San Mateo-San Francisco-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Mills, Darius Ogden 1825 - 1910
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Author: S. J. Clarke (1928)

DARIUS OGDEN MILLS

   Theodore Roosevelt said: "In all this world the thing supremely worth having
is the opportunity, coupled with the capacity, to do well and nobly a piece of
work the doing of which shall be of vital significance to mankind." This
opportunity came to Darius Ogden Mills and was utilized by him in a way that
made his efforts a most valuable contribution to the upbuilding of California
and especially in the stabilization of its financial affairs. He was one of the
pioneer bankers of the state, his career being characterized by untiring energy,
by quick perception and readily formed plans, promptly executed. Moreover, his
business integrity was an outstanding element in his career. As the years passed
on his business connections grew in volume and importance until he became a
national figure in the field of finance and railroad management, and with the
growth of his worldly possessions he likewise increased his activity for the
benefit and welfare of his fellowmen.

   The mingled strains of Scotch and English blood flow in the veins of the
representatives of the Mills family, which was founded in America at an early
day, settlement being made on Long Island and in Connecticut. The branch of the
family to which Darius Ogden Mills belonged settled in Westchester county, New
York, which was then an agricultural and grazing district but is now one of the
populous suburban sections of the eastern metropolis, and it was in North Salem,
Westchester county, that Darius O. Mills was born September 25, 1825, his
parents being James and Hannah (Ogden) Mills. The father was a successful
business man of that locality for many years and not only figured as a
representative merchant but as a leading and influential citizen whose labors
were an effective force in promoting the progress and advancement of the
district in which he made his home. Realizing the value of thorough educational
training, he gave his sons the opportunity not only to attend the public schools
but also to enjoy the advantages of academic training and thus qualified them
for mercantile or other business pursuits.

   Darius O. Mills therefore had the opportunity for study not only in the North
Salem Academy but also in Mount Pleasant Academy at Sing Sing, New York, and
early in life he gave promise of his successful later career in the display of
qualities which are ever dominant factors in business progress. He was a youth
of eighteen when he went to New York and his rapid advancement in business there
led to his assignment to the responsible position of cashier of the Merchants
Bank of Erie County in Buffalo, New York, when he was but twenty-one years of
age. At the same time he became part owner of that institution. Whatever he
undertook he carried forward to successful completion and his associates soon
recognized his sound judgment and clear vision as well as his capacity for
unlimited effort. He remained in Buffalo from 1847 until 1849, when, attracted
to California by reason of the reports which reached him concerning its
opportunities for growth and development, he came to the Pacific coast to verify
for himself the tales that he had heard and if conditions were favorable to here
engage in business. However, he retained his relation with the Merchants Bank of
Erie County and left behind him a good credit on which he could draw. He started
to the west by the Panama route. The isthmus, then the great thoroughfare of the
western coast, was thronged with adventurers who could not proceed further for
want of shipping. Accordingly Mr. Mills went down the South American coast,
thinking to charter a vessel at Callao and return to take on freight and waiting
passengers who were then in great numbers in the little port of Panama. However,
no vessel could be secured in South America and Mr. Mills shipped as a passenger
direct from the Peruvian port to San Francisco, where he arrived early in 1849.
Soon afterward he went to Sacramento, where he arrived in the fall of that year
with a small schooner of goods and forty dollars in cash. The capital city at
that time contained a population of about ten thousand people and it was his
purpose to trade with the miners. His brothers, James and Edgar Mills, had
previously reached Sacramento, where they were doing business under the name of
James Mills & Company, Merchants. Darius O. Mills was associated with them for a
brief period but about October, 1849, he began operations as a banker, and in
the San Francisco, Sacramento City and Marysville Directory, published by
Bogardus in July, 1850, mention is made of D. O. Mills & Company, Bankers,
located at 55 J street, between Second and Third streets. In the meantime, or in
the autumn of 1849, Mr. Mills had returned to New York with a considerable sum
of money already realized through his business operations in San Francisco, and
in the spring of 1850 he had again started for the Pacific coast with his stock
of merchandise. He found his most congenial field, however, in banking and
accordingly established the business of D. O. Mills & Company, as already
indicated, his cousin, E. J. Townsend, joining him as a partner. In 1852,
however, Mr. Mills became sole owner of the business and for many years
thereafter he ranked not only as one of the pioneer bankers of California but as
one of its foremost financiers. In 1850 his company had established a branch
bank at Columbia, Tuolumne county (the scene of Bret Harte's "Roaring Camp"), in
the midst of what was then one of the most promising and active gold fields of
the state—a fact indicated in the knowledge that in 1852 there were already four
banking and exchange houses in Columbia, while the town had a population of
fifteen thousand. The branch bank was maintained there for about nine years
under the management of Edgar Mills and was then sold to W. O. Sleeper &
Company, but during the time the Mills interests were in charge more than
fifty-five million dollars in gold dust had passed over the counter and was
weighed in the bank's scales.

   In 1862 Darius O. Mills sold a third interest in his Sacramento bank to his
brother, Edgar, while Henry Miller acquired the other third interest, and he
retired, at least temporarily, from active participation in the management, his
partners relieving him of that responsibility. In 1872 the bank of D. O. Mills &
Company became the National Gold Bank of D. O. Mills & Company, and in 1883 the
name was again changed to the National Bank of D. O. Mills & Company, which
title was retained until October 29, 1925, when this pioneer banking house was
merged with the California National Bank, the latter name being retained.

   While Mr. Mills had hoped to retire from active banking, this wish was not
long a dominant factor in his career, being dispelled by good sense and the
challenge of great responsibilities. It was proposed to establish a bank in San
Francisco of sufficient commercial dignity and foreign credit to insure
confidence, and the result was the organization of the Bank of California with a
capital of two million dollars, Darius O. Mills becoming owner of one-tenth of
the stock and president of the company. The new institution was so successful
that in a short time its capital was increased to five million dollars. The
broad experience, the wide vision and the undaunted enterprise of Mr. Mills
contributed in notable measure to the growth and prosperity of the institution,
of which he remained the president for about nine years. During all of this time
the steady and rapid increase of his own fortune naturally tended to bring about
his retirement from the bank that he might care for his own estate. Accordingly
he retired in June, 1873. Under the control of his successor, however, the
business of the bank rapidly fell off and with the failure of the bank in 1875,
Mr. Mills was beseeched to return and again resume control, the stockholders
relying upon him as the man whose presence and influence would reestablish the
bank on its previous high and profitable basis. He was again elected president
and with marked public spirit devoted his attention for three successive years
to the restoration of the bank, his labors being attended with most gratifying
results. He was thoroughly acquainted with every phase of the banking business
and his methods and his principles ever made for stability and development. He
had gained wisdom through study and experience and he had gained honor and
respect through his integrity and justice. The Coast Banker in its issue of
January, 1910, said of Darius O. Mills: "As one of that galaxy of California
pioneers whose qualities and works inspire and retain the pride of later
generations, he did his work and held his place in a strenuous time. The prizes
of fortune, reputation and influence he won in his California career were not
given by luck. He was, in an essential way, the ablest and best of those who won
these things because they were strong, alert, sagacious and just. Had he not
instinctively avoided publicity, he could have been a shining figure in the life
of his time. To a man like him, the way to position and power of the more
obvious sort is not long. The fortune he acquired was very large, but its size
is a minor fact now. What will be noted and remembered, in association with his
wealth, by those who knew him and by those who base estimations of human life on
the realities of life, and on the things thereof that abide, will be the fact
that his wealth was cleanly won, that it came from the legitimate development of
the resources of California and America, and from the profits of legitimate
business, conducted with masterful sagacity, and that throughout his life his
name was never connected with pernicious or questionable corporate finance.
Benevolence, justice, honor, wisdom and philanthropy went hand in hand with
practical business." As the years passed Mr. Mills extended his efforts into
other fields through financial investment as well as active service. He became a
director of the Erie Railroad Company, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
Railway Company, the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, the
Southern Pacific Railway Company and the North Atlantic Steamship Company. He
was also a director of the Metropolitan Trust Company and a trustee of the City
and Suburban Homes Company, the International Paper Company, the Lackawanna
Steel Company and the Madison Square Garden Company. Through all of these
associations he contributed to development and progress and his operations were
nationwide in scope.

   On the 5th of September, 1854, Mr. Mills was married to Miss Jane Templeton
Cunningham, a daughter of James Cunningham, of New York, and they became the
parents of a son and a daughter, the latter becoming the wife of Whitelaw Reid,
of New York. His devotion to his family was ever one of the paramount interests
in the life of Mr. Mills and he was also ever actuated by a broad humanitarian
spirit that prompted him to reach out a helping hand toward the individual and
toward the community at large whenever he believed that public welfare could be
promoted. He became a regent and the treasurer of the University of California,
thus serving from 1868 until 1880, and he founded the Mills professorship of
moral and intellectual philosophy. He also became one of the first trustees of
the Lick estate and of the Lick Observatory. In 1880 he returned to again
establish his residence in New York, where he erected the Mills building, and he
also established a system of hotels wherein meals and lodging were furnished to
respectable men at nominal prices. He likewise established a training school for
male nurses and he was chairman of the executive committee of the Fordham Home
for Incurables and chairman of the Carnegie Institution in Washington. He was
likewise actively interested in the Tribune Fresh Air Fund, in the Museum of Art
and the American Museum of Natural History. He was connected with the American
Geographical Society and was the president of the New York Botanical Garden. He
never ceased to feel the keenest, interest in California and passed away at his
winter home at Millbrae on the 3d of January, 1910. As he prospered he enjoyed
to the full the pleasures which art and culture can bring and he delighted in
surrounding himself with beauty in his home furnishings. He considered, too, his
duties and obligations to his fellowmen and was almost as widely known as a
philanthropist as he was a capitalist. His life work continues as a factor of
usefulness in the substantial Mills building of San Francisco and in the great
banks of that city and of Sacramento which had their inception in his clearly
defined purposes and indefatigable enterprise. He not only builded wisely and
well in the promotion of his own fortunes but also for the future greatness of
California. His name was known from coast to coast and his course was the
expression of the highest type of business achievement and of public service.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY
OF
SAN MATEO
COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO, ILL. 
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1928


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