Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/230

 ANSON MILLS ILLS, ANSON, son of a farmer of Quaker stock, pupil at an academy for two years, cadet at the United States military academy less than two years; school teacher and surveyor in Texas; soldier from first lieutenant United States army to brigadier-general retired; member Mexican boundary commission; inventor; was born on a farm near Thorntown, Boone county, Indiana, August 31, 1834. His father, James P. Mills was a man of strong sense of right and wrong, although without religious profession or conviction, a toiler who took life seriously and insisted on as hard tasks for others as he assumed himself, a large producer and small consumer. His first known American ancestor was Amos Mills, a Quaker, born about 1700. His mother, Sarah (Kenworthy) Mills died when he was fourteen years old. She was like her husband, strong and determined, with possibly more consideration for the failure of her children when they did not fully perform the hard tasks set them to do in the house or on the farm. After his mother's death his leading motive in life as the eldest of nine children was to gain a competence in order to provide for his motherless brothers and sisters, so as to keep the family together in the old home and relieve his father of accumulating burdens. He had early been his father's helper on the farm, and he continued to help until he was eighteen years old. The demands of the large family and the requirements of the farm life left him but little time for study, save the few short days spent at the district school in mid-winter. This life had its effect in promoting excellent habits of industry and willingness to serve. He spent two years at Charlottesville academy; and in 1855 he was appointed a cadet at the United States military academy.

He left West Point, February 18, 1857, and went to Texas, where he taught school and engaged in engineering and land surveying. He laid out the first plan of the city of El Paso and was surveyor to the Texas boundary commission appointed to determine the boundary between that state and New Mexico and the Indian Territory, in 1859-60. In 1861, when the question of secession was submitted to the popular vote his was one of two votes cast in El Paso county