Preston County, West Virginia Biography of Alcinus F. MCMILLEN This file was submitted by John \"Bill\" Wheeler The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg. 118-119 Alcinus F. McMillen, of Masontown, is an old-time educator and surveyor and civil engineer, but for a number of years past his studious energies have been directed along the line of scientific as well as practical farming. Mr. McMillen has been a leader in the modern agricultural movement in this section of Preston, County, and his farm is interesting as a practical experiment station for the testing out of methods and crops best suited to this region. The family history of the McMillens in Preston County, runs back to 1790. In that year Robert McMillen, who had served as a soldier on the American side in the Revolutionary War, patented 500 acres of the virgin soil near Friendship Schoolhouse in Valley District. His old cabin stood near the residence of William H. Every, now one of the prominent old residents of the county. It was close to the river where fishing was good and where game was plentiful, and the climate somewhat milder than further up the valley. Robert McMillen was one of the first to begin the cultivation of the soil in that locality. He was buried not far from the scene of his labors and activities. Among his numerous children were William, James, Robert and Elizabeth. William McMillen, representing the second generation of the family in Preston County, was born in the wild and somewhat romantic spot where his father settled. He grew up with little knowledge of books but became skilled in the arts of woodcraft and frontier accomplishments. While still a youth he learned to handle a gun expertly, and was the chief dependence of the family for its meat supply. When he settled down to locate at Masontown, on the farm now occupied by his grandsons, Newton W. and Alcinus F. He married Sarah Cobun, daughter of Simon Cobun, and member of another early pioneer family of Preston County. William McMillen and wife lived out their lives on the Masontown farm and are buried in the cemetery on said farm, half a mile from the village. The children were: Robert; James, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, reared a family near or on the patented land of his grandfather and is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery; and Sarah, who became the wife of William Anderson, and both are now at rest in the cemetery on the home farm near Masontown. Robert McMillen was born October 24, 1824, and lived just half a century, passing away October 24, 1874. His education was such as could be obtained from the schools of that day. He was a good farmer and was constant and devoted to the life and leadership of the community. For many years he was one of the most ardent workers in the Methodist Church, and exerted a constant influence in behalf of education and morality. He helped build school houses and churches and had a kindly interest in the welfare of the younger generation as well as that of his own. He could make an effective speech when the occasion demanded, and he usually led the singing at church. Physically he was a man six feet one, weighed about one hundred-fifty pounds, and had a florid complexion and red hair. Robert McMillen married Nancy Hartley, of Masontown. Her father, Edward Hartley, founded this numerous and prominent family in this vicinity. Nancy Hartley was born November 23, 1826, and died October 9, 1901, at the age of seventy-five. Her children were:Newton W., a farmer a mile north of Masontown; Alcinus Fenton; Rev. Edward W., a Methodist minister at North Platte, Nebraska; John L. , of Masontown; Dr. Robert M., of Wheeling; Charlotte, wife if John S. Miller, of West Liberty, Ohio County, West Virginia; and Emily Bell, who married O.D. Sims, of Short Creek, near West Liberty. Alcinus F. McMillen was born December 4, 1853, and his home through practically all his life has been at the place where he was born. He attended the free schools, took a course in the Fairmont State Normal, and at the age of twenty began teaching. His service as a teacher, covering a period of twelve years, was in the schools of Masontown, Reedsville, Kingwood, Rowlesburg and elsewhere. The intervals of teaching he employed in farm work and surveying. Mr. McMillen had the mathematical and mechanical gifts required of an expert civil engineer. His reputation in this field brought him engagements so that he was employed in the surveying of timber and coal lands in Virginias, Tennessee and North Carolina as well as in his home state. For sixteen years he was county surveyor of Preston County, and was also the first county road engineer, serving from 1909 to 1911. The duties of his office were especially strenuous when coal development began in the county, and while preparations were underway for the milling of timber lands. After his long and effective service with his surveying instruments he was quite ready to be relieved and retire to the less arduous pursuits of agriculture. As a farmer he has not kept strictly within commercial lines and with commercial objects in view, but has frequently done a season's work with every prospect of failure in order that he might demonstrate a new principle or method. The methods of former years in farming were much different from those practiced by him today. The shovel plow was a commom implement then, and the harrow was seldom used to pulverize the soil. Harvesting progress has been marked by the successive introduction of the sickle, the cradle, the self binder, and finally, the tractor has enormously increased the power and effectiveness of all farming machinery. In early times when the soil was new it was exceedingly productive, and the scratching of the surface was all that required to produce crops.It was manure years after the Civil War before the need of fertilizer appeared, and with fertilizer came the new invention, of manure spreader and the use of lime to sweeten the soil, especially for grass crops. Clover and timothy have been the standby crops for hay, but Mr. McMillen was one of the first to experiment with alfalfa, which required special treatment and conditions to secure a permanent stand. with the use of extra lime and inoculation alfalfa has proved its money-making qualities here as elsewhere and Mr. McMillen has frequently cut three tons per acre. His success has encouraged his neighbors in the same direction. Mr. McMillen has also done much practical experiment work with seed potatoes, until he has found the variety and strain best adopted to this region and is now regarded as the formost authority on potato culture in this section of the state. Mr. McMillen has been ready with personal work, influence and his purse to promote the institutions of school and church. The erection of a high school and the building of a new Methodist Church were both accomplished through popular subscriptions, and the McMillen donation to both was ample and u nstintedly made. Mr. and Mrs. McMillen for many years have been faithful workers in the Methodist denomination. March 22, 1887, he married Miss Christie Guseman, who was born in Monongalia County, April 29, 1859, daughter of John W. and Carrie (Snider) Guseman. Carrie Snider was a daughter of John and Julia (Hess) Snider. John W. Guseman was descended from Abraham Guseman, and was a son of Jacob Guseman. Abraham came from Germany and located at Baltimore in 1776. John W. Guseman and his wife had fourteen children, and the nine still living are Samuel R.. Mrs. Christie McMillen, William A., Mrs. Ella Ashburn, Robert, Mrs. Ida Smith, Amos E., Pryor and Stanley Guseman. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. McMillen the oldest, Herbert was born December 25. 1887. He was a graduate of the University of West Virginia, for a time was in the employ of the National Carbon Company at Niagara Fall, but is now at home farming during a leave of absence. He married Edith Protzman, of Monongalia County, and they have two children, Jean and Christie, The second child, Mabel, a graduate of the West Liberty Normal School, is the wife of Claude C. Spiker, of a well-known Preston County family and professor of romance languages in the University of West Virginia. Professor and Mrs. Spiker have a son, Robert Claude. The third child, Harry McMillen, is actively associated with his father on the farm. He married Mary Long and has three children: Byron, James and Kyle Clinton. The youngest of the family is frank Vincent, connected with the farming interests of Manitoba, Canada.