WI BIO - Dane Co - MILLS, Simeon & Maria L.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol I, pp 125-128

Any history, biographical or otherwise, of the city of Madison [Dane County], 
or in fact the State of WI, would necessarily be incomplete without extended 
mention and illustration of the life of Simeon MILLS, who for over half a 
century has been a citizen of the State. During that time he has been in all 
probability more closely identified with the capital city and its growth than 
any other citizen now living. Since early in 1837, Mr. MILLS has been a 
citizen of Madison, and during all that time he has occupied a high position 
in the esteem and honor of his fellow citizens, and today he is an object of 
love and respect to all who know him.

Simeon MILLS was born in Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 14 February 
1810. He is a son of Martin and Clarissa (TUTTLE) MILLS. Martin MILLS was 
also a native of Norfolk, Connecticut, and his father, Constantine, so far as 
can now be ascertained, was a citizen of the same town. Constantine MILLS 
was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and for such military service 
received a pension from the Government during his last years. In 1817 he 
removed to Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he died. Martin MILLS was reared on 
a farm in Connecticut, and followed farming in that State until 1812, when 
accompanied by his wife and two children, he removed to Ohio, making the 
journey by team, and taking with him all his possessions. He settled in 
Ashtabula County, and was one of the pioneers of Morgan Township, where he 
purchased a tract of timber land. Erecting a log house on his land in the 
wilderness, he cleared his farm, which he cultivated until his death. His 
wife was the daughter of Clement and Abigail (DUTTON) TUTTLE, and was born in 
Connecticut. Her parents were also natives of Connecticut, and removed to 
Ohio in 1812, settling in Morgan Township.

Simeon MILLS was less than two years old when his parents removed to Ohio. 
He grew up in the wilderness, experiencing all the deprivations and hardships 
incidental to pioneer life. In those days there were no railroads nor 
convenient markets in Ohio, and people lived principally upon the products of 
their land, and upon the wild game, which was abundant in the woods. His 
education was acquired in the pioneer schools taught in rough log 
schoolhouses, where the furniture was of the most primitive kind. When he 
was seven years of age he went to live with his maternal grandparents, with 
whom he remained until he reached his majority. At this time he entered a 
drug house in Ashtabula, where he clerked for some time, and then entered a 
dry goods store in Ashtabula as a clerk, where he remained over a year, and 
then engaged in mercantile business for himself at Jefferson, Ohio, 
continuing there until 1835.

During 1835 Simeon MILLS made his first visit to the far West. Taking 
passage on the steamer "Thomas Jefferson," he made the trip to Chicago, then 
a village of about 800 people, and while there attended the first land sales 
held in that city. After remaining in Illinois for a short time, he returned 
to Ohio, but in the following spring, 1836, again left Ohio for the West, 
with the intention of making it his future home. He made the journey from 
Ohio to Chicago on horseback, thence journeyed on to Joliet [Will County, 
IL], and from there, by way of Galena [Jo Daviess County, IL] to the mining 
districts of WI, then a Territory, and was at Belmont [Lafayette County] 
during the first session of the Territorial Legislature.

In the following June, Simeon MILLS came to Madison [Dane County], and 
permanently settled here, the city at that time consisting of one small log 
house. He [p 126] immediately erected a hewn-log house, 16x16 feet, and then 
going to Galena, purchased a stock of goods and at once opened a general 
store. After continuing successfully the mercantile business for a number of 
years, he turned his attention to real estate, his sound judgment and 
business sagacity enabling him to realize and appreciate the great 
possibilities of such investments in the new country in which he had cast his 
lot, and being a firm believer in the future of the then town of Madison.

Simeon MILLS returned in the spring of 1838 to Ohio for his wife, who had 
remained behind, and returning to the West they reached Madison the following 
June. The journey was made by water to Milwaukee, and thence across the 
country by wagon, crossing Rock River at Janesville [Rock County]. There was 
then no house between Janesville and Madison, a distance of forty miles, and 
no road nor marks to point the way they should travel, except a few stakes 
that had been driven into the prairie, and a few trees that had been blazed 
by an exploring party the previous fall.

In 1837 there was no mail nor mail service route between Madison and 
Milwaukee, but in the fall of that year Simeon MILLS made a contract with the 
U. S. for carrying the mail between these points until the 01 July 1844. The 
difficulties of getting the mail through twice a week with no houses between 
Madison and Aztalan [Jefferson County] and only at rare intervals the 
remainder of the route, with the streams and marshes unbridged, and roads 
unbuilt, cannot be easily understood or appreciated by the present generation 
as they fly over the country with the speed of the wind, and talk with their 
friends at the antipodes as with their next door neighbor. The task was 
however accomplished without the loss of a single trip during the term of the 
contract, a feat rarely performed at the present day, though the distance is 
spanned with iron and traversed by powerful locomotives.

On 12 August 1837 Simeon MILLS was appointed the first Justice of the Peace 
of Dane County, and was probably the only one at that time between Dodgeville 
[Iowa County] and Milwaukee. In 1839 Dane County was organized, and he was 
elected one of the County Commissioners, and appointed Clerk of the Court, 
which latter office he held about nine years. He held the office of 
Territorial Treasurer when the State Government was organized, and was elected 
the first State Senator from Dane County, afterward receiving a renomination, 
which he declined. In 1848 [the year Wisconsin became a state] he was 
appointed one of the regents of the University of Wisconsin, and took an 
active part in the organization and establishment of the institution, 
purchasing it site, and superintending the erection of its first buildings. 
In 1860 he was appointed one of the Trustees for the State Hospital for the 
Insane, and was an active member of that board for seventeen years, taking a 
deep interest in the erection of buildings, and in the general management of 
affairs in and about the institution. He has always been identified with 
public improvements and has contributed largely to the general prosperity of 
the city of Madison. He invested all his gains in lands and in the erection 
of buildings, making their care the business of his life.

In 1861, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, Simeon MILLS took an active 
part in the enlistment of troops by extending material aid to the families of 
the earliest volunteers, and was appointed by Governor RANDALL, Paymaster 
General, and during the first year of the war he disbursed more than 
$1,500,000 of the war funds of the State. Since 1838 Mr. [p 127] MILLS and 
his wife have made Madison their permanent home, rearing here five children, 
two of whom still survive. Their eldest daughter, Florence Emeline, became 
the wife of Dr. C. HAYES, in 1859, and is now deceased. Their only living 
son, Arthur Constantine, married Helen, daughter of Thomas BENNETT, of Green 
Bay [Brown County, WI], in 1866, and with the youngest daughter of Mr. MILLS, 
Genevieve M., reside with their parents in Madison. 

Since 1837 Mr. MILLS has watched the constant growth of the beautiful city of 
Madison from its infancy with all the pride of a fond parent watching over 
the growth to manhood of a promising child. Today, with one exception, he is 
the oldest living citizen of the place or county, and to him more than to any 
other one man is credit due and given for assistance rendered from year to 
year in the development of the capital city from a primitive village to one 
of the largest cities of the State. Though well advanced in years he is 
still rugged in health, and retains all the mental vigor which has 
characterized him through life, and which has made him so prominent and 
conspicuous a figure among the leading citizens of Madison. He has 
substantially aided in the building up of churches, schools and colleges, and 
in developing the resources of a new country he has encouraged his fellow 
countrymen, both by precept and example, in the attainment of a higher 
civilization. In religion he has always claimed to be orthodox, having been 
early taught to believe that God foreordains whatever comes to pass. For 
many years he was a member of the Republican party, but of late years has 
affiliated with the Democracy, his views on the tariff question rendering it 
impossible for him to support the Republican platforms. Simeon MILLS is 
considered one of the best informed men of the State, and he has contributed 
many articles to the literature of the day, which have appeared from time to 
time in different works, and these articles have ever stamped him as a writer 
of more than ordinary ability.

Mrs. Maria Louisa MILLS, deceased wife of General Simeon MILLS, of Madison 
[Dane County], WI, was born in Sandsfield, Berkshire County, MA, 21 May 1815, 
and was the daughter of Church SMITH. When about twelve years of age her 
father removed to Ohio, locating in Austinburg, Ashtabula County, where the 
family resided at the time of her marriage to Simeon MILLS, on 21 May 1834. 
With her husband she came to WI, then a Territory, settling at Madison. At 
that time the interior of the State was sparsely settled, the entire 
population of Dane County not exceeding four or five families. The journey 
from Ohio to Milwaukee was made by water, then by wagon and on foot to 
Madison, from Janesville to Madison, a distance of forty miles, there were 
neither houses nor roads, and the trip consumed three days, they arriving at 
the latter place on 18 June 1838.

In speaking of her pioneer life and experience, Mrs. MILLS said: "I came 
expecting to make my home in Madison, and not for one moment have I ever been 
homesick, or regretted the location we made." This remark illustrates her 
strength of purpose and force of character. Full of life, animation and 
enterprise to a marked degree, she infused the same elements in the company 
in which she mingled. Of excellent mental attainments, her conversation was 
ever ready, and interesting. Strictly domestic, industrious, and frugal, 
retiring in her habits and disposition, she never made any pretension to 
publicity, and being a firm believer in Christianity, ever inculcated in her 
children a love for the same principles [p 128] which formed an attractive 
feature of her daily life and character. Her memory is enshrined in the 
hearts of her family and large circle of friends and neighbors. In early 
life she united with the religious denomination known as the Christian Church 
of Christ, better known as the Campellites, in which faith she died, but 
owing to the absence of any church in Madison of that denomination, she 
attended the Methodist Episcopal. She [Maria Louisa (SMITH) MILLS] passed 
away on 10 June 1884.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly