
fraternities, in both of which orders he has held important official positions,
and with his wife, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, being a steward
and Sunday school superintendent in the Brewton congregation. He was united in
marriage June 22, 1873, at Pollard, to Anne, daughter of W. S. Penn, whose
family are Alabama people.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 984-986
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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