Biographical Sketch of Rev. John McMILLAN D.D. (1881); Chester County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Candace Roth 
<clroth1229@earthlink.net>.

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From THE HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, by Futhey and Cope (1881);

Pg. 647
 
  "McMILLAN, Rev. John, D.D., was born in Fagg's Manor, Chester Co., Pa., Nov. 
11, 1752.  His classical education was partially acquired at his native place, 
in the academy under the direction of Rev. John Blair, and finished in the 
school of Rev. Robert Smith, D.D., at Pequea, Lancaster Co.  He graduated at 
Princeton in 1772, and was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle, Oct. 26, 
1774.
  Though his talents and learning would have commanded the most comfortable 
situation in the old settlements, yet he chose to forego all these, to traverse 
the Alleghany Mountains, and cast his lot with the settlers on the Monongahela 
and Youghiogeny, with all the privations, toils, sufferings, and perils 
attendant upon new and remote settlements, destitute of the comforts and 
conveniences of social life.
  He became pastor of the congregations of Chartiers and Pigeon Creek, in 
Washington Co., PA., in 1776, although, on account of the Indian disturbances, 
he did not remove his family until November, 1778.  The circumstances in which 
he was placed required him to "work with his own hands" in handling the axe and 
other implements of labor in a new country.  He possessed vigorous bodily 
powers, and during his long life was never confined half a day by sickness.
  For many years after his settlement, he and his family were exposed to great 
privations and trials, and sometimes were compelled to seek safety in the forts 
from the Indians.
  Like the Tennants, Blair, Smith, and others, he erected a log building near to 
his dwelling, in which he educated a number of young men, some of whom became 
eminent ministers.  Partly through his influence an academy was established at 
Canonsburg in 1792.  This became the nucleus of Jefferson College, of which he 
was a leading founder and a steady and faithful friend.
  He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Jefferson College in 1807, 
and died Nov. 16, 1833, at the age of eighty-one years.  His remains were 
interred in the Chartiers graveyard.  He was a man of distinguished talents, an 
able and zealous divine, and a skillful instructor.
  Both he and Dr. Power lived to see the wilderness in which they settled highly 
cultivated and populous, and their pupils men of education, learning, and 
usefulness."