Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/382

 were able to defeat it and thus preserve for all time the fair proportions of the State when it was finally admitted. At the beginning of the War with Mexico in 1846, Mr. Mills received a commission as major in the army and was with the command of General Scott in his march to the City of Mexico. After the Battle of Cherubusco, Major Mills led a detachment in pursuit of General Santa Anna to the walls of the city where he was slain on the 20th of August, in leading a charge. The Federal Government had his name inscribed on a mural tablet in the chapel of the Military Academy at West Point as one of the heroes of Cherubusco. The General Assembly of Iowa recognized his service in civil affairs by giving his name to a county.  NOAH W. MILLS was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, on the 21st of June, 1834. He received a liberal education, having graduated at Wabash College. For several months after leaving college he was employed in an engineering corps and later had a position with the Adams Express Company. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. In the fall of 1856 he removed to Iowa, taking up his residence at Des Moines, where he entered into partnership with his brother, F. M. Mills. When the Rebellion began, Noah W. was one of the first to enter the volunteer service and was appointed second lieutenant of Company D, of which M. M. Crocker was the first captain in the Second Iowa Infantry. He received rapid promotion to captain, major, lieutenant-colonel in June, 1862, and upon the wounding of Colonel Baker, succeeded him as colonel of the regiment. On the second day of the Battle of Corinth, while Lieutenant-Colonel Mills was leading a charge he was severely wounded in the foot and a week later he was attacked with lockjaw and died on the 12th of October. Colonel Mills was a man of fine literary attainments and was an accomplished newspaper writer.  OLIVER MILLS was born at Gustavus, Trumbull County, Ohio, February 1, 1820. He attended the public schools of that section until he was fourteen years of age when he entered Farmington Academy. After leaving school he engaged in stock raising and in 1850 removed to Iowa, locating in Lee County. In 1858 he removed to Cass County which was then largely unsettled, making his home in Lewis, the old county-seat. He was an active promoter of improved stock and the best methods of farming. For twenty years he was a prominent member of the State Agricultural Society, often a director and for three terms president. He has held many minor public offices, being originally a Whig and later a Republican. In 1871 he was the Republican candidate for Representative in the Legislature in the district composed of the counties of Cass, Adair and Montgomery, and was elected, serving in the Fourteenth General Assembly. For more than fifty years he has been prominently identified with industrial interests of Iowa.