Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Mills, Lucius F. 1903
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net May 23, 2011, 11:27 am

Ionia Sentinel, 17 Apr 1906

Fifty Years In Ionia

Capt. L. F. Mills Lived Life of Industry.

Families whose Early Day Experiences are Recalled as Interesting Reminiscences 
– Mr. Mills Buried Thursday.

The funeral will be attended from the residence Thursday at 2:30 p.m.  The 
interment will be in Oak Hill.  The bearers are selected from Wm. H. Borden 
Post, No. 211, G.A.R. as follows:  Andrew Jackson, Gen. J. H. Kidd, B. R. 
Covert, Capt. J. C. Taylor, Lieut. D. A. Jewell, M. M. Currier.

Lucius F. Mills was born in Oberlin, O., in 1835.  He was the son of Rev. Louis 
Mills, a Presbyterian clergyman who came to Ionia with his family in 1854 and 
became the pastor of the First Presbyterian church, which at that time had no 
place of worship of its own, and services were held in the Episcopal church 
(the little wooden building which is still standing and used as a parish 
house.)  It was then located where the brick church now is.  Rev. Louis Mills 
had a large family of children, all grown up when he came to Ionia.  They were 
of a musical turn and the church had a fine choir.  Joseph had a very sweet 
tenor voice, Lucius sang base.  Miss Emily, now Mrs. E. E. Marble, of 
Washington, D.C., was a soprano.  The other brothers and sisters all helped out 
in the music.  One of them played the accompaniments on a “melodeon” which 
Lucius used to carry back and forth to and from the church on his shoulder.

To this same choir also belonged the “Bliss family,” singers of note in those 
days, who had traveled all over the country giving concerts after the manner of 
the Bakers and the Hutchinsons.  The voices of Dr. Willard Bliss, of Dr. Z. E. 
Bliss, of Miss Elvira Bliss, and even that of Mrs. Wenham, celebrated 
afterwards as the leading soprano singer of Grand Rapids, were often heard at 
the Sunday services.  Delia Irish, who became the wife and is now the widow of 
Lucius Mills, was a member of that same choir; as was also if we are not 
mistaken, Miss Emily her sister who married Sidney Sherman.  The choir station 
was in the northeast corner of the church and when the Millses, the Blisses and 
the Irishes were all there the music was worth going far to hear.

Lucius Mills retained his membership in the Presbyterian church until his 
death, although he long ago gave up singing in the choir.  His brother Joseph, 
the sweet voiced tenor, long ago joined the heavenly choir, as did also his 
sister Mary, who was the wife of M. Wetterling.  The others are living viz:  
Edwin, of Marshall, Mich.; Albert, of California; Henry, of Canton, Ill.; Mrs. 
Marble and Miss Ellen Mills, of Washington, D.C.; and Dr. James Mills, of 
London, England.

In 1857 Lucius Mills married Miss Delia Irish, eldest daughter of the late 
David Irish one of the pioneers of Ionia city.  They have had five children.

By profession Captain Mills, as he was generally known, was a builder and 
contractor.  Before the civil war he and his brother Albert operated a shop on 
Front street near where the Pere Marquette depot now stands.  Among the 
buildings which he erected as a contractor are the Hall-Fowler library 
building, the Central school building and the house in which he and his family 
lived for more than forty years on the corner of Union and Lafayette streets.  
He often said his residence, in which he took much pride, was the only monument 
he desired.  The “Mills addition to the village (now city) of Ionia” was 
platted by and named after him.

In 1861 he enlisted in the First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics and went out 
as First Lieutenant of Company E.  He was promoted to captain and served three 
years.

Since the civil war Captain Mills had devoted himself very closely to his 
family and his work.  He was a very industrious, hard-working man.  He was a 
loyal and zealous member of the grand army of the republic; a devoted christian 
and church member.  His life in Ionia covers a period of more than fifty 
years.  In his later years he was very deaf so that he appeared distant and 
reserved.  It was probably his deafness that caused his death.

----

Train Kills Deaf Man.

Ionia, Mich., April 17 – Lucius F. Mills was struck and instantly killed by a 
Pere Marquette passenger train Monday.  Mills, who was 65 years old and hard of 
hearing, was walking on the main line of the Pere Marquette tracks about a mile 
from the depot and failed to hear the warning of the whistle.  The train was 
brought to a stop a quarter of a mile beyond where the man was hit and the 
train crew went back and picked up the mangled body.  Mills was a pioneer of 
this country.  He served in the civil war, and was captain of a company of 
engineers and mechanics.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/m/mills12285nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/

File size: 5.2 Kb